March 10, 2023

After a good sleep the day started with driving to Omar's favorite café to have breakfast: the café bar Café Cristal.

This is the basement room.

And then there was this wonderful breakfast with fresh pressed orange juice, four coffees, bread, jam, honey, scrambled eggs and 2 croissants and 5 bottles of water ...

... all together for 10 Euros, that is 5 Euros per person. Unbelievable! 

The next step was a Moroccan supermarket. I needed a few things for my morning toilette, and we needed detergent for the washing machine, and a power cable each. We visited an amazing place, with lots of bulk food, fresh fish, a huge vegetable section, canned food - whatever you want.

Here a shelf with just canned tomatos ...

... and bulk food noodles and rice in all possible variations ....,

... and spices, and seeds, and dried tomatos ...

... and fresh veggies.

On our way to a hardware store, we passed by a Harley Davidson shop - the Eagle Riders. That's a franchise chain from the US. In the States you can also rent BMW 1200 GS, or GS Adventures. The owner told us that in Morocco there is an increasing demand for GS bikes as well. 

Here you could buy variations of Harleys and you could also book bike tours through Morocco.

THe Eagleriders of Morocco also have a garage / repair shop.

Nice T-Shirts there, and great leather jackets. But we have no spare storage space on this journey.

"Oh, look" I said to Omar, "They have hidden something in the palm trees up there."

Omar replied: "These things there are no palm trees, that are antennas. The governor found them too ugly when naked, so they decided to turn them into fake palm trees."

What a great idea!

Next step was a surprise that Omar had planned for me/us: a visit at the amazing garden and the museum of Yves Saint-Laurent. Long queues awaited us at the entrance, no chance to get in. Omar booked a slot for the two of us for 4pm, at least for the museum. Something to look forward to. 

Meanwhile we had a nice coffee at the YSL café/restaurant. A beautiful place with tasty food and drinks.

The property that Yves and his partner own here in Marrakesh is huge. There is this amazing park with plants and trees from all parts of the world. Then there is the museum, with this café restaurant attached. The café sits between the jardin und the museum. The buildings are painted in a breathtaking blue, a color / paint YSL developed specifically for Morocco. 

Everything is very tastefully furnished, with style and harmony in design and implementation

After we had strengthened body and soul, Omar led me into the centre of the old town. There he took me into the paradisiacal world of the riads. I felt like I was in a fairy tale from the Arabian Nights.

The Arabic word riad actually means "garden" and in Morocco refers to traditional Moroccan houses with an inner courtyard. Not recognisable from the outside, however, there are hundreds of such riads, which of course you normally can't get into. There is, however, one riad that had been converted into a hotel. There we nestled into the atmosphere, into the beauty of the architecture, into the flair of politeness, beauty, joy, with enchanting light and fine, sensual scents. That was it. I could have stayed here for ages.

Doesn't look that spectacular, but wait until you see the dazzling inside ... 

This foto is from the roof top, a view across the neighbourhood. You see all these wonderful houses with their roof gardens and inner yards. This is beyond belief beautiful.

An inside well 

That is the relax area on the roof

A look down to the pool

The architecture and colors is very tasteful

One of the room doors

In the lobby you find an amymzing wooden construction at the ceiling

Omar and I sat there in the Alcantara chairs and relaxed

Flower arrangements are all fresh flowers with a light scent

Straight lines, great color arrangements

The ceiling construction again

A view from inside out

Beautiful people 

Tasteful interior

Pete in all this

Even the toilet rooms were carefully decorated

A very friendly cleaning lady opened the water tap for me, soaped my hands and helped me to thick paper towels

Some exterior decoration

Lots of green everywhere

From the inner yard, this was the entrance to a kind of library where you could sit in the soothing dim light 

Amazing craftmenship

And tropical vegetation

Being blown away from this experience, we went back to the YSL museum. It is not allowed to take pictures from the inside. So, you have to go there to experience the atmosphere. Afterwards we went back into the café. 

These three guys served coffee and tee and ice-cream and peanutbutter crêpes for us. We had great fun together. They were very close to our hearts in no time. One of them even came to our table to say good bye because his shift ended.

You can make friends here in no time.

Next stop: a really mad place, seven days a week, 24 hours per day, a big and bustling place: it is the Jemaa el-Fnaa Market.

We have been here yesterday already, to eat something and to get the flair. Today we had a look at the market from one of the many, many rooftop cafés. Watch this little video, to get a hint of an impression of the sheer unstoppable life you will find here.

This is just a small group going wild here. Every 20 metres there is drumming, flute playing, singing, dancing, jugglers do their tricks, tricksters rip you off, you can buy medicine against rheumatism and bad sleep after being advised by a "doctor", there are huge juice stalls, brassware, pottery, incense ...

By the way: such a fruit juice stand costs a one-time rent of 250,000 €, the fee for being allowed to stand here.

Here two of the fruit juice stands. One of them costs the already mentioned 250.000€ fee, to be payed only once.

One fresh-pressed juice drink for 20 Dirham, that is roughly 2 Euros.

Late at night, Omar and I stayed aware until 24:00 hrs, to start into my 70th birthday. Susanne and Ben-David and Jan-Eycke called in via Zoom and we had a great time together.