April 14 – 16

After another nice breakfast at the Riad we climbed into the van for the last leg of our tour, the short drive to Marrakech.  On the way down out of the mountains we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking a terraced valley reminiscent of those we’d seen in Peru and the twisting, winding road that would take us into town.

Before checking into our Riad, we stopped for lunch at the Amal Association, a restaurant and non-profit organization that supports local women through employment and training to their path to financial independence.  As one can see through my recent posts, one hallmark of an Intrepid tour is supporting these non-profits and cooperatives.  We enjoyed our roast chicken with French fries, warm bread and the cookies and biscotti for dessert.

Finished we motored to a plaza and unloaded the van for the last time, then walked through a maze of narrow lanes to Riad Luzia, our home for the next three nights.  Our tour would end that night with dinner, but we opted to spend two more days in town in order to more fully explore it and to enjoy a couple of optional activities, a hot air balloon ride and a bike tour.  As such, we would soon get to know our location well and would be able to easily find our way back anytime we ventured out.

After checking in and getting set up, we gathered outside with Hicham and walked a few blocks to the great Square of Djemaa el-Fna, one of the largest public spaces in the world where we met up with our local guide who would take us into the Medina. 

Our first stop was at Koutoubia Herbal, a shop specializing in herbs and spices where we had a comprehensive presentation about the healing properties of Morocco’s rich array of herbs, spices, and oils.   Their knowledgeable staff member walked us through an array of products, some for healthy living, some for maintaining skin and internal organs and some for cooking.  In particular, a number of us took great interest in the Saffron they had available and a goodly amount of it went home at a price more reasonable than we could get in the states. 

We continued on into the Medina, which is the most famous of the 3 Areas of Marrakech Gueliz Medina Palmeral as it is the oldest district, dating from the 10th century, and extends over an area of 1,500 acres, one of the largest in Morocco and the most populated.  As we walked through its maze-like lanes, it was a by-now familiar experience for us and yet, perhaps because we did not spend an entire afternoon there, it seemed less in scope than the one in Fes. 

We soon enough landed at Riad-El-Krissi, known to us as the Secret Garden.  The current layout of the Secret Garden features an exotic garden and an Islamic one. The first, which brings together plants from all over the world, is inspired by the rich gardens of Marrakech.  The Islamic garden was restored maintaining what is presumed to be the nineteenth-century layout.  Very similar to the concept of the riad, this type of garden was a true oasis of peace, dedicated to rest and contemplation under the shade of the trees and the intimacy of the enclosed space. 

The origin of the Secret Garden dates back to around the second half of the 16th century, when the Saadian Sultan Moulay ‘Abd-Allah began to build a palace that was destroyed in the late 17th century.  Towards the middle of the 19th century the land on which the palace was built became the property of the kaid al-Hajj Abd-Allah U-Bihi who designed a new palace.  Marrakech, at that time, was under development, and this encouraged the construction of gardens and rich mansions. When, in 1912, the Sultan was exiled, Loukrissi, former head of the guild of watchmakers of Marrakech, moved into the palace, where he lived until his death in 1934.  After that, the property was abandoned until 2008, when the idea was born to restore the building complex and then open it to the public.  The Secret Garden was then reopened in 2016, after eight years of painstaking restoration works.

Our last stop was a walkthrough of a large lamp shop, featuring every imaginable type of lighting instrument known to mankind, none of which we needed or would have had difficulty getting home safely.  And then it was back to Riad Luzia for some downtime before we loaded into the van for a final meal together at a restaurant that had a nice selection of items and best of all, a fully stocked bar. 

Along with a cocktail, Joanna and I split a bottle of nice red wine to accompany our meals, a perfectly cooked lamb shank for her and Chicken Marsala with Sauteed Veggies and Rice for me.  It was the perfect way to finish the tour, as all of the final meals have been on our Intrepid Tours.  We’ve had very good, if not great experiences during our three tours with this company and will definitely book them in the future. 

Our seven-day tour cost us $1,545 apiece with all but a few meals included, and those we had to pay for were at very reasonable prices.  In the case of this tour, there were no extra excursions to pay for, so the cost was all in except for the tip for our guide and driver at the end, generally calculated at about 10% of the cost of the tour.  We did about $150 apiece which brought our total cost per person to a little under $1,700, to us quite affordable given the cost of travel today.  Our final two nights at Riad Luzia would run us $110 a night and included a nice breakfast and thoughtful service each day, which we’ll get into in our next post.  Until then, we’d heartily recommend a trip to Morocco.  We think you will return enchanted by the people and the beauty of the country. 

Links

Amal Association: https://www.amalnonprofit.org/

Riad Luzia: https://www.riadluzia.com/en/

Koutoubia Herbal: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293734-d19514743-Reviews-Koutoubia_Herbal-Marrakech_Marrakech_Safi.html

Riad El-Krissi: https://lejardinsecretmarrakech.com/en/