Around Maracech

We may have felt like crashing at our hotel last night, but our guide had other plans for us.  Our whole tour group boarded horse drawn carriages and rode to the medina, or city center, to see how the city comes to life at night.  It was pretty amazing to be making our way slowly through the throngs of people, many on motorcycles, past street vendors, smelling food being cooked, and everywhere people, people, and people.  We spent an hour and a half riding through the streets.   It was good to be in a carriage because we were slightly separated from the pressing crowd, but we could still feel like we were a part of the commotion of the city at night. 

I got sick during the night and had to sit out the Thursday tour.  It’s a good thing we weren’t scheduled to check out of our hotel today.  I had a lazy morning resting and reading.  Tom will have to fill you in on the events of his day. 

Tom here.  We went down to the old city where we looked at the 13^th century mausoleum of the Saadian dynasty.  We also looked at the ruins of the palace, his gardens, and a museum containing some of his possessions.  Then we walked – and walked – and walked.  We walked around the medina for about 2.5 hours looking at old houses, pharmacies, shops, etc.  By the end of this we were all pretty tired.

When we got back I felt achy, tired, and like I was coming down with something (maybe what Sandy has is catchy?) – so I skipped the afternoon visits and took some pills and a nap.  Hopefully we will both feel good enough to enjoy the show tonight!

Sandy stayed in the room - she was a sicky!  (Later on I joined her since I did not feel that good either.)

Last night we took a 1.5 hour tour in one of these.  It is the end of Ramadan so the streets were very crowded!

The 11th century gate into the Medina.

Inside of the tomb.  It used to be a mosque but there are now burials all over the floor and outside grounds.  The sultan and his family are buried inside while his ministers, etc. are outside.  When his dynasty was overthrown his supporters built walls all around the mosque, hiding it from view.  It was not "rediscovered" until the early 1900s.

This minister's house was turned into a museum.  It had 2,000 square meters of space.

This was the home of the minister's concubines.  He had 4 wives and 20 concubines.  Two Indiana Jones movies did shooting here.

A "modern" pharmacy offering a wide variety of "miracle cures."  They can make your skin look 40 years younger, cure snoring, cure cancer, etc!!

The pharmacist's helper had to keep her head fully covered.  We have seen a lot of that in this city - but not anywhere else.

This is the main market square.  Last night it was solid people.  The area over by the banners in the upper left corner is where the bomb was detonated last year.