Day 74, 16 September 2012, Essaouira. Exploring, Expending - energy and euros - and of course, Eating! It was a magical day in Essouira. We slept in a little as breakfast in most riads gets underway at the civilised hour of 8 am. We tasted our first Morrocan pancake - sort of like a square crepe made out of croissant pastry and the usual baguettes, jam and coffee. Having spied the larger room and begged an upgrade we moved our belongings next door and then set out for the day. First stop - the ramparts and one of the defensive towers. Never one to miss a canon shot (albeit with a Nikon) we crawled over the guns, enjoyed the dense, fresh, salty air and explored all manner of little shops. Polished wood, especially marquetry work, is a specialty of the area. The artisans use the wood of the Thuya tree - the grain of the root in particular is a riot of dots and swirls and the scent is aromatic - a little bit like sandlewood, balsam and camphor wood combined. Due to the smallness of our packs and because we are incredibly tough that way, we resisted for a good half day before commissioning a jewellery box from Said the woodworker. He ended up spending the next 36 hours working on the mother of pearl and silvery inlay. One thing we've noticed here - the vast majority of work doesn't involve pre-made anything (and certainly nothing "Made in China"). The mother of pearl Said used was little circles nipped out of a paua/abalone shell and filed to shape. Once the box was commissioned we ventured outside the city walls to book our travel back to Marrakech on a 6 am coach and then a train to Fes. 660 km odd for around €65. Between us. Efficiency knew no bounds - we even scoped out "la terrasse panoramique" - Il Mare on Les Ramparts... not only did it serve alcohol - it had a happy hour scheduled between 4 and 6 pm. As did we.... what a coincidence. We discovered a Snack in a back alley that will shortly be appearing on Trip Advisor in all its glory thanks to moi. Snack Delice did crepes but had a whole menu to back it up at wonderful prices - finally, after more than two months on the road, a pizza! not just edible, en fait - DELICIEUX! Crispy, thin crust, melty cheese and saffron spiced Moroccan chicken. Ahhhh. The day could have ended at 1 pm and it still would have been a cracker. But it just kept getting better. Whilst eating lunch I used my French and English to help a Spanish speaking couple from Basque country decipher the menu. Gosh. That certainly made me feel useful in the grand scheme of things. We decided to visit a gallery down a side street after lunch for no reason other than "La Gallerie de Kasbah" intrigued us. Some Art Galleries feel like shops. This shop felt like a museum. Every piece was original and the goods were spread over two levels of an old courtyard house (that woud have made a stunning riad... but then, it also made a stunning gallery). Three metre high carved doors laid against walls decorated with massive oil paintings. Wood carvings of lions and leopards (sourced from Malawi, East Africa at a guess), were placed upon 200 year old mother-of-pearl inlaid furniture sourced from a home in Essouira's old Jewish corner. Modern Moroccan art runs the gamut from Berbers on horseback to impressionistic blue on white views of the Medina to Picasso type cubist pieces. We also saw and fell for three luminous seascapes by a local artist called Mohammed Boufia. World famous in Morocco apparently - it seems we have taste. Us being hard core non-shoppers we of course left them right where they were and tootled around the corner to have a squiz at a large canvas that had been drawing our eye for 48 hours. Just to prove the Turner-esque seascapes were overpriced. Golly-gee-whiz. The large canvas was quite possibly even more irresistable. What were we to do? Well, suddenly it was 4 o'clock and happy hour on the ramparts was calling - so we decided to think on it and drink on it for a couple of hours. Note to selves. A couple of aromatic Tourareg local white wines looking out to the ocean with the breeze blowing gently is MORE likely to make the purchase and shipping of art a likelihood. So after a couple of hours of rationalising it we went back to both galleries and bought the paintings. Sigh.... we can see a few €10 days coming up that is for sure...