Morocco 2/16/2024 - 3/2/2024 |
|
Saturday 3/2 - DepartureWe woke up at 6 a.m. and got packed up to leave. Jamal arrived at 7:15, and we walked out to meet Majid at the van. The hotel gave us a breakfast to go, since we were leaving before the dining room opened. It was dark as we left the hotel, but we saw the sun rise as we drove to Marrakech. We passed many dry riverbeds, and the drought problem was well on display.We arrived at the airport at around 9:45. We said goodbye and thank you to Majid, and Jamal accompanied us into the airport. We had to put all of our bags through a security scanner just to get into the airport. We went through the check-in process. We got a wheelchair for Craig, and Jamal made sure that we hooked up with the Fast Track employee who would expedite our way through immigration and security. Then we had to say goodbye to Jamal, which was difficult as we had made such a connection with him over the past 2 weeks. We are very grateful for the wonderful experience that he and Majid provided for us. We went through security and immigration and then were taken to the gate. While there, I had trouble getting onto the wi-fi, so I took a walk to get better reception. There was a cat in the terminal, and we watched it wander around. All of the passengers loved it and were fawning over it. One of the airport custodial workers started to pet it, and she eventually opened one of the exterior door and let the cat out onto the tarmac. We had to take a bus to get to the plane. The plane was scheduled to take off at 12:45 p.m., but was 15 minutes late. When we arrived in Lisbon, we had to stay on the plane for an additional 30 minutes because of a problem with the stairs. Once a replacement set of stairs arrived, we were able to deplane. We asked about a wheelchair and were told to get onto the bus with everyone else. Then someone got onto the bus and told us to go to a van instead. The van drove us to a terminal where a wheelchair attendant met us. We went through security and got to the gate. I went to buy some lunch, and got prosciutto and cheese sandwiches and natal pastries (as suggested by our friend Bruce, who has traveled through the Lisbon airport before). Our flight, scheduled to take off at 5:20 p.m., ended up being an hour late due to weather. On the flight we were fed ravioli, then later a tuna sandwich and a chocolate bar. We arrived in Boston at 8:45 p.m. and went through immigration. We had to wait quite a while for our luggage due to heavy rain. When the luggage finally arrived, it was wet. If our luggage was to get wet, we were at least happy that it happened on the way home as opposed to o the vacation itself. We took a taxi home and arrived by 10 p.m. EpilogueOur review of the trip for Wendy Perrin's site |
 Sunrise on the drive to Marrakech  Saying goodbye to Jamal at the airport See all photos from March 2 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
