Roadtrippin´ Morocco
Essaouira and Marrakech, Morocco, 2007-03-27 12:00 by Lærke
Morocco was wonderful, an incredibly country – very diverse, unfortunately in some places also quite touristy. We rented a car for 11 days; and we got around quite a bit during those 11 days. We saw old Kasbah’s and ksar’s (fortified strongholds made out of a mixture of mud and cow dung) orange trees filled with oranges, we also made it all the way to the edge of the Sahara to take an overnight camel trek into the beautiful, orange dunes. We had loads of fun climbing the highest dune we could find and watched the sun set from there. We then had a lovely tangine dinner under the stars while our camel man played Berber music for us, before we fell asleep in our cute little Berber tent.

My favorite place was Essaouira, a city right at the seafront. They had a busy little harbor filled with small blue fishing boats, fish auctions, seagulls and of course delicious fresh seafood. Most of the buildings in the city were white with blue doors and windows, very picturesque. Essaouira is also known for its many artisans, and I did end up buying two small paintings made by a local artist. Defiantly a place I would like to return to some day. Another highlight was a trip to Cascade d’Ouzoud, labeled by the Lonely Planet as Morocco’s “best waterfalls”, and you know you gotta trust the “lonely bible” ha ha… We actually loved it there, the place had a very laidback feeling to it, and the falls were beautiful, too bad it was a little too cold to swim in the pools underneath the falls – some young Moroccan guys didn’t seem to mind though, and had a good splash around :-)

Marrakech, the final stop on our Morocco tour, I will always remember for its Jemma El’fna. A grand plaza filled with all sorts of people and just a place of general mayhem! There were snake charmers, who were very happy to suddenly jump out and fling a snake around your neck – for a nice Kodak moment… Persistent henna ladies, fortune and story tellers (in Arabic), men with monkeys that you could hold for a few dirham, and then there was the juice stands, selling the best freshly squeezed orange juice ever. There was even a guy who had set up a stand with human teeth (!). And that was just the plaza, beyond the plaza was the souqs. A world of shopping! I came out with a cute little teapot (Moroccan style), a scarf, some tea and my new price possession – a real Moroccan puf (you know, one of those round sets in leather). It is looking really nice sitting by the sofa here in our living room.

On the way home we had an about 8 hour’s layover in London, so we decided to do a quick sightseeing tour of London. We stored our bags, and got two train passes (you could use them for the trains, the subway and the busses). We got to ride in one of the old red double-decker busses on our way to London Tower! We saw London eye, Big Ben and the parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Bridge, London Tower and we even went over to Downing Street 10, time flew by and we thoroughly enjoyed our day in London. All in all a great trip!