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Moving day on Monday.  We depart Essaouira with Marrakesh as our next destination.  A little more detail this time on the bus process here so we remember it for another trip to Morocco in the future.  Tickets are very reasonable – for today’s ride, we purchased our tickets online from the Supratours web site last week at a price equivalent to $10 each.  CTM and Supratours are the two main bus companies for intercity travel.  We walked the 15 minutes to the station and arrived at 10:45am for our 11:15am departure.  We keep our backpacks with us along with a bag to carry groceries that we want to take to our next destination (like olive oil, cereal, toilet paper) at our seats but we check our carry-on.  That is not included in the fare so when we get to the station, we go in and pay for two bag tags – they are 50 cents each.  The porter loads them on and we board and take our assigned seats.  The seats are comfortable, the bus is air conditioned, some buses have wifi (ours did not).  After around 90 minutes, we stopped at Café Atlas in Sidi Mokhtar.  The stop was around 20 minutes or so and there was another bus there.  These cafes have the system down.  They had two buses and you can order whatever you want, including cooked food.  They somehow make it all happen before your bus is ready to roll again.  Very hard working.  We enjoyed fresh squeezed orange juice.

Upon arrival into Marrakesh at 2:15pm – right on time – we were let off at the train station, which is right across the street from our apartment.  Diagonal from the train station is the Royal Theatre.  My immediate impression was of how pretty these two buildings are.  And how modern the train station seems to be.  Marrakesh is a town of around a million people, but there is not a significantly developed train infrastructure in the country so I think I was expecting less.

We dropped our bags at the apartment.

I had mentioned that I had been craving something like McDonald’s.  Conveniently, there is one in the train station along with a KFC, Starbucks, and a couple of other non-US brands.  We had our McDonald’s fix – Royal Burgers which tasted like McDonald’s at home.

There is a Carrefour Market less than a 15-minute walk from the apartment, so we accomplished our grocery shopping to get us started and then we had a walk around our neighborhood – Gueliz.  No real destination – just exploration.  We found a mall that we walked through.  For dinner, we went to Saladbox, which we think must be associated with the chain that we found in Budapest last July.  This one has a more full menu, but they still offer the option to build your own salads, which is what we did – loved it.

Tuesday was a day to walk down to the Medina and get a feel for it.  It was sunny out, so we made use of our new sunhats.  It’s generally been in the low 80s and sunny since arrival and that is the forecast at least until the weekend.

This Medina (ancient part of the city) is significantly larger than the one in Essaouira and the biggest difference that is immediately noticeable is the presence of motorbikes.  There are a lot of them and they speed through these narrow alleyways somehow avoiding all of the walkers.  It certainly takes some getting used to.  It really is an experience to walk through these places.  This one is of course filled with shops and some restaurants and riads (lodging), but quite a few of the shops that make so many of the products, too. 

We had lunch at a café in Tinsmith Square – I had couscous and Sandy had tajine.  For dinner, we celebrated our 21^st anniversary at Le Zar.  We both enjoyed grilled salmon, grilled vegetables, mashed potatoes, and Flag Speciale.  The service was friendly, which reminds me – everybody has been very friendly. It seems apparent that they are very proud of their city and country and they are very welcoming to visitors.  We finished the night with chocolate milk shakes at the café in the train station.

Wednesday was a very active day.  Although we had read some indications that tourists may not enjoy the buses in Marrakesh, we decided – we live here even if it is for a short time, we’re not tourists, we’re going to try the bus.  And it could not have been any easier.  Each ride is the equivalent of 40 cents.  You pay the driver and they will give change and print two tickets to hang onto.  Some of the buses are very crowded – the one we took on Wednesday was fine – we were able to get seats and enjoyed the 20 minute ride to the south side of the Medina.

Our three sites to see today were the Badi Palace, Saadian Tombs, and Bahia Palace.  The Badi Palace was built by the ruler Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur in the late 1500s.  The palace is now in ruins although the complex is interesting to explore and there are historical displays that give a good idea of the history from that time. 

The Saadian tombs is, in effect, a cemetery for the sultans of the 1500s and 1600s including the one who built Badi Palace.  Al-Mansur also put his stamp on this tomb complex building chambers for his parents, children, and himself. 

The Bahia Palace is more modern – built in the 1800s and is still in good shape.  The tilework and designs of the ceilings are beautiful.  It gives an idea of how the Badi Palace may have looked even though it was 300 years older.  While at Bahia Palace, we discovered that a ballet and orchestra concert is planned for tomorrow night so we got tickets.

We had omelets for lunch at a rooftop terrace near the Saadian Tombs.  Called Kasbah Café, we had a great table with a view over the mosque, tombs, and a couple of storks who have babies in the nest.

Another mode of transportation here (like in Essaouira) is the horse and carriage (called caleches).  You bargain for the price and then off you go.  We wanted to try one so we took one from the main square (Djemma El Fna) back to the train station and our apartment.  We paid the equivalent of $10 for the ride.  Most people take these for a riding tour, not necessarily as point a to point b, although it is obviously fine to do so.

We then went for a four-mile power walk around our area to get some cardio in and then grabbed dinner at the Café du Theatre.  Sandy had a Greek salad and I had a pastilla filled with seafood.  The pastilla is like a pastry with ingredients baked in – this one had fish, shrimp, and some other fillings that I couldn’t identify.  The meat was grilled so it had a good barbecue flavor.