MARKET LEADER in marrakech
Hard to imagine a more exciting day than I’ve just had: sunrise over the lights of Casablanca reflecting in the ocean as we finished our week-long crossing of the Atlantic, and sunset over the Koutoubia Mosque and the Medina in Marrakech!
We arrived in Marrakech by mid-afternoon, and after checking into our hotel in “New Town,” Pat and I walked through the Medina walls, past the Koutoubia Mosque, and into the famous maze of “souks” – covered market stalls – where it is easy to get lost in the winding alley-ways, and where one can find everything from dates, spices, and olives to Berber and Arab rugs and brilliantly-dyed fabrics and ceramics.Great to be back on solid earth after a week at sea (although our bodies still think we are at sea as the land “rolls” beneath us). By 6:00 am this morning we could see the Casablanca approaching, dominated by the enormous Hassan II mosque and minaret built out over the ocean just south of the harbor
North Africa’s most famous market, Djemaa el Fna square, explodes to life after dark. Lorded over by the illuminated minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque, oceans of revelers come out to dine at sizzling food stalls and soak up the carnivalesque atmosphere conjured by monkey handlers, cobra charmers, drummers, acrobats, musicians, soapbox preachers and folk-medicine hawkers. If you can handle more dessert, visit the spice-cake dealers (40 dirhams a slice) and wash it down with a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice (a mere 3 dirhams) from one of the myriad fruit carts.
