Morocco Day 3 - Marrakesh - Essaouira

Well it really is about time I finished our holiday photos!

Day 3 saw us get up very early and get a taxi to the bus station.  The boys didn't enjoy being woken up so early and did object very loudly about being prised from their beds and out into the chilly morning to walk to find a taxi!  But after only a short walk a taxi appeared, someone was looking down on us!
We made it to the bus station in plenty of time, bought our tickets to Essaouira and sat down for coffee and croissants until it was time to depart.

The journey wasn't too long, about 3 hours.  We travelled across desert with little villages along the way.  For a while the amazing Atlas mountains were looming on the horizon through the mist. 

Then we arrived at Essaouira, a fishing town.  Like Marrakesh, it is a walled city, but much cleaner and quieter.  The roads in the town were wide, unlike Marrakesh and the police enforced the no vehicles rule, so no motorised vehicles at all were allowed inside the walls.  This was great for the kids, they could just run down the streets.  We hired a barrow man ( a man and a large wheelbarrow) to get Rowan and our bags to out hotel, Reuben wouldn't go anywhere near the man or his barrow! Then we checked in and headed straight to the beach. Shoes and socks off, feeling the warm sand between out toes felt wonderful.  The boys played happily for ages, then we headed back to watch the fishermen bring in their catch (which happened to be a huge shark), then a bit of sunset viewing, food and bed.

View from bus window, you can just see the mountains in the distance

A cheeky monkey we found on the bus!

Yippee, beach!

Awww, look at his hair (I miss his beautiful long locks)

Big boat or tiny child? (a bit of both, but the boat was huge!)

It took 8 men to get this shark out of the tiny litle wooden boat it came in on.  I have no idea how they would have gotten it into the boat in the first place.

Rowan was amazed and had to touch it

Gammy - he or she?

So Gammy, our chook with the gammy legs is possibly a cockeral!

Unfortunatley he will have to go if he is, as our relationship with the neighbours isn't the best, a crowing cockeral will add fuel to the fire!

Not a great shot of Gammy, but next to Big Mama, you can see how different he/she looks

Gammy

Say hello to our new family members....

These lovely ladies came to our garden on Saturday.  They have spent all weekend in their run (which is too small for them, so some adujustments are needed) and today they were let loose on the garden and they loved it!

So, introducing:  Eggbert (black one), R2D2 (white one), Gammy (Buff one, name due to her gammy leg), Fluff (buff one) and Big Mama (the other buff one). 

It is really lovely having them in our garden and watching their personalities grow and change depending on wether they are in the run or out in the garden.  Hopefully they will be out most of the time.

Big Mama has pleased everyone by laying two eggs in two days.  We were told that although she had started laying she would probably stop due to the move and not to expect any eggs for a week or 2.  And lo and behold she did lay on her first morning.  The boys keep checking the nest boxes every hour or less and Rowan found the egg.  He came running into the house holding it so carefully, letting everyone have a hold and a feel, saying "feel how warm and smooth it is!"  We had to fry it and share it out!

The first egg

Since then she has laid again, so everyone is happy!  Rowan has especially taken a shine to them and can be seen chasing them around the garden trying to stroke them.

A bit of a catch up

The last few weeks seem to have flown by, with trying to getting the garden ready for planting, getting the chicken run ready for the new arrivals, trying to de-clutter the house, Rowans trip to hospital and just everyday busy life, I feel like I have not stopped I haven't even taken many photos.  Oh well spring always seems to have a busy-ing effect on me. 

I wanted to finish my Morocco posts before putting up anything else, but they will have to wait for a bit.

Here is a catch up the last couple of weeks...

Spring flower painting.  these really surprised me actually as Rowan is very reluctant at painting anything, he just likes to paint ramps!  But one day I put a vase of daffodils on the table with green and yellow paint out and he decided to paint himself a daffodil!

And os course, Reuben had to aswell!

Our first batch of cornflour gloop.  Both boys dislike getting their hands sticky, so they were quite hesitant at getting into the gloop, but as the afternoon progressed they would keep coming back to it a little at a time

Rowan had a break from glooping to bring the veggy box in.  The veg box delivery here is a weekly excitment, the boys love going through it to see what we've got this week!

More glooping, this time the dinosaurs have been stuck on planet gloop!

This camelia is right outside the kitchen window, it is lovely to wash the dishes whilst looking at the delicate beautiful blooms

and this furry little fellow was having a wonderful time, completly covered in powdery white pollen.  He was very sleepy and slow.

Bike washing

And bike riding, after bike washing of course!

Reuben kept going back and forth over this little rut in the ground, the first 2 times he did it, he fell over and really wacked himself, but after a quick Daddy cuddle he got straight back on and would not stop until he had it sussed!  Sheer determination!

And Rowan made us all proud.  He gets very fearful about riding his pedal bike, thinking he can't do it and wanst the security of his balance bike back.  But after telling him I was really rubbish at riding bikes and always fall off, and pointing out that he is really good, he was on it like a shot and rode the whole way.  even deciding to go 'off road' with Daddy on the way back going downhill and doing jumps!

Home again!

Just a quick update, Rowan was discharged from hospital this evening.  He is still wheezy and his oxygen levels were just above the ok level, but the bed was needed and we were all desperate to get home.

He is very excitied to get home and that mixed with his medication means we have a very hyper Rowan for the next few days, but thats better than a poorly Rowan.  So lots of gentle home healing and rest for all of us for the next few days.

Poorly boy!

Well we had a nice chilled out weekend, a friends birthday party, a trip to see some camels, fixing up the chicken house, finally finding the chooks we want (they come next Saturday). 

Then yesterday afternoon Rowans snotty cold moved to his chest, a little cough makes an appearance and then last night his breathing became very fast again.  So after an appointment at the docs, which I thought we would go straight home from, we ended up being transferred to hospital with Rowan having an asthma attack, his oxygen levels were very low and his heartrate really high. 

He has been admitted for the night.  He was doing much better when I left but still needing regular oxygen.  Tris is there with him tonight.  I am worn out and need to sleep but am also wide awake with worry!

He hasn't had any asthma for so long that I thought it had gone away, but alas it is still there :(

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!