Out and about.

A better nights sleep as no cockerel and a decent mattress although we both had to wake up and get dressed before returning to bed. It continues to get very cold at night. All the houses are built to remain cool in the summer and work remarkably well as fridges in the winter. The breakfast was ready for us on the roof terrace and was plentiful and good.

So fortified we headed out to explore the locality. With fixed grins and a stock of pleasant no thank yous!

The breakfast tucked away and big boy and girl pants on off we set.

That's Rae looking happy. We had decided to make a dash through the medina and up through the water gardens.

An oasis of tranquility amongst the chaos

We then stopped for a quiet cup of coffee only to harrased once more by a very persistent local.

We took the path up the hill past one of the 4 huge graveyards that surround the city.

Up past the city walls to a ruined castle in the hills

Affording great views across the city.

To the snow capped mountains beyond.

We returned to the medina and had a rather expensive lunch on a roof terrace. Towards the end of the meal we were joined by 3 American missionaries who very gently tried to introduce us to there commune in Mexico. One of the guys apparently new someone called Natalie that lived in Southampton and wondered if I knew her. He seemed a little disappointed that without a surname the odds were against him!

We returned to the lodging and have booked a 6 hour tour tomorrow starting at 10.00 . It's a way of maximising our time here and hopefully make things a little easier.

I think it's important to point out that neither of us have felt threatened or intimidated and no one has done or said anything untoward . It's just that you're unable to wander about and look at stuff without constant interruptions.

Looking forward to the tour and our time out of the medina today was much more relaxing.

sanctuary our alcove of calm