Marrakesh/Marrakech, Fes/Fez, Atlas Mountain Range and the Sahara...

...were the places that survived my study and process of elimination.   We were a trio of septuagenarians who were not going to be able to "see everything" in two weeks.  My personal preference is to narrow down and dive a little deeper into a place rather than see a lot of places.  A choice.  I started also from a list of over a dozen people who I thought might enjoy a trip to Morocco and with whom I thought I might enjoy spending two weeks. The effects of schedules, budget, appeal, alternate vacation plans, etc. narrowed the group down to three, a married couple and me.

The Trio at Marrackesh Museum

 Planning a trip.

Is pretty easy with the Web and with published travel guides.  I relied on Fodor's. I knew nothing at all about Morocco; it was all new.  My friends were going to rely on me and I wanted the challenge.  We mutually decided that we did not need to go to the beach.  We agreed that we would like to see a variety of places, terrains and, where possible, cultures. 

The reward for planning something like this is the whole process of learning.  I would never claim to say I know a lot about Morocco or that we even "did" Morocco. But it turned out to be an awfully good taste of the place.  The basic plan was a triangle that would start in Marrakesh, go to and through the Atlas range, get us to the desert, get us to Fes and back to Marrakech for flights home.

[NOTES on spellings.  There is a lot of variation on how these names are spelled.  So "Marrakech" is the same as "Marrakesh" and "Fes" can be "Fes,

Fès or Fez"  The official language in Maroc is 

Morrocan Arabic with French as the second language.  But then there is also Berber, a separate language with its own alphabet.  There will be much more to say about the Berbers later.] 

Get Some Help, Fellah

When I went to Turkey time before last, I did all the planning.  It was exhausting and the anxiety was at times overwhelming.  I learned on that trip to seek help.  When we went again to Turkey in 2014, Gretchen did much of the "heavy lifting"  for that trip.  I have overcome some of my aversion to "Guided Tours" -- but only some.  My visit to the Hermitage in St. Petersberg was totally ruined by the aggression and obnoxious behavior of large tour groups, so I have pledged to myself never to be part of one of those.  That said, I was very happy to ask our "Riad" in Marrakech to get us a tour guide for the first day.  I also found a company that would put together a private tour for the three of us to "trek" in the Atlas Mountains, to ride out into the Sahara on camels, to spend the night in Berber tents on the Sahara and to transport us to Fès.

Street Scene in the Souk

We would then rely on our Riad in Fès to 

• help us with a guide of the Medina in the old city, 
• get us a car and driver to go to the Roman ruins at Volubilis and then
• get us tickets and on the train back to Marrakech.  

  I made email contact with Mohamed who operated the Mountain Travel Morocco Agency.  http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g293734-d2162022-Reviews-Trekking_in_Morocco_Private_Day_Tours-Marrakech.html.  

We are in our 70s, we are not interested in or able to do long hikes, but want to see the Atlas Mountains and all the following.  Can you help us with this?  He could.  He did.  More about that later.

Both Mohamed and the Mon Riad required that a deposit be wired to their banks.  Now, I had never wired money anywhere and, it turned out, neither had the staff at the branch of my bank at the Stop N Shop market.  We had a couple of false starts, but the money eventually reached their destinations.  Not for the faint of heart.  For some random reason, the riad in Fès was perfectly happy to accept a credit card number.                                    -30-