Marrakech will always have a special place in our hearts as this was where Mo and I went for our honeymoon, all those years ago. Its funny as Morroco is one of those places I had never considered visiting (shocking, I know) so it was nice to be faced with a new city to explore, that I knew not a lot about and hadn’t prepared for either – a very foreign concept to me.
Greeted with sunset cocktails and friendly smiles from all, we started our honeymoon at the Terre resort with an upgrade to the ‘romance suite’ away from the hustle and bustle of the main hotel buildings and a stones throw from a secluded poolside, which we quickly inhabited.
As newlyweds, we spent our days relaxing in the heat, napping in the shade, feasting on fresh halal food and making friends with our bollywood-loving hotel staff.
After days of building up golden tans we then took to exploring the city.
The chaotic Medina was always an adventure as the lack of street names and local sense of direction kept us on our feet, a stark contrast to our life at the resort where with the scattering of rose petals they made every attempt to encourage us to relax.
We ate with the thousands at the famous night markets of Jema el Fna, haggled with the many souvenir selling stallholders and witnessed the circus type atmosphere of street entertainers and magicians that lined the street, right by the landmark Koutobia mosque.
The Jardins Marjorelle resembled a paradise type retreat, a green and blue haven trapped between the terracotta clay buildings.
We walked through the new town of Gueliz and back through the great city walls which surrounded the Medina where we dodged countless donkey carts and cyclists.
We gazed in awe at the beautiful Islamic architecture of the Medersa Ben Youssef, Almoravid Koubba and the craftmanships in the (very small) Musuem of Marrakech.
Marrakech was every bit as magical as we expected. A place we will hopefully re-visit, to explore the unexpected haunts of the city and beyond.
