Day 13: RAK -> ZUR

Last night was rough for me.  I went to sleep worried about the airport/passport issue, and woke up even more worried.  Plus, with two nights in a row of poor sleep and early mornings, my body was feeling a mess (sort throat, panicky, etc.). Nevertheless, we persist.  I got my butt up at 4am, showered, and martialed H towards being ready.  S is feeling a lot better too, which helped.  

Our porter met us at 5am to haul our bags to the waiting car, which took us straight to the airport.  Door to door, maybe 30 minutes.  Once we got to the airport, we were able to enter the airport and go to the check-in counter (instantly, I stopped panicking and started breathing a little easier).  

We had a small snafu with our checked luggage: because we have a 23-hour layover in Zurich, I confirmed thrice with the airlines that we’d have to pick up our luggage in Zurich and recheck the next day to LAX.  We packed accordingly.  But, when we got to the Marrakech airport, the check-in clerk printed out tags to send everything straight to LAX.  We only caught the problem after the first three bags had entered the baggage area.  Our clerk said he could fix this with new tags.  He printed out the new tags for a Zurich pick-up, put one on the visible bag, and said he’d tag the other three bags that were already in the baggage area.  No idea if he was able to do it or not.  

Once we had our boarding passes, we stopped at Starbucks (H was disappointed that she couldn’t get any ham) for a snack.  My panic energy had lifted, and my body had started shifting into exhaustion mode.  Then, we headed to the gate. 

Our passports were checked six times: once by the check-in clerk, once by the security clerk before we went through security, once by the customs agent, once by the security clerk after we went through security, once by the passport control agent, and then again by the gate agent. 

The Marrakech airport is beautiful.  High ceilings, dappled sunlight, but all of the hard surfaces made announcements unintelligible.  

Once we were on the plane to Zurich, I closed my eyes.  As soon as we lifted off, I fell asleep, waking 45 minutes later when the meal service began.  The rest of the flight was uneventful, as was landing in Zurich (where all of our bags showed up!) and getting downtown on the train.

The city is lovely.  We checked into our hotel and wandered the city for a few hours, including popping into the Giacometti-painted police station (where he painted, among other things, Pythagoras).  S and H shopped, and I wandered down to the lake to people watch and take photos.  The weather was sunny and warm, and the gobs of people on the street made it feel like the first warm day of spring.  

We had a nice Italian dinner (and I had my first cocktail of the trip, thanks to Iceland’s penchant for shots and beer, and Morocco’s general dryness), followed by a walk back to the hotel by way of the lake.  We all marveled at the orderliness of the Swiss compared to the chaos of the Moroccans.

S and I were exhausted by the time we got back to the room, so H put us to bed.  She read to us, tucked us in, and then put herself to sleep.  That kid!  <3

Day 10: first full day in Marrakech

Today was a no-alarm morning for us.  (except that I used an alarm anyway).  H and I were downstairs at 9 for breakfast with Adzin, who prepared a nice array of carbs - bread, crepe, cake, jams, butters, etc.  S slept in longer (she's still feeling crummy and moved to the spare room in the middle of last night).  

After breakfast, H jumped back into the jacuzzi and I caught up on some work. 

 As the morning wore on, H and I decided to go for a walk in the Souk.  She wanted to find the colored geodes that she saw in a stall the night before, so we hunted for them.  After, we kept walking, picking up coffee for S, a pineapple juice for H, and a schwarma lunch for all three of us.

Much of the Souk was closed because of the Eid holiday.

Back at the Riad, we chilled out for a while and caught up with S, who's still feeling like crap.  H relaxed in her room on her ipad.

At around 2.30, H and I took off for a cooking class at the Moroccan Culinary Arts Museum. S stayed back because, well, sick. The museum itself is lovely, with a great dining room where we sipped mint tea while we waited.  When it was time for us to start the class, our translator/guide led us upstairs to a beautiful 34-station cooking lab, where each station had a Moroccan mise-en-place, a sink, a two-burner stove, and a bunch of other equipment.  Our translator said that all 34 stations are usually booked, but because today was the end of Ramadan, there were only three spots taken (the third person was a nice German woman on a 2-month motorcycle tour of north Africa).  

Our dishes for the day was a chicken tagine with preserved lemon and olives, an eggplant and tomato salad, and a roasted-pepper and tomato salad.  For dessert, we made a wonderful pastilla with slice almonds.  H had great knife skills and what she lacked in speed, she made up for in enthusiasm.

chopping tomatoes

sauteeing the eggplant and tomatoes

the pastilla gets a seal of approval

H made this rose from a tomato peel!

After the class, we went downstairs to the main dining room to enjoy our dishes.  The website promised a 'snack,' but we were presented with everything we made, in its entirety.  The class even gave us the food that the chef prepared in demonstration to take back for sick Sarah.  We also all got certificates of completion (even S, who didn't attend.  Talk about grade inflation!).

H announced that the chicken tagine was her favorite food ever. 

The food was delicious!

We said goodbye to our new German friend and walked back to the Riad.  It was around 5.30pm by this time, and none of us were particularly interested in 7pm dinner reservations.  We cancelled those, and watched the sunset from the rooftop patio.

a view down into the ruins of the riad next door.

After sunset, I went back out to wander the market.  I needed to get some cash, and I wanted to experience the festivities of the end of Ramadan. The streets were packed with Moroccans and tourists alike.  The little square of food vendors near our place was jammed with people (including one woman who was very overwhelmed with the jostling and was crying out in distress - fortunately she had friends who were with her to take care of her).  The main square, Jemaa el-Fna, was packed with food vendors, temporary picnic tables, souvenir salespeople, families, musicians, monkeys, bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, dogs, and cats.  It was truly an amazing experience.  I had to try four different ATMs before I found one that gave me cash (one would only give me a balance, one had a 'non-functioning' sign on it, one took my code and withdrawal request and just spat my card out without cash - twice!), so I spent more than a few minutes in the square, searching the perimeter for a functioning machine.

Cash firmly in pocket (as were my hands, holding onto cash, wallet, phone, and keys during the tight jostling), I returned to the Riad, stopping to grab some pastries for the evening.  When I got back, H was back in the jacuzzi, our naked water baby.  

Tomorrow is a busy day - two planned outings!