Hammam and Return to Spain

We made the best of our last day in Morocco. We did some more shopping in the souks and got a traditional Moroccan Hammam.

Now here's a little background on hammam. Hammams were originally public bathhouses and relative to a sauna. It's originally Turkish and is more closely related to Greek and Roman bathing practices. The process consists of alternating warm and cold water, hot rooms and cool relaxing rooms, massage with oils and scrubs. It's the cleanest and most relaxed you'll ever feel in your life.

Now here's our experience: we are told by the owner of our riad to wear bathing suits because there is a pool where we can wait between the hammam and the massage. We arrive at Le Bains de Marrakech and are shown to the "locker rooms" where we strip down to our swimsuits and cover ourselves with robes. After waiting a few minutes by the pool we're taken into a dark, cave-like room where an attractive young woman insists I take my top off. I do so and then we are asked to lay on elevated mats as the woman dumped warm water over us. She then covered us with savon noir (black soap), left the room and shut the door without a word.

We heard a strange noise and then the room started to fill with steam to the point of no visibility. We both felt as if we couldn't breathe and it was quite nerve-wracking waiting for the woman to return. When she did she asked me to step under a shower of cold water. Next we were scrubbed raw and covered with some kind of scrub and then rose water facials. The woman left again and I feared the room would steam up again, but she returned after a moment and asked me to go under the shower again. This time she ripped my bottoms off and left me standing there naked. I didn't even protest! I just stood there naked as she washed me. It was strange but at the same time it felt like the right thing to do!

This concluded the hammam part of the ordeal and after we put our robes back on (Tim got to keep his swim trunks on) I went to get an amazing pedicure and Tim slept by the pool. Next we had very nice massages. Again, I was completely naked and only embarassed at first, but slowly relaxed about it as the massage ensued. All-in-all a great experience!

We had an amazing dinner at Dar Essalaam where we watched a traditional belly dancing show. Can't wait to post the video of Tim dancing with the pretty lady! After dinner we hit the sack early. Packing and leaving Morocco was really hard. The staff at the riad really made us feel like family. We definitely plan to return again in the near future!


We arrived in Sevilla yesterday afternoon and had a nice dinner followed by flamenco dancing and a late bed-time. We woke early to see the sites including the Real Alcazar (Royal Palace), the Catedral de Sevilla (where we saw Christopher Columbus' tomb!!!) and the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza (the bullring). We had a late lunch and caught the train to Granada. We've just arrived and are trying to figure out what to do tonight!