Well, this probably isn’t the right thing to say, but MAN, it sure feels good to know that we won’t be seeing that dented white minivan again. We are in Marrakesh, the last stop on this tour. After unloading our luggage yesterday, we handed our driver Abdul some tip money and said goodbye. And then, to make our joy complete, upon checking into our hotel, the manager informed us that “the bar is open”! It’s been a while…
We and the Driedgers both booked an additional 2 nights at the Marrakesh Oudaya Hotel to the two that were already booked for us by the tour. Might have been a mistake. The hotel is rated 3.2 on google and I’d say that is generous. But it is so great to finally be able to leave the suitcase open for more than one night before having to repack and load it into the van. So we’re hanging out here until Sunday. Last night Naomi and Dave ‘shopped’ Airbnb and booked a place down in Agadir for a week, beginning Sunday. Looking forward to that.
That sore and swollen ankle of mine hasn’t really improved very much in the 2 weeks since Casablanca. So today I’m sitting in bed with my leg raised up on a pillow, hoping that staying off it a bit will help.
Well, if a guy doesn’t DO anything all day, there will be precious few photos to post. Naomi got a text from the Aussies who were back from their early morning balloon ride, inviting her to join them for an afternoon of shopping. So off she went. I read the New York Times, did Wordle and all the rest of the puzzles, and watched a few Youtube video highlights of the late night talk shows. Then I went out for a walk around the neighbourhood. There’s a big beautiful cinema just around the corner from us — we’ll have to go see a show one evening. I had a coffee at the hotel cafe. Back in the room to do a couple of crosswords. Dave texts me: Time for a beer? We meet at the hotel bar. MaryLou joins us. Naomi comes through, home from shopping, off to the room for a shower. Hey, look who’s sitting two tables down! It’s Mia, the woman who left the tour a few days ago.
The tour group ‘Last Supper’ is scheduled for 6:45; meet in the lobby at 6:30. Which we do. Some of the people are all dressed up fancy. Alex and Suzanne have opted NOT to join. But Mia WILL be joining us. And so we march off to a restaurant that’s about 3 blocks from the hotel. We’re in the big room upstairs, where the table is set for us. (It’s still okay for folks to smoke inside in a restaurant here in Morocco!) We have one smoker in our group, but the rest of us don’t really appreciate cigarette smoke wafting over our dinners.
Food is good. Service? not so much. Dave and MaryLou’s pizza arrives long after everyone is finished eating. Then Vikram stands up invites each of us to say something that we liked about the trip and our leader. We’ve already each passed our little bundles of ‘tip’ money down to Vikram, and after each of us has had a chance to tell about a highlight of the trip, he hands the packet of money to Malika, our tour guide.
So we’ll postpone movie night to tomorrow — our movie was to start at 9:00pm, and we were already 10 minutes past that time by the time we’d each spoken our piece.