Lazy Bones

This update is for you faithful who have been checking for updates (and you know who you are, Marty). I am traipsing about collecting new adventures and will be updating next week! See you then!

Dobbs

Into the Fray and Out

This video is out of sequence, but it should suggest what the walk was like from Jemma el Fnaa to our riad. My commentary is wrong, though, the street at this point is not closed to cars, and moments before I took the video there were cars and cabs in the mix of pedestrians, scooters and livestock in the video.

Thursday morning after a delicious breakfast of fresh bread, Moroccan pancakes and fresh squeezed orange juice in the salon, Sam and I set out to visit one or both of the former Royal Palaces in the medina. First we followed the directions I worked out from my little map. Hahaha. Then we went back and got a "short cut" from the receptionist at the riad. We did fine with those directions until we got to the door at the end of the alley that we were apparently just supposed to open and cut through someone's yard to get to the palace. (Awkwardly written, but you get the idea.)

This would not have been so daunting had not every male we passed in Marrakech had a thoughtful, caring and respectful comment to make to Sam as we passed. Oh, did I say thoughtful, caring and respectful? I'm sorry. I meant crass, disrespectful and rude. Second on my list of dislikes in Morocco? The predatory nature of men towards women travelling without male accompaniment. Now only one guy hit on me (a precocious 14 year old), but it seemed that everyone had a comment for Sami. Anyway, we wandered a bit more in what we thought was the general direction of the palaces, but after many jeers and leers we rethought our plans and headed instead for Jemma el Fnaa. Yeah, the place with the snakes.

So story has it that vendors and performers in the square will slip up to tourists, place a monkey (ok, cute) or a snake (so, so not ok or cute) on their shoulders and ask for a tip when the tourists take rapid-fire snapshots of the adorable creatures crawling all over them. I wonder what the charge would be when I screamed, passed out or smashed them in the head with my purse and stomped their snake to death? Apparently other vendors will grab your hand, draw some henna designs on it and then demand payment. That I could handle. I would perhaps just charge them a little bit to remove the tattoo to prevent a lawsuit.

This was why I was dreading Jemma el Fnaa. Well, we didn't see the vendors with the scary pets and dyes. We saw a big, open marketplace with souks around the edges and food and produce carts in the center. Phew. We browsed a bit, then, as we were heading back to get yet another set of directions to the palaces, we saw a cab (ugh, my number one dislike!) and decided instead to head to Jardin Majorelle and perhaps see Koutoubia mosque, a twin to the original mosque in Seville.

Such a good choice. The day was beautiful, as was the garden.

Jaques Majorelle was a french artist who acquired the land in 1919 when Morocco was a french protectorate. Majorelle designed the garden almost like an artist's palette. He was an avid plant collector and designed much of the garden with species of cactus.

The blue used throughout the garden and property is named after Majorelle, bleu Majorelle.

Majorelle died in 1962, and the garden fell into disrepair. In 1980, Pierre Berge and Yves Saint Laurent purchased the property and restored the gardens.

In 2001, after the gardens were restored, Berge and Saint Laurent established the Majorelle Garden Association which maintains the property today.

Berge had a small corner of the garden dedicated to Saint Laurent after his death in 2008.

The building that had been Majorelle's studio now houses the Musee d'Art Berbere. When we visited there was an exhibit of 45 of Laurent's couture dresses inspired by colors and designs of Africa -- both Morocco and sub-Sahara -- that Laurent enjoyed while living in Marrakech. We were not permitted to take pictures, but the dresses were gorgeous and it was cool to be so close to such beautiful couture work!

As we finished touring the garden, it started to rain lightly, so we headed to the salon du the where we enjoyed Moroccan tea and a light lunch.

We strolled about a bit more, then headed back to the medina. We passed the Koutouba mosque and Sam snapped some pictures, plus we found where the snakes were in Jemma el Fnaa and figured out how to avoid them as we walked through the square back to the riad. (We did deal with yet another unscrupulous cabbie, but really, I don't want to harp. Haha.)

So we got back to the market, avoided the snake charmers and henna ladies (although I did catch a glimpse of one of the cobras and, ugh, they are big! I thought they were tiny. Ugh. And black. I thought they were sand colored. Ugh again. Ugh.)

We wandered about a bit and found a souk with harem pants -- so MC Hammer -- which Sami bought, got some post cards and headed back Laora for dinner. We had chicken and vegetable couscous tagine (surprise!).

After dinner we climbed to the roof, hoping to see the lights of the medina, but no such luck, then went back to the room. Sam took a bath in the gigantor tub while I blogged, then I took a bath as well! It is just bizarre to be in a tub that large. But fun.

So that was our day; a hectic start, followed by serenity, a bit more chaos, ending with calm. A nice balance.

Sanctuary

OK, since yesterday I kvetched about our harrowing adventure travelling from the train station to our riad, today I will simply post pictures and a most-excellent video of our refuge (before slamming into a description the rest of visit to Marrakech).

So Riad Laora is typical of many local lodgings in that from the derb it is impossible to tell how lovely it is inside. Walking from the salon where we were welcomed and had our Moroccan tea, we crossed the small central courtyard to our room.

This lovely little pool sits in the courtyard. (We chose not to swim. The rose petals suggested perhaps the pool was not for doing laps.)

Looking up as we crossed the courtyard, this was our view. The courtyard construction is open to the sky, but there is a tent-like cover in place to keep the guests below dry.

Then, we entered our chamber. We were in the Aubergine Room, so fabrics and draperies were a deep, delicious purple! (There was also a Chocolate Room, Turquoise, Bordeaux and Cacao.)

There was a quaint sitting area in one corner of the room with a small fireplace (which we did not need during our visit).

And across the room there were two large closets and a luxurious bath!

The sink in the bathroom was hammered silver, rose petals were everywhere, and in a small crock on the vanity there were funky pink, yellow and teal cotton balls. I must admit, they were one of my favorite things about the bath!

That is not to suggest that the Olympic size bathtub was not impressive. It took about 30 minutes to fill up. We know, we filled it. The water stayed hot a really long time, too. I want one of these at home.

So just in case I missed anything, here is my narrated video touring the room on our arrival. Be sure to note the soundtrack.

And to quote another CSN favorite, Deja Vu. The next video is similar to the previous one, only much less steady (if that is possible). The shots of the courtyard are a bit better, though. Enjoy.