Morocco 21 July 2007

The plan was simple. Pack picnic along with the luggage, go to see Jools Holland at Westonbirt then carry on to the airport and snatch a few hours sleep on a bench there before the 4.30am check-in opened.

Best laid plans were thrown completely awry on arrival at Westonbirt to find the concert cancelled. Nothing for it but to turn round, head home and have the picnic in the flat with a cd of Jools Holland. After a slightly longer, and more comfortable sleep (possibly the last for a week), drove to Gatwick in the early hours. On the way, we picked up a copy of the new Harry Potter, to be read in the seclusion of the Atlas Mountains, minimising the risk of anyone giving away the ending.

We did feel a bit out of place on arrival at Marrakech airport, in temperatures in the high 30s and rising, wearing our ski-jackets.

Quick change at the hotel then made our way to Djemaa el Fna. Jenny wondered what all the fuss was about, seeing it in daylight. Had the first of many mint teas near the Katoubia Mosque then, after lunch, ventured into the souks. The impression is of a cool labyrinth of shops and bazaars piled high with all manner of goods: carpets, jewellery, pottery and tourist tat alongside everyday items of food and spices. Some shops seemed to go back and back forever.

Eventually emerged out the far side and visited the Ben Yousseff Mederza, where up to 800 scholars studied the Koran in a warren of small cells around a beautifully decorated courtyard.

We made our way back through the souk and less crowded back streets, where we felt completely safe in a way that would be unthinkable in equivalent parts of major ciies in the UK.


In the evening we returned to Djemaa el Fna and now Jenny understood why it is so famous. The square was full of bustle, people, hawkers, story-tellers, dancers, noise and smoke from the host of stalls cooking food on the spot. We passed booths crammed with people eating anything from sheeps heads to snails. We didn't brave the stalls (food-poisoning on day one of a camping holiday...doesn't bear thinking about) but ate in a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the square.