{"id":408,"date":"2023-05-25T16:54:38","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T16:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/2023\/05\/25\/marrakesh-when-attitude-outweighs-infrastructure\/"},"modified":"2023-05-25T16:54:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T16:54:38","slug":"marrakesh-when-attitude-outweighs-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/2023\/05\/25\/marrakesh-when-attitude-outweighs-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Marrakesh: when attitude outweighs infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A fairly impulsive holiday to Marrakesh this spring, when I was just craving some heat and sun (and easyJet obviously sensed the vibe and launched sales). I didn’t expect an old African city to be super accessible, but it had got to the point where I thought sitting in a street at 30\u00b0 was preferable to the UK so went for it.<\/p>\n

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the Riad<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The hardest part was always going to be finding accommodation without paying a fortune for a modern hotel, but I had a stroke of luck on Google and found a city centre guesthouse ‘Riad’ offering an accessible room… Gold dust. Riad Abaca Badra have a ground floor bedroom with a walk in shower, which the owner put a plastic chair in for me. Some of the angles in the entrance were quite tight, but the owner was so willing and helpful that I really couldn’t have done better on my budget. <\/p>\n

I say there are three big barriers for wheelchair users in the city’s old town:<\/p>\n

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  1. High kerbs – crossing the road or navigating between disappearing pavements gets tricky with kerbs double the size I’m used to, So don’t try and get anywhere in a rush and anticipate needing help!<\/li>\n
  2. Cobbled streets – as you get nearer the historic parts and the Souk don’t expect a smooth ride. Somewhere on the streets of the city are a few screws from my wheelchair which got wobbled out and I had to book some emergency repairs on return. <\/li>\n
  3. Stairs – restaurants and cafe’s tend to be fairly narrow but with two or three stories and a rooftop terrace, and there aren’t lifts. There are always a few ground floor tables but inevitably you are missing out on a big part of the city experience. Wonderfully we did find a restaurant Kui-Zin who lifted me up the stairs, but with fairly spindly steps I was holding my breath…<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    That said, it was wonderful and I’d go back. I’ve rarely felt so welcomed in a new place, If people saw us struggling on the street or trying to get into a doorway, they would come to help with nothing but smiles. Tourist attractions like Le Jardin Secret, the YSL gardens, and the Saadian tombs are accessible and offer a discounted ticket price. The new town holds fewer attractions and less charm, but some smooth pavements for a change of scene.<\/p>\n

    It often feels like as a disabled traveller you’re restricted to more modern\/Western destinations, while our healthy peers can go scrambling around more exotic, less developed parts of the world. What I loved about Marrakesh was the completely different culture, whilst never worrying that I’d be stuck or stranded in my wheelchair. Four hours in a cafe on the main square, people watching, sipping mint tea? Any time.<\/p>\n

    Source: thinkindecimals.wordpress.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A fairly impulsive holiday to Marrakesh this spring, when I was just craving some heat and sun (and easyJet obviously sensed the vibe and launched sales). I didn’t expect an old African city to be super accessible, but it had got to the point where I thought sitting in a street at 30\u00b0 was preferable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11,15,9,8,13,14,12,10],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multiple-sclerosis-research","tag-brain-repair","tag-marburg-type-ms","tag-ms","tag-multiple-sclerosis","tag-myelin","tag-neuroregeneration","tag-oligodendrocyte","tag-remyelination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}