Marrakech 2015

Apologies for the delay in getting round to writing this post, life & a knackered pc got in the way!!  Anyway, Marrakech was absolutely fantastic - utterly mental - but fantastic!  We left a grey, rainy, freezing cold Glasgow & landed in bright sunshine & 26 degrees heat, fabulous.  The riad had sent a driver to pick us up at the airport so in we jumped & experienced the madness that is driving in Marrakech!  I think know we all had our eyes shut for much of the journey!

The drive only took about 15 minutes & we were dropped off at a taxi rank where a couple of staff from the riad were waiting for us to take our luggage.  From here it was only a 2 minute walk to the beautiful, calm haven of Riad Houma.  As we checked in, we were brought mint tea & Moroccan pastries & then talked through a map & shown the easiest way to walk to the main square, the Place Jemaa el Fna.

However, as the sun was still shining brightly and well, you know, we live in Scotland, we all dumped the bags & headed for the roof terrace to catch a couple of hours rays before heading out for our first exploration of the medina.

Wow, we knew it was going to be busy but Oh. My. God!!  We were prepared for the hustle & bustle of many people & stall holders trying to entice you into their shops in the tiny narrow alleyways but we were not expecting to dodge mopeds bombing down there too, it was mental! We were all walking about with huge grins on our faces at just the whole experience, the sights, the sounds, the smells (which alternated between the sweet smell of orange blossom, the earthy scent of spices, the delicious waft of bbq & the sudden onset of erm, sewerage!)

We headed off into the souks & got totally lost for the next couple of hours so by the time we ended back at the riad, it was gone 8pm & we were all starving.  We'd arranged to eat there on the first night & sat down to a delicious 3 course meal, discussed what to do the next day & then headed off for an early night.

The next morning we ate breakfast on the terrace in the already very warm sunshine & then again headed off towards the main square where we hopped on the open top bus to take us on a tour.  This was a really great way to see everything & note down where we wanted to do.  It headed through Guéliz, a newer part where you found shopping & familiar sights (Maccy D's , Pizza Hut or Starbucks anyone?!) then on to Palmeraie where there are huge golfing resorts & I spotted a Nikki Beach.  From there it stopped at Le Jardin Majorelle, which is where we jumped off.  After a quick bite to eat, we enjoyed a peaceful hour wandering round the gardens before jumping back on the bus & heading back for some sunbathing.

That night we ate at Kosybar, which Nikki at Midlife Chic had recommended. It was fabulous & we had a great table that overlooked the Koutoubia Mosque & the storks nesting on the walls of the  Palace.  We finished the night with wine on the terrace of riad & thanks to wifi & Spotify, a hilarious 80s pop quiz!

The next day was spent generally mooching around exploring & then more sunbathing in the afternoon.  We ate that night at Le Salama where we all shared a huge tasting menu with many, many dishes - Morrocan tapas if you like!  Just as we were leaving, the gorgeous belly dancers arrived, much to the pleasure of all the remaining diners.  Again, we finished the night with drinks & pop quizzes on the roof terrace but man, it was cold that night!

Our last morning we went exploring again round the Kasbah, which was a fabulous area that I wish we'd found sooner.  After a visit to the Saadian Tombs to see where all the past royalty are buried, we found a fabulous café (where we realised that we'd been paying way over the odds for food & drinks in the main square!) & then did some last minute shopping of argan oil & orange blossom goodies.  Shockingly though, this was the only shopping I did - I KNOW!!  I had planned to do a last minute whizz round the medina to buy bags & babouches (leather slippers) but the sodding cash machine was broken & the next one was too far away to go as we were running out of time :(

So there we have Marrakech in 3 days - not nearly enough time so we'd like to go back next year but stay for a week.  We wouldn't hesitate to return to Riad Houma, the staff were amazing, so polite & attentive (if a little too relaxed at times!!), it was beautiful inside & in comparison to a lot of riads, was really easy to find.  I'll now stop blethering on & start preparing for our trip to New York in 3 weeks, eeeek!!
 

Wanderlust

Hi all, I'm back!  I've got a few 'catch-up' blog posts planned but first, I want to share my very exciting news!  As you may know, my 'big' birthday is fast approaching & I've said since I turned 30 that on my 40th, I would love to go back to New York so in June, we finally booked it!

This is an adult only trip & my dad, step-mum, sister & brother-in-law are coming along too. We'd short listed 3 hotels, all in a midtown location so we could be pretty central to everything & when we came to book, we got the best deal in the Sheraton Times Square.  I'm ridiculously excited to be seeing the city I fell in love with when I worked there as an 18 year old again & I've been making lists like a mad woman!! Yes, even more so than normal (Paperchase is getting a lot of business from me at the minute!!)  The Sheraton looks beautiful too & is ideally placed between Times Square & Central Park.

But, but, but......it doesn't end there! As I've mentioned before on a post, myself & a couple of great friends had decided we were going to have a trip to Marrakech.  For one reason or another, we didn't get round to booking it before & consequently, the flight prices shot up so we said we'd wait & try & get a last minute deal as we just wanted a cheap weekend away. 

However, last week I popped on to Easyjet.com just out of interest & joy of all joys, they were advertising that they're now flying to Marrakech from Glasgow! This means we would only have an hour & a half drive to the airport as opposed to 5 & a half hours to Manchester so much, much better for us. And even better, after playing around with some dates, I found return flights for £80, bargain!!  So, click......it was booked & another friend is now joining us too.

My ipad should have steam coming out of it from overuse at the moment as any spare minutes are spent googling restaurants & tourist attractions in NYC or perusing Tripadvisor looking for riads in Marrakech!  However, everytime I found a beautiful riad & thought "we won't find better than this", I'd find another one!  And then I stumbled across this little beauty, Riad Houma & just knew that this was 'the one'!  I quickly emailed the girls to tell them to look it up online & they all loved it so yet again, click......it was booked, we didn't want to risk the rooms all selling out!!  It just looks so luxurious, I cannot wait to be lying on that roof terrace with a glass of vino in one hand & a trashy holiday read in the other, nattering with great friends!  Have a quick look at their website, the whole place looks divine.

I'm aware it seems that I'm being a bit spoilt with 2 city breaks within a month of each other but it's all very exciting as I very rarely get to go away anywhere & I've never had a 'girls' weekend abroad! It also takes the edge off turning 40 too *said with tongue firmly in cheek!!*  I'll try not to be a bore about it but I can't promise anything as I have lots of blog posts planned!!  I also need to dash to the shops to see if they have any summer season clothes left at all......

Have you ever been to Marrakech or New York?  Let me know your recommendations on things to do, places to eat etc!