Day 5 (May 4)

We took the regular train to Gatwick for our 14:45 flight to Marrakech. We arrived at 17:35 (local time, one hour ahead of UK and about 10 minutes late). The rain had just stopped (which is good as it purified the area). Riad* Tchaikana** sent a taxi (seemingly all the ’40s and ‘50s Mercedes Benz ended up in Marrakech as taxi) to pick us up. We got some local currencies (dirham) at the airport currency bureau (difficult to get them in London) and then departed for the hotel. After 30 minutes we arrived at the outskirt of the medina (old town); and the taxi driver walked us to the Riad (about 6-7 minutes) through a labyrinth of narrow lanes. As arranged beforehand and recommended (since its essential for us to familiarize first with the location of the Riad and its neighborhood in broad day light tomorrow) by the owner (Jean-François, a former Belgian sound engineer), we had dinner at the covered area of the courtyard (as it started to rain again). We got a suite, a very large room with a large double bed and one "banquette like " single beds for €160 per night. Jean-François suggested that we could change to a double room at the 1/F and a single room at G/F for the same price but we preferred to stay together. With its high ceiling, thickened walls and good ventilation, we had only occasional need to switch on the two ceiling fans.


* (old grand houses converted into hotels and inns)
** http://www.tchaikana.com/