Exploring Marrakesh 5

Ate on the square last night having been charmed in by the waiters singing to us and practising their rhyming slang. Food was quite good except that Nadine's tagine was full of bone shards. But for a change my food was good and I got what I ordered and not somebody else's dinner. Then a little girl came to our table and begged - for just one olive - before running away, and we gave an old tramp man a loaf of bread

Had a wander down the souks after dark. They really come alive then and seem better when you've had a few days to get used to them and are not so overwhelming then.

We didn't do much thus morning as our hammam is booked for 1pm. We hung around in the square for an hour or so before it, had an ice cream and watched the acrobats tumbling.

The hammam wasn't too bad although I was a bit nervous. They gave us some strange paper knickers to wear and a towel before shooing us into a steam room where we were soaked then rubbed with eucalyptus black soap. Then we were left to steam for about 20 minutes before being scrubbed with a hard glove then shampooed and covered in a mud compound and left to steam again. Then it was another soaking before the massage bit. It was OK and I now feel exceptionally and squeakily clean but I do wonder how much of the soaking and scrubbing was them teasing us because they could, or it if was actually part of the process. no pictures of the process though - it was too steamy and oily for cameras.

I like Marrakesh but I'm now ready to move on. It's very much a tourist place although  there is not much here really part from old buildings and interesting old markets but once you've seen them, there's not much else.

 However, because we've spent two and a half weeks here and moved around, we've seen as much as we can in the time available, particularly given that we rode through the mountains and other bits last year , en route to The Gambia.

Sat up on the roof terrace looking overlooking rooftops this afternoon. Everywhere has a satellite dish but nobody can tell me whether any face Mecca.

And up here also, you can clearly hear the muezzins doing their stuff from all over, or surround sound as Nadine called it.