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| New construction all along the highway from Essaouira to Marrakech |
We arrived in Marrakech from Essaouira, Morocco on Wednesday, November 20th. Leaving the apartment, on the first floor there are three steps to the sidewalk or there is an incline you can walk and/or roll your luggage down without having to lift it. Our luggage is VERY HEAVY! 50 pounds each.
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| These brown sheep were pretty. Their faces dark brown. Not sure what he is doing to the sheep in his hand? |
Chuck decided to roll one down the incline and first thing the luggage does is knock him down and the luggage goes tumbling after. You know, kind of like Jack & Jill, only Lea Ann didn’t go tumbling after! I did attempt to help but another gentle soul was there too.
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| 8-10 goats in many trees along the road |
He is OK. Was just sore a couple of days and thank the Lord he didn’t hit his head. Not sure we want to visit a Moroccan hospital. We wheeled our luggage about 3 blocks to the bus station. It was so much easier than when we arrived. What a mess of confusion that was! We did a little better in planning to get to this apartment in Marrakech.
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| The Mosque behind our apartment. This is how close it is. No zoom used. It’s just as load as the one in Essaouira, but only about 3 times a day. |
We hired a driver to pick us up and deliver us to the apartment. Its a good thing. Even he had a few issues locating the correct one. We had someone to meet us at the apartment and get us settled. It all worked out so well.
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| Cute little apartment. Very nice and updated. |
We will do much better in our planning in the future. Its always a learning experience. Our trip on the bus was uneventful. The most exciting was the goats in the trees. That was pretty interesting. Many flocks of sheep everywhere. The brown ones were the prettiest.
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| Inside balcony. We will have coffee here most mornings next week as it will be warmer! |
After we settled in, we found the nearest Carrfour market about one mile away and loaded up on groceries. Our walk back was a little longer. There are apartments EVERYWHERE and they are all the same color and they are building 100’s if not 1000’s more. I always mark our location in Google maps before we leave so we can get back, but somehow we had a hard time locating it.
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| Kitchen/dining area. Updated appliances. |
The one thing that we both remember was the mosque tower just outside our window. The one that has the loud speakers for the prayers.
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| A jetted tub and hand shower but no place to hang it high. |
We knew it was close by so we looked up and determined from there where our apartment was. We weren’t too far off and then we recognized the guard station right at the apartment. Chuck’s muscles were hurting every step he took so we walked slower than usual and we were both carrying two heavy bags of groceries.
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| Doubtful the bidet will get used! |
It’s the adventure right? The greatest news is the WIFI here is part of the apartment and we don’t have to go every few days and fill up the sim card with local currency (Dirham) to have access to the internet. That was worth moving to Marrakech for. It didn’t take long to settle in.
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| Beautiful doors inside and out of the apartment |
We wont unpack our cubes, just take them out of the suitcase since we’ll be leaving for the cruise on November 29th. It is much busier here. No carts, horses, camels but many cars and motorbikes. We saw another family of 4 riding on a motorbike during our walk to the grocery store.
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| Pool in the center garden area. Beautiful trees and greenery. |
The 5 year oldish boy was in the front, dad driving, mom behind dad holding a very small baby. No helmets. Just so scary. They have good balance that’s for sure! It rained all day yesterday which was fine we really didnt plan on doing anything special. We had a lot of paperwork to catch up on for the hotel stay in Dubai and getting the tickets for the New Years Eve cruise.
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| I took these pictures of the ice “maker” because it was not what I expected.
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| You turn the handle and the ice trays flip over and twist. If you’re lucky, the ice will drop in the bin |
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| The easiest way to get the ice was run it under water and then twist and release the ice. You then must fill the ice trays with water. Not what I was expecting but thankful there are ice trays! Unique invention to say the least! |
All done! We are always busy around the 20th of the month. This is
when the new month starts on our credit card so we go and pay for future cruises, vacation homes, excursions, etc. Then, we hopefully dont have to worry about anything for another month.
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| Our apartment is at the very top, 5th floor in the middle. The view is nice! |
Unless we make changes like the two cruises we signed up for last minute.We like paying with the credit card to get the points and then pay it off every month. So far this has paid for 2 airfare trips and will pay for another that’s coming up.
The airfare can get very expensive on the long trips and luggage as well. The points from the credit card help quite a bit! The weather will be better here all next week before we leave on Friday for Rome. We leave here on the 29th. Can’t wait! We’ll spend more time outside exploring this busy city.
We also have dinner planned with a gentlemen we met that set up all our transportation here. He and Chuck hit it off. He is from the U.K. and is really nice. He’s the one I talked about when we first arrived in Morocco that really liked what we were doing. It’ll be fun to get out and enjoy dinner with someone local. He has been here approximately 12 years so it will be nice to get an inside view from him. More to come later once it warms up a little and we can see whats different in this Moroccan town.
May God bless you always!
Chuck & Lea Ann
WorldTravelReynolds 