Dar Liqama - The Medina, Bahia Palace, Djemaa El F'na Square

Boy there was a party going on at the neighboring villa. The live music was, lets just say, lively..until 3:00 AM.

The call to prayer happened at 5:00AM and it was like an air-raid siren going off.  It's quite interesting to be awakened by that.

Breakfast at 8:00 - 9:00,  then our morning cooking lesson.

Breakfast consisted of Moroccan crumpets very similar to Ethopian Injera but not fermented, yoghurt, jams and coffee.  (Yay - no wine).

We will learn to make the crumpets tomorrow.

We then started our morning cooking class.10:00 - 12:00 We prepared our lunch.

Beetroot Salad

Briouate with Vegetables

Couscous with Vegetables

Fried Filo Topped with Cream

Soon-to-be-fried Vegetable Briouates

Vegetable and Couscous Tagine

Fried Filo topped with Cream

2:30 Departed from the Villa for a shopping tour of the souk in the Medina.  I think I better get more Dirham.  I want to buy so many things for the kitchen.

First, we had a tour of the Bahia Palace and had a great history lesson about Marrakech and the palace.

Koutoubia Mosque
 The largest mosque in Marrakech and the tallest building in the city. The call for prayer is called from here 5 times a day and is heard for miles around.

Inside Bahia Palace

Inside the courtyard where the concubines lived.

Next to the Medina and, I have to say, all the research and You Tube images in the world just can't capture the intensity of this place.  I have never had such an experience before. It was overwhelming the number of people and activity happening throughout the souks and the square. 

Shopping The Medina

I bought a beautiful hand-woven, hand-dyed Berber carpet when we stopped for a tour of the carpet shop. The quality and effort that went into making the carpet is amazing. Carpet shopping in Marrakech is an experience I will never forget as well, and, I have to say, I got caught up in the energy of the shop.  I do think I got a good price, but, just like buying a car, you know they prevailed and I am OK with that. I bargained down by 65%.  

Since I purposely didn't take my credit card with me, that was no problem, as one of the workers followed us through the market and took the car back to Dar Liqama, rug in hand to finish the transaction.   I took the rug and was able to save since I opted not to ship it.  Now I wonder how I will get it home.  It is amazing how they an get such a large rug into such a small package.

Now, where to put a Moroccan Berber carpet in a Palm Springs Modern home?

Back from the Medina we entered the Villa to the welcome of Moroccan musicians playing, champagne and wine (more wine. By the end of this trip, I will need another week at the Betty Ford clinic).  They played traditional G'naoua music throughout dinner and things got a little crazy when they started passing fez's around after we ate. If you don't believe me, just watch the video.