Left Morocco Today

To ensure that you don't get the days out of order, you will need to go back a few postings and read what's been up with us since day one of Africa.
Our tour guide did tell us that driving through Morocco was a lesson in contrasts. The farm land and agricultural growth is pretty green right now because it's winter and warm but not too hot to grow. In the summer and 45 degree heat, everything dies. Marrakech turned out to be another city of rich get rich and poor get poorer. We stayed in a beautiful hotel, a 5-star for Africa, which had a nice pool for G to swim in and a swing beside it for me to watch him from. We toured the center city market place, again with a guide, and visited a herbalist and spice shop. We walked through a crazy stream of shops and allies where we were jostled by more donkeys, bikes, motorcycles, cars and yet again, more poor people trying to sell their meager wares. The area is really called a "sook" and is unbelievabley crowded. We were set off on our own for a bit and Gerhard really wanted something to snack on. We headed towards this wonderfully looking nut food stand tents and bartered over some walnuts. We started to eat them and were really enjoying them because they come from the country and were cracked and ready. After I had ordered some almonds and started to also eat them, Gerhard had found some worms and bugs in the walnuts. Needless to say, both bags hit the trash.
We continued to walk around and ventured upon some snake charmers, monkey tamers, story tellers, musicians and all sorts of other entertainers trying to make a living by getting you to watch and partake in their area. We headed back to the hotel to walk a bit and later in the evening, we and another sweet couple took a horse and buggy ride for an hour through the city streets. It was a nice way to end the visit to Marakech even though the buggy driver, a dear old man with no teeth, kept, in our ears, squeezing the horn at all his buddies along the way to show them that he had a fare and that he was so proud.
We also visited Casablanca - and you can save your breath on this one because it's not worth the trouble. Pretty dirty city with only the second largest mosque in the muslim world to boast about. Rabat, the political capital of Morocco, was also visited and in this city we visited a musoleum and the king's palace.
Today, we drove back to Tangier and waited quite some time to get through customs. We had to empty all of our luggage out of the bus so that we could get checked properly but, more importantly, our bus was to be inspected. Indeed, our bus driver and the police found some Moroccan men stowed away under the bus hanging on for dear life. We picked them up just outside of the docks. All was cleared but it did take us over an hour to get back underway.
We drove in yet again another mountain to Granada - a beautiful city in Spain. Mostly a vacation spot near the beach. We will go to see one of the most famous palaces tomorrow but right now I can't remember the name. Heading back to Madrid tomorrow.