What is a Riad (or Ryiad)? It is a villa, usually in the old town or center with one or more shady inner courtyards, which are relaxing, beautiful, cooling oasis. We arrived at “our” riad today after an easy day of travel. My sister-in-law Anja drove us to the airport. Checking in and the flight were easy and smooth. We were picked up at the airport in Marrakesch, then dropped off at the market place, called Jemaa el Fna. And then it started to get interesting: Jemaa el Fna is not some normal market place, it is a stage. Guys with trained monkeys, snake charmers, henna artists, market booths, everything you need or never wanted – there you can find it! Said from our Riad picked us up and walked us to our place: bigger walkways leading into smaller ones, turns to the left and right, smaller walkways leading into dark alleyways, lots of tiny hungry kittens everywhere. And at the end, a right turn, another right turn and there it is: a doorway that would have been perfect for my grandmother (she was only 4’7″). But this was the entrance to our Riad, which has 17 rooms and 7 courtyards (!). It is a lovely place and the floorpan is so complicated that I’m not sure if we’ll ever find our way out again.

Our dinner at our Riad was a very special treat: mushroom soup, freshly baked bread, 6 different salads (one better than the others) and a lamb tajine, that was so tender, we could have eaten it with a spoon. Baked apricots and plums, lots of almonds, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, etc. a whole array of spices to put this meal out of this world! It was super tasty!!!

And now were tired; getting up at 4am shows after 10pm; that’s why we‘re off to bed, dreaming of adventures tomorrow!