Chefchaouen

Though it was quite out of the way and a long drive to get there, it was so worth it.

We had a great dinner in our Riad last night (Dar Hicham) and wandered the streets for. a bit before crashing.

The 6am prayer call in the village was a bit loud, but we managed to fall back asleep before getting up for a day of exploring.

Breakfast at our riad was great – with all sorts of croissants, breads and condiments and the most delicious mint tea (we all agreed).

We headed out to explore the coolest little alleys and the most amazing doors!

The kids were annoyed with all the photos I was taking, lol.

So I just kept taking more…

There were some great colours too:

I tried to get them to pose for me:

or with me:)

We found the famous staircase:

Rob took some photos of me this time:

We found the path to walk up to the Spanish mosque where we got the best views of the “Blue Pearl”, as Chefchaouen is known.The blue is said to symbolize the sky and heaven, and serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life. (Although others think the blue keep mosquitos away so that’s why they painted everything blue!)

Love capturing pics of Zach taking photos – he’s a carbon copy of my Papa with the camera:

This was actually a candid shot – they really were just admiring the view:

Then we joined in because it was seriously stunning:

Does it all look the same? It was just so beautiful!

The other side:

The top at the Spanish Mosque:

Our shadow family:

We stopped at a cafe for some drinks and chocolate crepes ($1 each!!) and just relaxed (with a bit of wifi).

Rob liked capturing pics of random strangers:

We wandered the streets and did some shopping. They are not aggressive here so it was the perfect place to peruse for souvenirs.

A man ended up approaching Zach and Josh (“are you guys brothers” and before we knew it we were having tea with him in his carpet shop and ended ups paying way too much for a table runner and two blankets. However, we also knew that this is the typical Moroccan experience to have as a memory, and what we overpaid for these things, we were underpaying in food!

We had a little siesta before we headed out for a yummy dinner of kebabs and rice and couscous and more tea. We had a great time dinner, laughing and telling stories an then shopped a bit more before heading back to our room where we ordered more mint tea:)

I realized that Rob and I got no pics together so we got Zach to come out and take some before we left the next morning: