40th Birthday

After a certain amount of pain and suffering (on R's part) we all headed off to Marrakech for big M's 40th. She didnt want to spend it in Cambridge or England and became alarmed (and somewhat violent) by my suggestion that we go to bath...so Marrakech it is. The sales people I booked the Riad (small hotel) through were very helpful and persuasive, so I booked a 4 room riad just for us. Just as well as it turned out later.
Renee came with us and Edda was going to come too, but her advanced stage of pregnancy intervened and she was forced to pull out...
Arrived in the dark and had an exciting taxi ride into the old city...our Riad is in the Medina, so we had to get out and walk a fair way (I had to carry little M who was getting tired, so I got tired too!). Kids had a deal of trouble choosing which of the rooms they were going to stay in, but dad and mum knew straight away which room they were having when they saw it! Some delicate negotiations went on between J and M but a compromise was made and all settled in.

Went out for a wander to the Djemaa el Fna (central square) where we bought jelaba's (see picture) for the kids and the stall holder tried to give them kittens...this plagued us for the whole trip as the kids kept wanting to go and see the kittens and Mum and Dad were forced to fight off the shop owner each time, desperate to sell us something else.