Cruisin Marys

We took the Road to Marrakesh for a few days off the ship. We began with a walk through the Menara Gardens. It was really an olive grove. Camel rides were available across the street.

Then on to the Bahia Palace. The second row of characters below is the Berber language from the indigenous people of Morocco.

We always look good in a palace.

There was beautiful tile, painting and stained glass throughout.

Then on to lunch where we enjoyed a traditional Moroccan meal, and this beautiful woman did a belly dance with the tray of candles on her head. Good news, no additional fires were started.

We walked through the Souk, a Moroccan market. It was an experience for all the senses. The scents from the cooking and leather work surrounded us. There were over 30,000 shops. Many selling the same things: pottery, leather (shoes, belts, bags), clothing, spices and so many other items.

We also visited an ancient Madrasa (Muslim school) which was beautiful.

Next day we headed to Essaouira, a coastal town. On the way we met a peacock!

Then, we had a stop for snacks and wine tasting.

Always having fun drinking wine!

Morocco is a Muslim country. Our guide stressed over and over the importance of acceptance of people of all faiths and living peacefully together. There were 400,000 Jews living in Morocco during WWII. Hitler asked the King to turn over the Jews. The King said they were his subjects, and he was unwilling to turn any of them over. On display were copies of the Torah and Koran together to signify their support for each other.

We stopped at a Women’s Cooperative that creates Argan products from Argan nuts. We watched the ladies crack the nuts on rocks. Then they would peel the next layer to get to the argon seed. Finally they ground the seeds. Incredibly hard manual labor, but they sang for us and seemed genuinely happy!

Ended the evening with wine at the pool in Marrakech!

On our way back to the ship, we toured some sites in Casablanca.

The enormous Hasan II Mosque was incredible.

And we couldn’t skip a quick visit to Rick’s Cafe, though we were disappointed to learn that the movie Casablanca was filmed entirely on set in California!

Once back on the ship, we did a Mixology Competition where Mary Houston and Mary Hopwood won with their M&M cocktail.

Another great adventure on our world trip. It’s hard to believe that it’s almost over!