After a good night’s sleep we started the day with a traditional horse and carriage ride. First we were taken to the “famous” Bahia Palace, once described as the 19^th century Alhambra Palace of North Africa, rich in amazing Arabic designs and construction. We were shown through a lot of the Palace, from guest quarters, to the Harem rooms and entertainment areas, where there were areas for sleeping and other areas for NOT sleeping, ;-), we saw the private Mosque and gardens and many other rooms and courtyards.  (each concubine had their own room – there were 24 rooms!  - it was really nice to be able to go inside and have a look, there are a lot of palaces here but this is the only one we have been able to see inside)

After that we got back into our carriages and went to see the Jacque Majorell Gardens, now owned and supported by a trust set up by Pierre Berge and the late Yves Saint Laurent. They are a very well manicured garden of exotic plants. There is a large collection of succulents, canes and palms throughout the gardens. It also has about 3 or 4 water features , a cafe and a museum of Moroccan Art. Unfortunately for us the museum was shut for renovations. We spent about an hour in the gardens walking and sitting and just taking in the peacefulness of it – (it was very beautiful). 

We were then given the option of returning to our hotel, or being taken by our horse and carriage to the Medina (and then find our own way back to the hotel). We chose the Medina. We took the carriage with Harry and Jo ( a couple from Woy Woy), and Linda. We have been told that if you take pictures of anyone, and sometimes anything, you may / will be asked to pay for the privilege, it’s the way these people make their living. We roamed the main areas of the Medina with Harry and Jo, keeping to the main areas , or not very far from them, there was no way we were going to get lost again!!   We had a great time with lots of laughs. First Jo went over to some snake charmers and Harry began videoing it. The charmers then (lost their charm and) demanded money for the video. Harry negotiated a price and then after a while had his turn near the snakes. All this time I was happily taking pics, eventually one of the “not so” charmers asked me for money, I gave him some and we walked away. Jo wanted to get a henna “tattoo” so Harry negotiated a price with a fully veiled woman and she sat down and had it applied. We had great fun taking pictures of the whole process. As Harry paid her, she grabbed Deb’s arm and quickly started applying henna to her upper arm, in the form of a flower.   She said for free and then demanded payment after she finished. We paid her a bit for it and the set off again. The Henna had to stay undisturbed for an hour. So we set off to look at a few more shops and get some lunch. After a short time we were looking at a menu, alongside another couple when the other couple said they had just had lunch and (he) had a hair cut and a great place down the road. He was very enthusiastic about the place (but wouldn’t take his hat off to show us his hair cut!!), so we walked down to “The Restaurant Cafe Berbere – Cuisine Traditionnelle Marocaine”,  and had a look at the menu. We decided to get lunch there. Deb and I shared a chicken tagine, while Harry and Jo had a Chicken Cous Cous each. It was a fabulous genuine Moroccan meal, so tasty and full of flavour, just what we had expected from Morocco.

After lunch we walked back to a prearranged spot to meet up with Linda again, and then we got a Horse and Carriage back to the hotel. Deb has a little Moroccan belly, (our travel drug bag has come in handy, we have all the right stuff to get her better again real soon!!  ) so we are having a quiet afternoon in and be ready for the Moroccan fantasia show tonight.   (we just watched the second half of Samantha Stosur’s  semi final in the French open, it  was wonderful to see her make it that far and equally good to be watching the French open in the daytime and not the middle of the night – shame she lost, but great she made it that far  – it is the first tele we have watched, but quite a few on our tour have been watching the tennis in the evening.   It has been a really great day it equals the day we drove to Erford then went on the camels into the Sahara, we are looking forward to tonight, should be fun.   We also posted a postcard to Dante, Tessa, Ella & Ethan, think we might be home before the cards though!! )

At 8pm we left to see a “Moroccan Spectacular” show called Fantasia!! On the way we saw the most beautiful sunset of our entire holiday. The sun was a glowing ball of shimmering red setting behind clouds that reflected its rays. As it got closer to the horizon it looked like a steaming glowing big red ball, the sort of sunset Hollywood movies dream of!!

When we arrived at the Fantasia, we got off the bus and walked into the “Arena” through a guard of Berber horsemen in traditional clothes, complete with rifles. As we got further into the complex there were musicians, dancers, singers, an Arabian dwarf (I could tell that by the turban he was wearing!!) and many many people in traditional dress from all over Morocco.

The meal was served in a “Berber” tent, (a permanent marquee made to look like a Berber tent!). The meal was quite good, consisting of a Moroccan soup, then Lamb Tagine, then Chicken Cous Cous and finished with a platter of fresh fruit. Throughout dinner we had a constant stream of entertainers (we think representing each of the tribal groups of Morocco) come through our tent. They sang, they danced, they played music, they even tried to get some of us up dancing!!!  Most of the singers and dancers were teenage girls, and them and the most of the musicians looked bored for the most part of it.

After dinner we were told to take up seats, on concrete steps/seats to watch the show. The show was a celebration of all that is Morocco and its Berber history. There was a camel giving rides to people in the audience, and then Berber horsemen giving us a dramatic display of their talents doing all sorts of riding tricks on Very fast horses, they finished with a series of “Victory Charges” down the arena, firing their rifles as they charged. It was all very spectacular, but could have done with a little work on the flow and staging. Overall it was a fun night and we wouldn’t have missed it.

We got back to the hotel around midnight. We leave for Casablanca at 9am tomorrow. This maybe our last blog post until London. We will put up more pics of Morocco when we get to London.

For all those concerned, Deb is doing much better. The drugs are doing their thing!!! 

Hope you all enjoy your long weekend. Go Tom in the Footy tipping.

Love ya all, us xox