Another chilled out day today, although this time we chilled out in the Medina (the old city). We caught the second shuttle bus down into the city and were dropped off just outside the magnificent Koutoubia Mosque. From here we hopped onto a Calesh (horse and cart) for a trip to the Jardin Marjorelle, which is a memorial garden for Yves Saint Laurent. The gardens were absolutely beautiful, and incredibly colourful with brightly painted walls, pots and walkways everywhere. We both decided this was a great place to play with the new lens I bought just before coming out (a Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime). After a quick lesson in the basics, Rosie even played with the camera a little. It was a lot of fun.
Our next port of call was due to be the Souks, so we headed off on foot to the North of the Medina and just as we entered the walls, a local started a conversation with us while we were walking. He told us of an open day at the Ben Youssef Mosque where non-Muslims were allowed to enter the outer areas to see it. We had heard that this was happening today from one of the other guests at the hotel, but had no idea where it was so we followed the local there. It was quite a nice Mosque with some incredible decor.
Our friendly guide then decided to take us to see some of the artisans who were also visiting today. These people were obviously friends of our guide, but they were very friendly and all invited us in for mint tea, as is the custom. Following a brief chat on the various wares they were all peddling, we politely left each shop having bought nothing at all.
Once we had paid our new ‘friend’ for his services we headed to the Djemaa El-Fna, via the Souks, for some wholesome KFC :-) . As it was still mid afternoon, we headed back into the Souks for some playful bargaining and eventually managed to walk away with a beautiful painting depicting a typical Marrakshi street.
We followed this up with a quick dash around the Djemaa El-Fna to see what was happening. We saw numerous snake charmers, acrobats, monkeys storytellers and henna artists. The whole square was alive with different activities and many observers, both foreign and local. It was an incredible atmosphere as the sun was slowly making it’s way towards the horizon. We took the opportunity to have some mint tea on one of the fourth floor balcony cafés to watch the sunset. Although the clouds made the sunset a little disappointing, the square was just incredible as it continued to come more and more alive with throngs of people and performers buzzing around.