Around The World

We got a good night’s sleep last night but were jolted out of our slumber at 7:00 am by our alarm. We got to the restaurant for breakfast at about 7:45 am. We had a very nice, relaxed breakfast.

After breakfast, we returned to our room to pack up. We checked out at 9:00 am and headed off in the car with Dawad and Mohamed for the three-and-a-half-hour drive south, to Marrakesh. It was interesting to see how the landscape changed along the way and how much drier it was further south.

We got to our hotel, Villa des Orangers, around 12:30 pm and relaxed with a lovely mint tea.

We decided to have lunch in the hotel’s beautiful outdoor courtyard. We considered having lunch by the pool, but it was very hot (35 degrees) and the courtyard was shaded by large orange trees, which made it much cooler.

From lunch, we headed up to our room to relax before our next activity of the day.

Our room has a second story with a private terrace and direct access to a rooftop pool (which is in addition to the main hotel pool). There is a nice view from the terrace. We could even see a stork in its nest on a mobile phone tower (which seems to be a feature of most mobile phone towers here!).

At 3:15 pm we headed off in the car to Hotel La Maison Arabe to attend their on-site cooking school. We met our instructor, Mohamed, who was ready to teach us how to cook some Moroccan dishes. He had just finished teaching a class of 16 students, but we were booked for a private class for just the two us, which we were very pleased about.

We started off with a mint tea, made in front of us. We have been drinking mint tea quite a bit in Morocco but this is the first time we’d seen how much effort goes into making it.

First off, we watched some dishes being prepared. We probably would have paid more attention had we known in advance that we’d shortly have to replicate them!

With the cooking done, we headed out to a lovely courtyard to eat the Moroccan dinner that we had cooked.

After a lovely dinner (even if we say so ourselves!), Dawad picked us up, and we drove back to our hotel. We had marvelled at the crazy traffic earlier in the day, but now we were witnessing a whole new level of crazy! Cars, motorbikes, cyclists, and the occasional donkey, were everywhere. They darted in and out of the traffic, crossing on to wrong side of the road with abandon, and often veering straight across the front of our car to get where they needed to go. Many of the motorcyclists were carrying very small children, who obviously learn to hang on very early in life! The law dictates that helmets are required but, just like lane markers and red lights, these are treated merely as suggestions. Collisions, as we observed, appear to be pretty a regular occurrence!

We got back to the hotel around 7:00 pm. The hotel has a very small and unassuming entrance on a busy street, and we didn’t even realise we’d arrived back there when Dawad stopped the car for us to get out. The hotel entrances is flanked by motorcycle shops (now closed) but they were a hive of activity when we arrived earlier in the day.

Once inside, the hotel is very beautiful. The building dates back to the 1930s and was originally a home built for a prominent local family, who lived in it until 1988.

We’re planning on a reasonably early night in bed tonight, in preparation for a big day of exploring tomorrow in Marrakesh.