Christmas Day

Well the weather forecast was correct, it dawned much cooler and cloudier today but we still breakfasted on the terrace albeit with extra layers. Breakfast was little honeyed pancakes today, delicious.

After that I was waiting excitedly to have a facetime session with Drew and Alana and looking forward to seeing Hattie, our little granddaughter but sadly neither facetime nor skype would connect. We are going to try again later.

About midday, Ric, Aoife, Emer and I set off to brave the souks. Nigel stayed on the terrace with Belle and Dash. Wow, what an interesting time we had. It was a lot less crowded than we expected and some of the lanes bar bikes and scooters so it is a lot safer and more comfortable to stroll along.

Looking down on slave square

We had a sandwich and some mint tea in a little cafe on the square which was used for selling slaves in days gone by.

After lunch I decided to go back to the riad as Nigel had been on his own since noon, I got back about 3 and bought him a cake on the way back.

The others have just returned and Rick is now making mint tea. We will all have a rest and relax before braving the square again for our evening meal.

We went back to the square and sat down at a stall where there were loads of locals. Richard’s idea was that if the locals ate there, the food must be good. Aoife and I had mixed brochettes, (we both left the unrecognisable bits), Nigel played safe with chicken, Ric had lamb and Emer had vegetable tagine. We all thought how bizarre to be eating such a strange Christmas dinner.

My Christmas Dinner 2012
We didn’t linger tonight as we had a wood fire set ready to put a match to and a bottle of wine waiting for us. We bought some bread on the way back for R, A and E to take on their trip tomorrow and soon we were ensconced by a warm wood fire with some music and wine and spent the rest of the evening chatting and laughing. The dogs enjoyed the fire but would have preferred to get a bit closer I think!


Dash and Belle trying to get closer to the fire
 without having to lie on the cold tiles!


Ric and Aoife modelling their camel hair souk hats
The wine and fire soon took effect and we were all sleepy and as Ric, Aoife and Emer were to be out of the house at 7 am tomorrow to go on a 4 by 4 trip to the Atlas mountains, none of us were late to bed.