Travelling the World!: Magic Morocco

I just came back from my first trip ever to the African continent!

For a whole week I went to Morocco together with my two colleagues Friederike and Anki - we stayed in beautiful Marrakesh and even undertook a 2-day desert trip over the snow-covered High Atlas Mountains into the Sahara :-))

Back in Marrakesh, my muscles in pain after a couple of hours riding on a dromedar, what I needed was a Hammam: this is a traditional bath very common in Muslim/Arabic countries. Since many people still don't have proper bathrooms they go there a few times per week to wash, bath, scrub and enjoy massages ... lovely!

The food is delicious - we were in CouscousHeaven, as Friederike dubbed it quite accurately :) And of course ... we got lost in the hundreds of souks = markets. The city is just sooo vibrant, full of snake charmers, monkey-men, water-sellers, Henna-ladies offering to draw on one's skin, horse-drawn vehicles, motor-scooters and bikes, horse buggies and soooo much more ;-))

Mountains of herbs and spices are sold at every corner.

Enjoying delicious food (TAJINE, in this case) on one of the many roof-top restaurants.

Freshly-squeezed orange juice for € 0.30 *a must-drink*

Jardin Majorell - Yves Saint Laurent bought this villa decades ago and designed the lovely lush-green garden paradise surrounding it! When he died in 2008, his ashes were scattered over the soil of this property.

Friederike and Mohamed, who hosted us for a night in the ville nouvelle, the new part of Marrakesh!

Marrakesh's city wall!

In the background, you can see the city's highest minaret tower - 70m - of the 12th century Koutoubia Mosque ... by the way: it served as the architectural prototype for Sevilla's "La Geralda" in Spain!