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 se...

Day 73, 15 September 2012, Essaouira. All packed up and ready to go, we were picked up and loaded into a mini-van along with 8 or 9 day-trippers. Very much the easy way - could have made the trip on a coach but that would have involved copious amounts of effort in getting to the train station, buying tickets the day before and then getting selves and luggage to the train station the following day via taxi to catch the coach. Sometimes it's worth throwing mone...

Day 72, 14 September 2012, Marrakech. By our last day in Marrakech we were so relaxed we almost went into reverse. There was unrest world wide during the week due to a video on YouTube that cast Allah in a rather unfortunate light. So we cautiously poked out noses out first thing and made a point not to look American. We ventured to the main square to get cash for the Riad (fairly strong aversion to credit cards in Morocco) and returned via the souks - where ...

Days 70-71, 12-13 September 2012. The holiday continues unabated, but the pace has slackened off for a couple of days. I lurked in the confines of the Riad's courtyard and pool all day.... right up until we dined on chicken and vegetable tagine and a bottle of wine on the rooftop terrace. James felt the lure of the nearby souks once more and looking very posh indeed went exploring in his groovy new hat. Having spent all day reading, napping, reading and nappi...

Day 69, 11 September 2012, Meandering in the Souks of Marrakech. We are now seasoned veterans of the walk to and from Djemma el Fna. We checked our map and decided today was the day to take a left instead of a right and we headed into the souks. Prior to departure from the serenity and security of the Riad we read a quote in the Rough Guide that resonated once we were in the souks - You will find everything in the souks of Marrakech - and you will find it sever...