Casablanca Cool

Wed/Thu/Fri 22-24 Sept
Back in Cairo, we visited one of the oldest market places in the world, the Khan el Khalili markets & souq.  Jamie tried puffing on a sheesh-thingy with mint-flavoured tobacco along with his morning coffee (too early for me) after which we tried our bargaining powers (we suck!).  However we came away happy & proud owners of some silverware, gifts, beach cover-ups (I won't say kaftan!) but no pyramid or Tut statues!  That night we said farewell over a typical Egyptian meal & a few laughs (remind me to tell you about the Listerine-flavoured soda water).

So excited to be going to Morocco at Thu lunchtime, we got to the airport, oh about 4 hours early. However, there are no coffee shops, or seats for that matter before you go through to baggage check, which of course they won't let you in until about 2hrs before your flight... It's a 5hr 50min flight, and on landing in Casablanca we went to our hotel on the Corniche, just out of the old town on the Atlantic Coast.  On Friday morning we wandered along the Corniche (quite St Kilda-esque in look & feel) and had deux cafe s'il vous plait (testing out my high-school french).  We caught un petit-taxi to the train station & bought our tickets to Marrakech for the following day. Another taxi back to the hotel, but we asked the driver to recommend a lovely restaurant for dinner.  He suggested a seafood restaurant called La Mer, and that night Jamie & I had a wonderful meal & a bottle of gerwurtz-traminer. Went home full & happy, ready for the train journey to Marrakech the following morning.