Morrocan Odyssey Day 18

Morocco Day 18: Marrakesh 

In the medina we found the Bahia Palace. It was built in stages between 1867 and 1900 by Si Moussa, Grand Vizier (chief minister) of Sultan Hassan I. and his son Ba Ahmed ( the next Grand Vizier), the latter naming it for his wife (or wives).  Bahia means brilliance or beautiful in Arabic, thus the "Palace of the Beautiful". 

The Bahia Palace covers about 20 acres of courtyards, rooms, and gardens. The palace is surrounded by lush riyadh-style gardens, filled with cypress, jasmine, banana trees, orange trees, and fountains.

It was  designed as a private oasis for relaxation, symbolizing paradise on earth in Islamic culture. The palace was used for several scenes in the movies,  "Lawrence of Arabia", and "the Man Who Knew Too Much".

Cat door

Rather than walking back to the souk from the palace, we all piled into the local version of a tuk-tuk, called a pouspous or toktok.  These are 3-wheeled gas powered rickshaws driven by disabled people in order to give them employment. They each uncomfortably seated 4 people in addition to the driver and Jeri and I were in one with Carol and Hope, Dave and Molly in another with Sandi and Bob,  and Rich and Suzanne piled into a third with Debra and Steven from our group.

The ride was terribly exciting with the toktoks weaving in and out of traffic, but when we finally got back to the souk, we were missing Suzanne and Rich's tok tok. We then got a text from Debra "Arrested in Marrakesh-what an adventure!" and my phone started ringing.  It was Rich telling me they had had an accident (everyone was fine), and the police were there and wouldn't let the driver go.  I put Mo on the phone and he took off to find them. A while later, we saw Mo running alongside a toktok carrying our heroes.

After disembarking, Suzanne gave an animated blow by blow

After the our excitement for the trip, we stopped in the medina to learn about the art of Berber carpet weaving (and Berber carpet selling!)

The carpets were beautiful and several were purchased by members of our tour, but the 6 of us remained unscathed.  Jeri and Suzanne did get a chance to try their hand in Berber weaving.

Next stop was the herbalist, where we learned about the art of herbalism (and herbal selling).

We were all seated in a lavishly decorated salon and served, you guessed it, mint tea.  After this we were given a lecture about all the herbs and spices that were available here.  I believe that if you took all the herbal preparations they had here, you could cure everything from cold sores to cancer.  We almost  went for a nasal decongestant ( Suzanne had a cold and it really cleared her sinuses-for a few minutes at least), but then we found out that the main ingredient was menthol and figured that Vick's Vapo Rub was probably quite a bit cheaper. 

We were suckers, though, for local spices.  Compared to home, they were very inexpensive, but we still dropped a c-note.  A significant portion of that came from 2 grams (minimum order) of saffron which they weigh out in front of you and place in tiny little vials.  I felt like we were buying cocaine from a classy dealer (which may be cheaper than saffron). We learned that real saffron is the stigma from the Crocus sativus flower. These are the thread-like, red-orange female parts of the flower that are carefully hand-picked and dried. Each flower contains three stigmas, and hundreds are needed to make just one gram of the spice, which is why saffron is so expensive. Fake saffron (which is what is often sold as the real thing) does not have the three stigmas together.

Our final visit was to the olive shops.  There were dozens of types of olives, black, red, green, purple, and spiced with different blends.  Tasting was not discouraged.

After walking around the souk all afternoon, we took a horse drawn carriage ride from the medina through the new part of Marrakesh.  

The new parts of the city were drastically different from the old medina.  It was hard to believe they were the same city.  The new city had beautiful fountains, wide avenues, and new modern construction. 

We finished our ride as the sun set and returned to the old medina for some rest.