{"id":1116,"date":"2010-05-05T08:53:02","date_gmt":"2010-05-05T12:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2022-01-12T08:25:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T13:25:57","slug":"the-marrakech-express","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/05\/the-marrakech-express\/","title":{"rendered":"The Marrakech Express"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a short trip from Madrid, we arrived in Marrakech. We are staying at the beautifully-restored La Mamounia,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mamounia.com\/\">www.mamounia.com<\/a>, where Churchill came for years to paint and relax. Gorgeous grounds. It just re-opened in November last year.<\/p>\n<p>After lunch at the grill, we were escorted to the unpronounceable Djemaa el-Fna or open-air square with carnival atmosphere. Crosby, Still &amp; Nash captured it,&#8221;charming cobras in the square, striped djellebas we can wear at home&#8230;&#8221; Next door is the souk or covered market selling everything you would\u00a0never want and wonder why you bought it once you lugged it home. A UNESCO-protected, world-heritage site. Understandable given it&#8217;s\u00a0ancient history but kind of underwhelming at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>Sandy had work to do as did I so we missed the group dinner and stayed at the hotel.<\/p>\n<p>Two more things: they speak French in Morocco and there seem to be several spellings of Marrakech. My Lonley Planet guide spells it &#8220;Marrakesh&#8221;\u00a0but I can&#8217;t recall the Crosby, Stills &amp; Nash spelling offhand.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1116 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/05\/the-marrakech-express\/207_1052\/'><img width=\"190\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/207_1052-190x140.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1118\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1118'>\n\t\t\t\tOn the grounds at La Mamounia in Marrakech\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/05\/the-marrakech-express\/207_1053\/'><img width=\"190\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/207_1053-190x140.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1119\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1119'>\n\t\t\t\tView of mosque from square\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/05\/the-marrakech-express\/207_1054\/'><img width=\"190\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/207_1054-190x140.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1120\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1120'>\n\t\t\t\tFruit stand in square\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/05\/the-marrakech-express\/207_1055\/'><img width=\"190\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/207_1055-190x140.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1121\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1121'>\n\t\t\t\tHookah store display.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/05\/the-marrakech-express\/207_1056\/'><img width=\"190\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/207_1056-190x140.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1122\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1122'>\n\t\t\t\tGrill (although we didn&#8217;t dine there).\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/05\/the-marrakech-express\/207_1057\/'><img width=\"190\" height=\"140\" src=\"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/207_1057-190x140.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1123\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1123'>\n\t\t\t\tLovely portico (I was leaning, not the portico).\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a short trip from Madrid, we arrived in Marrakech. We are staying at the beautifully-restored La Mamounia,www.mamounia.com, where Churchill came for years to paint and relax. Gorgeous grounds. It just re-opened in November last year. After lunch at the grill, we were escorted to the unpronounceable Djemaa el-Fna or open-air square with carnival atmosphere. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}