Morocco 6: The end

On our final day we simply walked the souks and market alleys of Marrakech.  We tried to see the son of Joseph School, a 16th century school that looked beautiful, but it was closed for renovation.  The Almoravid Koubba seemed closed, a 12th century domed building known as the last example of Almoravid architecture, so we had to skip that as well.  The last place on our list, Le Jardin Secret, was open.  Not much was in bloom, but we still enjoyed the wildlife and some of the flowers.



My time in Morocco far exceeded my expectation and I plan to go back at some point and explore more of the surrounding areas.  The people were super friendly and had a great sense of humor.  While pushing for you to eat at their food stalls, they'd say silly things like, "see you later alligator."  Stephanie and Miles were hitting each other with empty water bottled while walking and one of the vendors use a play boxing stance to joke around with them.  It was an excellent time.

We had a 17 hour layover in Lisbon, Portugal, so we had a hotel for the night.  I was wearing a Moroccan jacket that I had bought, since it was colder in Lisbon.  Once past passport control and after we had picked up our bags, we were walking out of the airport.  Stephanie and Miles were slightly ahead of me and I was pulled aside for a "random" search.  She lifted my two bags, which were filled in camera gear, and directed me into a side room.  I called Stephanie and Miles back, and once they saw that we were a family, she merely pulled the top of the zipper back on one of the bags and said it was fine and that we could move on.  Being a family is a lot less suspicious to airports.

After returning home we hung up some of the artwork that we picked up on the trip.  The brownish plate was the silver hammered damascene from Meknes.