Marrakech day 4

We woke up and went for our final breakfast hoping that magically it would include the fried dough flat bread that we'd seen about town. And it did! Totally delicious as per all the other mornings. We went and packed our bags and prepared to check out, luckily we were ok to leave our bags at the riad cos our flight wasn't til 725pm.

We hopped in a taxi and directed him to take us to the Musee de la Palmeraie which was a bit out of town. It was weird going there because we passed normal Marrakesh where people go about their lives and then these massive mansions. We also passed a lot of construction, marrakesh is definitely a city in flux, I think the tourism explosion is really going to change the place. We've agreed to go back for my 40th so we'll see what changes 5 years bring.

We arrived at the museum and we were the only people there, it was incredible having this amazing, serene oasis to ourselves. The gardens were incredible with an andulcian garden as well as a dry garden with many, many species of cactus. There was a pond at the end with turtles and loads of frogs - one jumped right past Gemma. Then we took in the art, it is a contemporary gallery but with lots of different styles. There were some great pieces there. Some of the art hadn't been hung yet and that combined with the fact that we were alone gave it a feeling of being somewhere we shouldn't be.

The Museum is out of the way a bit but the guy at the ticket desk called a taxi for us. The only thing was that this meant we couldn't haggle the fare so we ended up paying quite a lot for it. We got dropped off at a patisserie in the new town but unfortunately their cafe was shut so we just filled a box with mini pastries and went on our way.

I forgot to mention that I pulled something in my calf in the morning so I was hobbling about. We walked/hobbled down to the Grand Cafe de la Poste and were faced with a very different side of Marrakesh - the super affluent, colonial side. It was beautiful and we had a very nice coffee but the inbalance between the two worlds in Marrakesh (less than a mile apart) really threw me. The new town is so European and could be any major city and the old town is a completely different world. I don't think that the worlds can mix at all as they have completely different economies. The man selling purses for 35p each in the Medina is never going to pop up to the new town for a £3 coffee.

We were going to hop on the hop on hop off tour bus for a circuit because Gem wanted to see the camels up at the Palmeraie but we couldn't find it and online info was sparse so we didn't bother. We ended up getting a 1 hour tour in a horse and carriage instead which was really good and actually cheaper. We even saw quite a few camels on the tour including a baby one! We sat back and enjoyed the sites and ate our patisserie items from earlier, they were all delicious.

We got him to drop us off in the square and he went right through it which we weren't expecting! We grabbed a roof top table at Cafe Kessabine overlooking the square and ordered some lunch. We both had cous cous, gem veggie, me beef. I also ordered a fresh juice and G got a virgin mojito. The portions were massive and delicious and both had the same veggies except where I had a giant chunk of slow cooked beef Gemma had some sort of squash. We chilled there for a while then it started raining a wee bit so we decided to go elsewhere for some tea. Our whole lunch was under a tenner!

We walked through the square and down Passage Prince Moulay Rachid enjoying the hawkers and the street theatre playing out in front of us. We grabbed a seat outside Cafe Mabrouka for some prime people watching. The weather cleared up and acrobats appeared and more street sellers than before. It was great to sit there sipping mint tea taking it all in. Gem saw a guy selling a scarf she liked so she headed over prepared to haggle but turned out it was 200dh (less than £1.50) so she didn't feel the need.

We started to stroll back to the riad and we were about 10 minutes away when the skies opened. Rain of biblical proportion was battering down on us and there was nothing we could do but batter on cos we needed to get to the airport. When we eventually got to the Riad we looked like we'd been swimming with our clothes on. The staff were very concerned, the chamber maid who didn't speak English was offering us a hairdryer etc but there was no point we had to head straight back out in it. Our Riad was a 5 minute walk down a pedestrianised alley so we couldn't phone a taxi to come get us. One of the guys that worked there handed us some brollies and walked us down to the main road carrying Gemma's suitcase. It made such a difference! We were glad to get into the taxi as we knew we could change into dry clothes at the airport.

We arrived at the airport and had to go to about 5 different queues and security points before we were through, it took a long time! Top tip: even if you have checked in online and have your boarding pass and aren't checking luggage you still have to go to the check in desk so they can stamp your boarding pass. There were no signs to advise of this and it will take ages because people do not respect the queuing system. We also had to change our money back to pounds and it turned out we'd only spent about £180 each and that was us living like kings and tipping wildly.

I ended up chucking away the shoes and cardigan I'd been wearing as they were soaked through and I couldn't bear to look at them anymore.

We didn't end up having very long in the departure lounge due to the time taken getting there so we just had a wee drink and look at the shops and we were queuing to get on the plane. I had my first alcoholic drink of the holiday cos I thought I should try Casablanca, the morrocan beer we saw most often, it was rotten though so I shouldn't have bothered. We also bumped into the Scottish couple we met at dinner on Monday night which was nice. We spoke to a lot of lovely, friendly people while in Marrakesh and I think that it because the type of people heading to Marrakesh are a wee bit more adventurous and also there is a feeling of being bonded over being "other" in a wild city that encourages people to talk to each other.

The flight home was uneventful but did feature a beautiful sunset. Unfortunately, we were seated next to the same really annoying group of women as on the way there.

We arrived home a wee bit early at 2315 and Kirsty was there to meet us cos she is a hero!

Now it's Wednesday morning and I'm lying in bed typing this and it feels weird being back where everything is so normal.  I'm looking forward to the 2021 reunion tour already.