Sheeps heads for tea...

Sitting in the internet cafe with a 6 year old practicing his french via a programme behind the counter. Today we booked a 2day trip into the mountains and desert and then plan to go to Essouaria on the coast for 3 days before the marathon. Just had delicious mutton at a stall in the big square with the brains, heads and tongues of the original keepers of the meat on the table in front of us. Bought some apricots for the bus trip as I feel I should be getting more iron inside me before the race next week.


This photo is for Janneke - the Moroccan equivalent of the scribbled 'agenda' I was always referring to in Bath to keep track of what we had to do and when.

Marrakesh Express

Arrived in Marrakech today from Casablanca. Everything fine but blogging isn,t going to hqppen very often qs French:Arabic keyboards have lots of keys in the wrong place. Haven;t run yet as when I was all reqdy to run along the boulevard this morning at dawn the hotel door was still padlocked shut so I went back to bed. Ah well; Insjallah; as they say here. Have just eaten lamb tajine at a stall on the huge square. Am reading Are You Experienced which is hilarious about backpqcking. Had a look around the biggest mosque outside of Mecca yesterdqy. I give up on this computer.... Off to wander about some more. More (maybe) another time, another place. Perhaps with photos:

Casablanca

Arrived at the airport in the early morning and 'slept' there till the first train into town at 6.30. Walked in the direction of the harbour and checked into Hotel Central, with this view from the window.










Wander about town, Maroccan tea on the way to the artdeco catherdral.














Later walked out to the biggest mosque outside of Mecca, which is also one of the few non-muslims are allowed to see inside. Not during prayer times but in organised tours.

Strange really, that every Christian church is open to anyone who wants to take a look but mosques are seldom open to non-believers.











In the evening ate in a restaurant where the waiter praised the 'special' couscous into the heavens and said I really should try it, only to return a few minutes later saying there was in fact no meat in the kitchen that day so it wasn't available. The vegetarian option was indifferent. Later heard that couscous is a dish you shouldn't really eat in restaurants, it's more a home speciality. We also briefly went into Rick's Bar (a fake remake of the bar in the film Casablanca, which was actually filmed in Hollywood) but it was busy and we left after hearing the tail end of the piano player playing the inevitable 'As Time Goes By'.

The Hassan II mosque was also visible from the hotel window - it looks a lot closer than it actually is as it's so big.

Soestdijk-Casablanca

On the station platform they'd put up a poster specially for our departure...

On the AirArabia flight I think we were the only 2 non-Maroccans on the plane. Most of our fellow passengers joined in with the 'Travel Prayer' in Arabic before take off. A lot of them bade us Welcome in Marocco when we were waiting at customs in the arrival hall.

Packed Bags

As usual the most of my packing dithering involves transferring lots of creams and shampoos into dinky little bottles. And sawing the handle off a toothbrush to make it fit one of my wee bags full of wee bottles. Once that´s done it´s just a question of stuffing some clothes into the bag, tying my sleeping bag onto the bottom of it, measuring the completed bundle to see if it still fits the 50x40x20cm limits for hand baggage and then wondering if that insignificant-looking piece of paper from the airline is really going to get me a seat on the plane. Tomorrow lists of 'stuff to do' in Utrecht before leaving on Wednesday.

Travelling Jacket

Started to get my stuff together for Morocco this afternoon. Great to get my many-pocketed-jacket out again. First things first - what books can I take with me?

Stable Start to the Year

Katie and I left the party and went along to the stables shortly before midnight to make sure that the horses didn't go totally crazy when the fireworks mania was at its worst. They weren't happy about all the noise but by distracting them with food and moving Dancer into the empty stall next to Benti they didn't do anything too drastic and we left them at about 12.30.