A blog issued back on the Sunday rota!
Since the last blog, we have been sitting around in the gardens of the Marrakesh all inclusive hotel, eating and drinking a lot. The main restaurant is a buffet style, which has everything from local tagines to freshly cooked pasta, lovely salads and deserts. There is also a pool café, which is table service with a limited menu, so we had to try that. Which also turned into the Cullinarium Restaurant (the posh one) in the evening, the length of our stay included 1 evening in this restaurant, it was nice to have table service, and the wines were very good!
As we were there for nearly 2 weeks, we saw lots of other guests come and go. The organisation of the hotel gardens and restaurants made it a gift for people watchers!
We would recommend the hotel, in large part because the staff were so chatty and friendly, with each other, as well as the guests, which was really nice to see.
We didn’t do any of the trips from the hotel, however we did go to Casablanca by train, it is a 2 ½ hr journey through a diverse landscape. The 2nd class carriages were fully booked for the journey there, so we had to make do with 1stclass, still a reasonable price. The first class carriages seated 6 in nice comfortable seats with a door to the corridor, it was full, but we had a peaceful journey. The return journey in 2nd class was much busier, with some confusion for other passengers over booked seats, and more noise from phone calls etc, altogether a different experience.
Casablanca itself is a large port city, without the history of Marrakesh, we spent a few hours wandering around, yes…. we did see “Rick’s Cafe”of the film fame, but we have to disappoint you with the knowledge that the cafe was only built after film fans started to turn up looking for the ‘Hollywood’ bar. The original was only ever a film set. We didn’t go in as the drinks were twice the price of everywhere else.
We flew back to Manchester on Saturday 18th March, a late evening flight which didn’t land until 12:30am on Sunday, so we were back in the Ibis Budget hotel for a few hours before getting the tram and train back to York, an easy journey. Back in Pocklington by 1pm.
On Monday 20th, Rog drove south to Worcester, with family on the way to a week in Somerset.
On Tuesday 21st, Nic drove south, all the way to Somerset, again with family but as they had more drivers, they decided to do the drive in one day.
Wednesday, we all went to Shaftesbury, the town not the avenue, to see Gold Hill, better known as Hovis Hill after the Hovis adverts, sorry to any younger followers, you will not have a clue what we are talking about. For the rest of you there was actually two versions of the advert, one filmed in 1973 and directed by Ridley Scott and a second version filmed later (date unknown), the same music was used by the later version had the music speeded up!
Thursday, we went to Somerton (the county town of Somerset), found a nice local café and a fabulous chocolate shop. Then we went to Lytes Cary Manor, dating back to 14th century, a National Trust property. This week the National Trust are giving free entry on the production of a National Lottery ticket! Saving the family some cash. We have Manx National Heritage membership, which gets us free entry.
Friday, another National Trust property, this time Montacute House, built in 1598 by Edward Phelips (knighted in 1603, Speaker of the House, and Master of Rolls and Chancellor).
Saturday, headed to Bradford on Avon, us and the same family members were there on a narrowboat on the canal 5 years ago, we had to look up the photos to check how many years ago it was, as none of us could remember. We had morning coffee in the Bridge Tea rooms, an “olde worlde” tea room, which has won lots of awards. Good scones and Cakes.
On Sunday, we all headed to the local garden centre for morning coffee, more eating and drinking!
Travurple 
Lovely to catch up with what you are upto. Looks like you are fitting plenty in.
Stay safe everyone.
Love Cathyx
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