A miscellaneous photo....It is probably not a good sign that I have caught on to my day / date error – now I am right on track, knowing today is Wednesday, August 8. My scrapes are healing (though something is still oozing from beneath a toe nail…) and the bright red burn on the back of my neck has now peeled off. I had to buy a new shirt in order to not wear the same thing for the zillionth time. My bag is heavier and most of it is dirty laundry (though there are some rocks too). Vacation must be winding down.
This morning we began the drive back to Marrakech, sad to say good bye to Essaouria. The ride is a combination of gazing out on other worldly landscape, and dozing off to dreamland. We make a couple of stops along the way – one a beautiful vista of Essaouira for a proper goodbye, another at a simple rest stop with clean bathrooms and cold coke (but no change – you ALWAYS need to have exact change here!). After lunch (yet another meal) we visit the Majorelle Gardens created by a 20th century French painter of the same name who came to Morocco to cure his asthma and fell in love with the place. Majorelle was the first artist to create posters to promote tourism in Morocco! The gardens were restored and renovated in the 80’s by Yves Saint Laurent who owns the property today (I think…). The gardens are beautiful but mostly full of imported plants – bamboo forests abound. The buildings are a bright deep blue, a brilliant contrast to the red required by city ordinance for all buildings in Marrakech.
Then the afternoon is whiled away by the pool, very wonderful to sit and read and doze.
Tonight is our farewell dinner – The Friedlanders have to leave at 430am to catch their plane on Friday, so we are leaving Thursday evening for a more sedate event. We drive to the medina, the old city and walk down a dark narrow alley to a renovated home, a palace if I had to name it – a gorgeous courtyard and stairs up to a terrace with tables and wonderful lighting – then up again to the rooftop where we drink the local cocktail – something with crème de menthe and a Moroccan alcohol that tastes of anise (I’m sure the equivalent to Rake and Ouzo but sorry I can’t remember the name) and some kind of juice – it was pretty interesting!! There was a musician who Mark has known for years – oh, Mark knows everyone - a man named Brahim who plays a hajouj, a four stringed instrument. With him was a man playing indescribable percussion. They played fantastic jazz! Brahim is on a Led Zeppelin album and has been around for awhile – and now he is with us on this cool beautiful night for our farewell dinner.
At the end of the set we go down a flight to the dining area and lots and lots of little tapas style dishes come out as the first course. Vegetables and little meat turnovers and pickled things and liver and even brains (Leo ate some) and olives and most everything yummy. This is when we went around the table and each person said what their favorite and least favorite part of the adventure was. Almost everyone loved the camp the best (or finally arriving there!) – the least favorite ranged from the 30 minutes prior to getting to camp to the hike up the hill to the Kasbah which was longer than anticipated. It is always interesting to hear where we struggled and where we rejoiced.
Next course – Pigeon in crepes, received with a slightly more solemn approach but almost everyone ate it! Then a lamb tajine and couscous with roasted vegetables, so delicious. Moroccan wine was being poured freely and was quite tasty. Dessert was a variety of cookies and mint tea – and then the belly dancer came out. She was quite entertaining – at the end of her performance Leo said “uh, can I change what my favorite part of the trip was?” which made everyone laugh.
This was a very good day, and a terrific farewell dinner – except I can see the sad places where we think about saying good bye. Everyone is talking about where we might go next summer, or how we might go hike the Smokies with Steven and Sam, or how Mallory will be in Boston to visit colleges… all the ways the goodbye can be shortened.
This was a very good day.
This morning we began the drive back to Marrakech, sad to say good bye to Essaouria. The ride is a combination of gazing out on other worldly landscape, and dozing off to dreamland. We make a couple of stops along the way – one a beautiful vista of Essaouira for a proper goodbye, another at a simple rest stop with clean bathrooms and cold coke (but no change – you ALWAYS need to have exact change here!). After lunch (yet another meal) we visit the Majorelle Gardens created by a 20th century French painter of the same name who came to Morocco to cure his asthma and fell in love with the place. Majorelle was the first artist to create posters to promote tourism in Morocco! The gardens were restored and renovated in the 80’s by Yves Saint Laurent who owns the property today (I think…). The gardens are beautiful but mostly full of imported plants – bamboo forests abound. The buildings are a bright deep blue, a brilliant contrast to the red required by city ordinance for all buildings in Marrakech.
Then the afternoon is whiled away by the pool, very wonderful to sit and read and doze.
Tonight is our farewell dinner – The Friedlanders have to leave at 430am to catch their plane on Friday, so we are leaving Thursday evening for a more sedate event. We drive to the medina, the old city and walk down a dark narrow alley to a renovated home, a palace if I had to name it – a gorgeous courtyard and stairs up to a terrace with tables and wonderful lighting – then up again to the rooftop where we drink the local cocktail – something with crème de menthe and a Moroccan alcohol that tastes of anise (I’m sure the equivalent to Rake and Ouzo but sorry I can’t remember the name) and some kind of juice – it was pretty interesting!! There was a musician who Mark has known for years – oh, Mark knows everyone - a man named Brahim who plays a hajouj, a four stringed instrument. With him was a man playing indescribable percussion. They played fantastic jazz! Brahim is on a Led Zeppelin album and has been around for awhile – and now he is with us on this cool beautiful night for our farewell dinner.
At the end of the set we go down a flight to the dining area and lots and lots of little tapas style dishes come out as the first course. Vegetables and little meat turnovers and pickled things and liver and even brains (Leo ate some) and olives and most everything yummy. This is when we went around the table and each person said what their favorite and least favorite part of the adventure was. Almost everyone loved the camp the best (or finally arriving there!) – the least favorite ranged from the 30 minutes prior to getting to camp to the hike up the hill to the Kasbah which was longer than anticipated. It is always interesting to hear where we struggled and where we rejoiced.
Next course – Pigeon in crepes, received with a slightly more solemn approach but almost everyone ate it! Then a lamb tajine and couscous with roasted vegetables, so delicious. Moroccan wine was being poured freely and was quite tasty. Dessert was a variety of cookies and mint tea – and then the belly dancer came out. She was quite entertaining – at the end of her performance Leo said “uh, can I change what my favorite part of the trip was?” which made everyone laugh.
This was a very good day, and a terrific farewell dinner – except I can see the sad places where we think about saying good bye. Everyone is talking about where we might go next summer, or how we might go hike the Smokies with Steven and Sam, or how Mallory will be in Boston to visit colleges… all the ways the goodbye can be shortened.
This was a very good day.
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