Friday March 15, 2019
We woke up twice in the early morning hours, hearing the call to prayer – go figure! Though neither were at the ‘correct’ published times. Before breakfast, the guys and I hiked up the hill to the abandoned Kasbah at the top, and took a look around. We came back down right in time for breakfast, which was a simple spread of breads, jam and yogurt. We packed up and met Abdul at 10 am for the drive back to Marrakech.
The drive took quite a while with all the highway construction through the Atlas Mountains. It seemed like it was much more congested on the way back than it had been on the way out. We didn’t make any stops on the way back, as we were keen to spend our time in the city.
We came into Marrakech around 1:30 pm, and stopped at a couple of ATMs until we found one that worked. Abdul took us to Cafe Clock for lunch, where we had the famous camel burger (tasty!) and an almond milkshake.
Abdul then took us to Palais Sebban, our next riad, where we checked in for our last night. It is just unreal – such a beautiful property with exquisite mosaic work and gardens, and a stunning plunge pool! So gorgeous. Mallory went to work and tracked down the resident cats and tortoises.
After a lovely welcome tea and cookie spread, we went out on the town. We started at Ensemble Artisanal, which was less than a 10 minute walk away. This is a fixed-priced artisans’ co-op where all kinds of handmade goods are available for sale and you can watch the artists at work.
Mallory got a leather backpack and the guys each picked up some souvenir leather slippers or babouches.
Next we wandered over to the Koutoubia Mosque, arriving right as call to prayer began.
Next stop, we returned to the Henna Art Cafe, where the kids each got a fresh henna tattoo to take home; their tattoos from earlier in the week had started to fade quite a bit, though mine remained fresh looking (must be my old lady dry skin – ha).
We spent a while at Jemaa el Fnaa after that, soaking up the atmosphere for the last time. We did a walk around to see all the entertainment again, got some fresh orange juice, and tried a bowl of snail soup (which none of us were very fond of, but we had to at least try it!)
We returned to Palais Sebban to drop off our packages, and then headed over to Nawarma for our last dinner. We split a few things on the menu for dinner, including some tasty chicken pastilla. We stuck around late for the show, and the entertainment consisted of a fire eater and a belly dancer, which seemed a fitting (if not entirely authentic) way to cap off our trip to Morocco.
And this is where the trip report ends. The following morning after breakfast, we headed directly to the airport in time for our noon hour flight home. We absolutely loved Morocco, and would recommend it to anyone, including (especially!) families with kids. We were a bit worried before we left home that the kids might find the drives too boring and that they wouldn’t enjoy the trip as much as we would, but we needn’t have worried; they enjoyed it just as much. I think Morocco is a great family-friendly destination.
Cook Family Travels 