We left for Morocco during a historical wind storm in DC, my awesome brother met us at my parents house and drove us to the airport, all eight of us! He had forewarned us that all flights out of Dulles were cancelled, but my gut feeling was to continue to the airport thinking we just might be that one exception and get on a plane bound for our destination. As we drove, there was not a plane in the sky, but we drove on.
After arriving at Dulles Airport, the kiosks continued to say we were on schedule though the airport did appear empty.
We were about to board when they told us there was a technical issue and we were on hold for one hour. As the hour passed I approached the desk and I guess realizing I had six kids with me the gal at the counter confided we just might be offered a hotel for the night. She then added that there was not a flight the next day so if this happened, we might be delayed one day. Another person at the counter reminded her the plane was physically there on the ground so maybe it would go the next day. Right when I broke the news to the gang, they announced we were boarding!
I booked with Air Maroc and after doing so saw their reviews were not that great. I personally enjoyed the flight and staff very much and was impressed but they did notify us twice of date changes, complete date changes of our flights. That's not a huge deal for us, but I imagine many people don't have that flexibility. The delay in take off had us miss our connection from Casablanca to Marrakech, but about sixteen people were in the same boat and a larger size passenger van took us. The drive took about 3 hours...
As the van stopped, we arrived to a very busy city street outside of a brick wall. We arrived to the hustle and bustle of Marrakech, it was everything I hoped it would be. The van driver didn’t know the area and dropped us off at an arch way, where we had no idea where to go. We had no idea where we were, but were instantly approached by a man and his wheelbarrow offering to transport our bags to our hostel via a makeshift large wheelbarrow with bicycle tires. We actually "hired" him more so to help us locate our place among the maze/medina... and of course just to have the experience made it worth it! Somehow we got team tagged by a non worker bee, more of a smooth talker who, upon arriving to the Riad, wanted payment as well. I nicknamed him " the mob" and went ahead and paid him just so we could enter our little haven and be done with it. I would have much rather overpaid the poor guy ferrying our stuff.
We were checked in to Riad de JENNAH ROUGE, a lovely hostel where we reserved a room with bunk beds just for our family for six nights. The staff was awesome. Pedro made us breakfast and coffee every morning and our needs were met.
At night we hit the Medina, which was sensory overload on steroids. I was prepared for this somewhat, but my best advice is to not purchase anything till you've made your rounds, as prices can vary ten fold. I did a pretty good job of knowing what I wanted and keeping notes on my phone so I could stay focused and I got pretty good at knowing when a final price was indeed final due to keeping track. I got addicted to freshly squeezed juices where every fruit imaginable is in front of you and the best concoctions are served up for like $2.00 a glass.
Love following your trips. My husband and I are going to walk the Portuguese at the end of April. Approximately when will you be passing through Porto. Be great to buy the girls an ice cream!
ReplyDeleteLynda