What to do With the Children in Agadir…..

So we drove away from the hail and rain that Marrakech had to offer this weekend, and headed down to Agadir. Busy as always hubby was off to design and decorate with some dear friends of ours.

Some say that Agadir isn’t like the rest of Morocco, its devoid of Moroccan culture, to modern and superficial but maybe they don’t realise, that poor, poor Agadir suffered a terrible tragedy on the 29th of Febuary 1960 the city was destroyed by a freak earthquake, killing thousands of the cities inhabitants and therefore denying us from viewing its historic past.

My children have fallen in love with this city by the sea. They don’t realise that Essaouira is more hip and trendy, we have tried them there before, but they just hate the wind that blows the sand in their eyes. We have tried to explain about the culture thing but they just look at us with blank expressions and tell us they have lived in the Medina already………(I’m becoming afraid that they may have historic & cultural overload.) I think it’s the glamour of 5star hotel life that they crave, getting dressed for breakfast, finding other English speakers. (My children are often amazed when they over hear English being spoken by strangers in Marrakech) Hanging by the pool, hanging at the kids club, having lunch with their new found friends, getting dressed up for dinner and drifting of to sleep in those big hotel beds……I suppose for lots of us it’s a dream come true.

There are also lots of things to do with the children dotted around the city. One of the places you will find is a beautiful little garden called The Valley of Birds right in the centre of town. Here you can skip along the shaded paths and discover a menagerie of African and European birds all hanging around the pond (slightly like the pools of the hotels in Agadir) there are a few monkeys that I suppose used to live in the nearby mountains and lamas who share with the wallaby’s. The Valley of Birds is open all year round from 11am to 7pm, and is free to enter, there’s also a really good children’s playground with jungle gyms and swings, all set amongst the exotic looking foliage that southern Morocco has to offer………

After you’ve finished at the bird gardens (if you time it right) parked outside you will find the Petit Train, you can hop on board and take a whistle stop tour of Agadir, it will take about 35minutes and the cost of the Petit Train is 18dhs for an adult and 12dhs for a child.

While we were at the valley of Birds we stopped off to see the candy man where we treated ourselves to some bubbles much fun was had as we we sped around Agadir on the Petit Train leaving a trail of bubbles behind us…..

~ by marrakechxanthepat on March 3, 2009.