Morocco Trip - Day 5

March 25th, 2016

Our last day in Marrakech was sunny and warm.  We decided to walk to the medina and on the way pass through Park El Harti which was supposed to be one of the nicer parks for children.  Inside are two enormous dinosaur slides made out of concrete.  They look really cool from a distance, but when the kids climbed on them they found out that the slides had been all hacked up and you could no longer slide on them, such a shame.  As well, all the swings had been taken down.  Verdict: lame park for kids, but a nice park for strolling through.

Park El-Harti

Rylan sistting on the head of the large cement dinosaur

Two cement dinosaurs

Once inside the walls of the medina we visited the Cyber Park Moulay Abdessalam which according to many websites was on the list of top places to visit with kids.  Again the Cyber Park is a nice place to walk around, but there is nothing for the kids to play on, although there is free Wifi.

Next we found our way to the Saadian tombs. The entrance price was really reasonable again, only 1€ per person and kids under 12 were free.  This royal necropolis was built in the 14th century but renovated and enlarged by Sultan Ahmad al-Mansour Saadi in the 15th century.  Al-Mansour died in 1603 and a few decades later when Moulay Ismail took over Marrakech he had the Badi palace destroyed and the tombs of his predecessors sealed up so that the people would forget about them. The tombs were not discovered again until 1917.  The two main mausoleums contain the tombs of 66 members of the royal family and outside in the gardens are 100 more tombs of princes, their wives, soldiers and some jews.

Cyper Park

Koutoubia Mosque

One of the gates to enter the Medina

Saadian Tombs

Some of the tombs outside 

The main chamber where the Sultan Al-Mansour is buried

more tombs in the garden

After visiting the Saadian Tombs we walked over to visit the El-Badi Palace that was also commissioned by Al-Mansour when he came to power in 1578 to be the home of the royal family.  It took 20 years to build and was once the most spectacular building in Morocco.  Sultan Ismail systematically looted the palace of all its fine building materials to construct his own palace in Meknes.  Now all that is left is the shell of the building, but it is easy to imagine how amazing it was during the Saadian dynasty.  The entrance fee is only 10 MAD (around 1€) and you can pay an additional 10 MAD to see the Koutoubia Minbar which is a pulpit made of cedar and covered with gold and silver.   We didn't pay to see the Koutoubia Minbar which I regret now, but the kids had fun exploring the palace ruins and from the tower you get a great view of the medina, the Atlas mountains and a lot of nesting cranes.  The palace is also used to display artwork from local artists.

Graffiti Wall

There are some art installations by local artists scattered throughout the palace

Crane perched on the walls of the palace

 

Dozens of cranes are nesting on the walls of the palace

You can see the Atlas mountains in the distance

Since it was our last day in Marrakech we decided to stay in the Medina for lunch and do a bit more shopping and then take a horse-drawn carriage back to the hotel.  Shopping without our guide was actually much easier than I thought it would be, in fact I think we were able to get better prices.  We picked up a carriage in Jemaa el-Fnaa Square and got a ride back to the hotel.   Back at the hotel it was finally sunny enough for the kids to use the outdoor pool, but the water was so cold that they could only bear to stay in for a few minutes.

Riding through the medina on a horse-drawn carriage

Walls decorated with pictures of the kings of Morocco 

The Moroccan tea set I bought on our second day in Morocco

The next morning we left for the airport right after breakfast.  This time we just took a taxi from right outside the hotel for 120 MAD.  I am so glad that we were able to visit Morocco before we leaving Spain.  

Morocco Trip - Day 3

March 23rd, 2016

We met Akmed in the lobby of the hotel at 9:00am.  We were very fortunate that the sun was shining!  We took a taxi to La Palmeria, an area just north of the city where Akmed had arranged for us to ride camels.  La Palmeria is a desert oasis where you can find lavish estates and huge luxury resorts.  He arranged for us to go on a camel ride for 100 MAD per camel.  Everyone got their own camel except Cole and I shared.  The guide led the head camel, and the rest of the camels followed in a line as we explored the oasis.  It was such a neat experience for the kids.

After our camel ride, we headed back into the medina to visit the Ali Ben Youssef Medrasa, which was an Islamic College founded in the 14th century.  One thing that surprised us was how cheap entrance fees are in Marrakech.  To visit the Medrasa it was 2€ per adult and the kids were free.   Our guide explained a bit of the history of the college and then we went inside to explore.  The elaborate woodwork, plaster and tile work is very similar to Muslim architecture from Andalusia in the South of Spain.

We walked around the Medina a little more and this time I resisted the temptation to buy more things. Then we took a taxi back to the hotel for lunch.  Unfortunately it poured rain all afternoon and evening, so we didn't get to do much else that day.  

I had never experienced an all-inclusive vacation before, nor had any desire to eat all my meals at the hotel, but when I booked the hotel through Destinia, there was no other option.  In the end it was very convenient being able to eat at the hotel because it's difficult to always find a restaurant that will please four kids.  The hotel offered a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner with a wide variety of different dishes every day.  The kids enjoyed being able to eat whatever they wanted. Bob and I inevitably ate too much, this is the problem with all-inclusive.  Inside the hotel there were also 2 other restaurants that you could eat in if you made a reservation. That evening we ate a fantastic meal in the Moroccan restaurant at the hotel. 

Back in the Jemaa el-Fnaa Square

The best Moroccan meal we had according to Bob and I

Moroccan salad

Beef tangine with prunes

pastries for dessert