Day 9 Marrakech Medina and La Mamounia

It’s always fun to start the day watching our driver take the door off the truck……

After the exertion of watching at least 6 people express an opinion on what bit had gone wrong to lock the top of the door permanently and what, consequently, needed fixing, I made the driver a cup of tea and sat by the pool with Mark for half an hour.

My Oura ring very correctly had pointed out that my body temperature and heart rate was raised, likely as a result of something stressing my immune system. So the 13km run into town was replanned as a walk, past the place we stayed 12 years ago. Very different from the tents we’re in now.

12 years is a long time and the whole centre of town and the Medina have changed in this time too. Our memories feel more like the traditional Fez Medina than the traffic jammed and touristy Medina that is Marrakech today.

There are new buildings going up everywhere with hoardings covering them from street view, while reminding everyone what a modern and multicultural city this is.

The first gate we hit for the Medina still has the same stall I bought my tagine at 12 years ago, so perhaps some things always stay the same.

There are some beautiful spots in the Medina still…..

…..as long as you can dodge the ubiquitous motorbikes.

We managed to catch a few snake charmers in the Jmaa el Fna square all wanting money for photos of us with snakes or just photos of snakes. We asked them how much money they wanted and they were super gracious “whatever made us happy”. I suggested that something around 40p would make me happy, as the snakes we were draped with were very pretty. I asked what species they were and unrelated to their colouring, they were all “garden snakes”. Regarding the cost of photos though, apparently happiness can only be bought with paper money that exceeds £2 in value. If only I’d realised that when I had pet snakes as a kid, I could have made a fortune.

As we had planned ahead this time, by wearing our “embassy clothes” we then headed to the Churchill bar in la Mamounia. This hotel has been voted the best in the world and was famously where Churchill spent his winters. It was an utterly divine experience and Mark made it even more special by making this my Christmas present. The budget took a distinctly back seat for a couple of hours.

Mark had a slightly less than perfect experience as he had a fly in his drink. When he pointed it out to the waiter he didn’t expect them to fish it out with a spoon, leave the glass on the side for a few minutes and then hand it back to him.

It was a lovely evening though, even the 30 minute wait in the rain for a bus back to the campsite couldn’t mar this memory.