Marrakech, day 4

 Our last day was spent walking to the Jewish area, known as Mellah and to the Bahia Palace, the wooden carved ceilings and doors, tiling and painted wood in the Palace, lovingly restored, were spectacular.

Many Muslim houses are identifiable as have Fatimas hand door knockers like the one above. Their balconies face into courtyards and are not visible from outside, whereas the Jewish houses in the Mellah are identified by their balconies overlooking the street.  Gradually, since the forming of the State of Israel in 1948, the Jewish population chose to relocate, the 2000 residents gradually reduced to 200.  Muslims and Jews live side by side here peacefully.

Above pictures are of Mellah area/market ...  below is the 19th century Bahia Palace.  There was so much beautiful carved wood throughout like this wooden doorway, the detail throughout was exquisite and so well preserved.  Work like this is still done by hand in the current day.

The ceilings within are hand painted in considerable detail.

In traditional style the centre had a water fountain.  Riads are built in this design because it provides ventilation and shade for the residents and natural light.  It's a calming oasis in a hot climate.  

This type of tiling is all done by hand, cut to size mosaic pieces, I saw the same beautiful designs being made by hand in workshops open to the street.  If I could have got something like this home, I would have!

Although it didn't take long to explore, it has left a lasting impression. 

We were told that palaces like this were built behind plan walls so that the people living outside would not see the wealth and beauty within and feel deprived.

Wearing a new All About Audrey dress, sensible sandals, charity shopped Italian leather belt, Primarni hat.

Hubby has taken some video of our days out and (when time permits) I will make a Youtube film and share the link to my travel blog soon.  Thanks for visiting my blog.

Marrakech day 3

 After considerable bartering, we negotiated a 30 min taxi ride down to 50 dirham (about £5) for our ride across town to the tanneries.

These units are for softening camel and cow skins using lime and pigeon droppings. Handfuls of mint were offered to mask the smell, which you can imagine was overwhelming.  We had taken on a 'guide' at the tanneries whose family worked there, we needed him as it is difficult to negotiate your way around and to get a good view you need someone who has a friend with a shop that has a balcony! of course you do :).  Our guide was Berber and explained Berber people process camel and cow whilst the rest of the population only process lesser quality sheep skins. Some sort of hierarchy.

It was sad to see many donkeys overloaded with carts carrying heavy goods such as the bags of lime powder. 

This area is rife with locals all wanting to be your guide, we asked a couple of loitering  police lying on their motorbikes  to help us choose ours and went with the Berber man as they pointed him out, he was happy with a small tip to take us to the flat roof of his relatives shop so we could see the tannery from above.  As you can imagine, there were high hopes that we would buy leather goods but we managed to escape this as we quite simply don't carry much cash! Apparently we are the only tourists who don't carry a debit card, the disgruntled shop keeper told us.  Had we wanted to shop we would have been bargaining today, leaving disinterested and returning with our cards a day later - that's the way we have learned you get the best price.

After the tanneries we found the taxi price was now triple for same journey back as they had worked out that we were stranded - well not quite - not to be beaten we decided  to walk back through the warren of alleyways, above,  it took several hours but was worth the walking as we saw so much.

We got lost many times but my limited French and helpful school children set us back on track each time!

Marrakech, day 2

 Up bright and early, we had breakfast In the hotel and walked to the Secret Garden, this formed part of a private residence dating back to the 16th century that fell into neglect and was re-discovered in 1960, renovated for opening to the public in 2003.

View from above of mosaic tiling in courtyard which has what is thought to be the first piped water system in the city.

All riads follow the same design as this,  of a courtyard with fountain, balconies looking inwards on to the courtyard and gardens sectioned into four. 

Afterwards, we walked back to the main square to see a food market and trinkets on sale, there were also monkies and snake charmers with cobras but we did not encourage or pay for pictures with them as we don't like to see animals used in this way.

This is one of many fresh water fountains we saw on streets, people use them to wash hands and feet before prayers and will roll out mats and face Mecca wherever they may be when they hear the Imam's call on loudspeakers.

If  like me, you appreciate beautiful doors, Morocco is the place for you.  

The man above is a musician hoping for a tip.

We walked back to our hotel   our step counter showed a total of 8 miles walking!

Afternoons were spent under the shade of tge hotels many orange trees in the gardens after lunch each day. 

...more to come..the Tanneries, .Jewish Mellah, Palace de Bahia