A Day in Marrakech

We started the day with a tour of some spots in Marrakech:  the Majorelle Garden (Jardin Majorelle) and the Museum of Berber Arts.



Then we went to the old town (medina).  At first it looked like it might have been gentrified, but a short walk in and it was a bustling market place of vendors of all sorts of stuff.


I had been looking for a caftan since the mid-1980s (after watching the movie Fletch) and figured Marrakech would be a good place to look for one.  We found a shop selling several different types and picked a linen caftan for 700 MAD (Morracan Dirhams) (which should be about $70).  It’s actually a caftan with a hood, which is called a Dejellama.


Then we walked back to the hotel. Once you got out of the rabbit maze of alleys and shops of the medina, you could look for the minaret tower which is right across the street from the hotel.


 
After lunch, we went back out to the markets to find a caftan (or Djellaba) for Linda. We found her a heavier weight caftan, in dark purple, and a scarf, and then headed back to the hotel.

But I took a wrong turn and ended up walking around in the markets for over an hour until I finally asked for directions and found my way out.  You can see the tower from just about anywhere, but you have to be able to see the sky; much of the market is covered with roofing.  We started to notice objects for sale that we had seen before (major unique sculptures — most of the minor stuff is replicated in stall after stall after stall) and figured we were going in circles.

Back home at the hotel, we started packing things up.  There was a major last dinner with Moroccan music and then … belly dancers.



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