This morning we had a bit of a lazy start - breakfast at 7:50 AM (which is quite late by most of our mornings lately). After breakfast, we head up to the terrace overlooking the square to write our postcards - our way of keeping in touch with friends the old fashioned way. We then head off to the post office to mail our stack of cards.
Then it is off to see some of the sights. The first stop is the Bahia Palace. It was built at the end of the 19th century over 14 years. It is therefore quite young, but it does look a bit run down. The things that we liked best were the ceilings - they had some wonderful ceiling panels. It is quite a hodge-podge of different styles and different rooms.
We the walk to the Saadian tombs, which is a necropolis started in 1500 by the Saadian sultan, Ahmed al-Mansour. The tombs escaped various sackings and are quite interesting to walk around. There are some amazing carvings and artistry throughout the tombs.
We return to the hotel just before noon and after running some errands, we head into the old city and souks for some lunch and final shopping. We have lunch at the same place as yesterday - and it was just as good. Good local at a great price. After lunch we go buy a few things. We first go get one of the coin-covered leather pouches used by the water sellers. They start of at about Dirham 1,700, and after Jacqui's great bargaining, we get it for Dirham 350. It took a few departures from the shop, but we got it.
We then went and bought the Berber scarves that we had been eyeing. We had been past this shop a number of times, chatting with the store keeper. Jacqui used her her magic and got the price down to a very good one. It was tough, but Jacqui stood firm.
In the mid-afternoon, I went back to the hotel to work on the computer and get the web site updated. The internet cafe was very helpful. They let me hook up my laptop and the file transfer only took about 45 minutes. In between all this, we went into the square to watch the sunset and see some of the action. But we did not like it too much - when we took out our camera, all the performers came up to us all the time asking us to take their picture (for a fee, of course).
That evening, a bunch of us go out for dinner at a restaurant overlooking the main mosque. We decide to go for some western food for a change. We head back to the hotel to pack our bags and get ready for our hiking tomorrow.