After being insufferable for weeks about our impending holiday (thanks patient friends for letting me go on at length) we're now here!
Last night I suffered a bit of a crisis of confidence, everything that had seemed exciting about visiting a strange, new and exotic country suddenly seemed rather scary. But fortunately this proved to be a symptom of an un-packed suitcase.
Thus morning was unlike any other travelling day, for a start I've never made last minute flares before flight before. The morning also featured extensive tumble drying and an incongruous trip to Argos!
Fortunately we still made it to our parking (Newditch Farm, highly recommended) in time to get to the airport, return to the parking when Lew realised he'd forgotten his phone, and get back to the airport again.
The flight was uneventful, though waking us up an hour before we landed to give us entry forms seemed a little cruel.
At the airport we found the man holding the Riad Dar Asaad sign and got into a nice minibus with a helpful driver who taught us how to pronounce a few words properly.
Had I been slightly more awake or better rested I might have realised sooner that he had taken us to the wrong hotel. Fortunately we realised before booking in. From what we could gather, the driver had been holding a sign for someone else. He'd whisked us away so quickly that we didn't check which of the two hotels he was sign-holding for was the destination.
After a lot of guilty feeling on my part and patience on the part of the driver (and calmness on Lew's part) we arrived at the Riad.
Calm. Peaceful. Welcoming. Beautiful.
We were met with mint tea and delicious pastries, plus an extremely detailed tour of the city via map directions. The room is perfect and well situated.
We headed out into the city and the nighttime atmosphere of the main square. I'd read about it and been told about it but still it was like being transported into an exotic film. The streets towards the square were filled with shops (and cats) and they hummed with energy despite the fact that it was 10:30 at night.
We explored the square, paid too much for gifts and ordered more food than we could manage - the perfect start to our adventure!
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