Morocco Day 2 - Marrakesh (Definatley not a vegetarian day!)

So day 2 was a bit more chilled out.  The weather wasn't as good which was a shame as the Atlas mountains' snowy peaks were visible for all of the day before and we didn't take any photos.

We didn't do too much today, a visit to a miniaret and gardens.  We also went to another gardens but spent so long getting there (trying to avoid rip off taxi men and doing it ourselves - will we never learn!), that when we got there our enthusiam had been spent and we headed back to the square to watch some street entertainment.  In the day the main square is filled with storytellers, snake charmers, musicians and the like.  Some of it was quite fun to watch, some horrific, like the monkey trainers - they get their trained monkies to sit on tourists shoulders for photos!  Rowan thought it was hillarious that they had put a nappy on one monkey, I thought it was sick!

Rowans arty shot of the Koutubai minaret

A storks nest on top of the arials - if you look closely you can see the baby storks head in the nest

A magician / storyteller in the Djeema-el-fna.  Rowan was captivated, he was talking in Arabic, surrounded by Moroccan men and boys, we didn't understand a word, but Rowan would not leave until the man was finished

Sunset in the square.  It really was an amazing place, I felt like I had been transported back in time, surrounded by men in cloaks, horse and carts, but then a motorbike would zoom past me!

The food stalls setting up

The food stalls are all set up in a particular order, so that all the stalls selling the same kind of food are together, the sweet stalls, the tagine stalls, the kebab stalls, the offal stalls!  Whilst walking past the latter, Rowan noticed the steaming sheeps heads and brains and says he wants to eat a sheeps brain!  He was not joking!  So he sat down and the man boiled him a little sheeps brain, sprinkled it with cumin and gave it to Rowan.  Well you can see from the photo how chufed he was, he loved it, kept saying Yum Yum!  He made me try a bit, to which I gagged.  Tris ate some and Reuben said No Way!  In a way I was quite proud of Rowan - we eat meat, I have never shyed away from explaining to him where the meat we eat comes from and as far as he is concerned, if he eats meat from a sheep why is the brain any different!  He then asked for the sheeps head after he finished the brain, but I swiftly moved him on!

On the eating of weird food, Tris had a bowl of snail soup!

Even Reuben tried a snail, but I think that was only as you got to poke it out with a cocktail stick

Snail soup man

A much nicer stall of dried fruit!

Rowan and his snail

A random last shot of Marrakesh, but Rowan could have watched this man iron all day and night.  He was fascinated!