Marrakesh and Morocco

"....It's not hard to describe the delight of arriving in the North African city of Marrakesh, it derives from the culmination of dreams, the desire of youth and the determination of age. To walk the streets under the warm night skies, to see the date palms and the walls of the ancient Medina, finally, has a satisfaction all of its own.
When you transcend that vision and enter the reality it only gets better, especially if your hosts happen to be the staff of the Amanjena, especially if the moon is full, especially if you are greeted each day by varying degrees of aesthetic perfection in food, hospitality and architecture. Especially if you feel the stresses and strains of a high achieving, high performance lifestyle slip away under the cherry moon, especially if you know there is a guest, your most adored international musical genius, staying a mere sparrow hop away from you..it doesn't matter that he remained unseen, it was all just so amazing. Each and everyone of the staff at Amanejena make you feel as important as any VIP and they welcome you with such authenticity and heartfelt warmth that part does becomes hard to describe. My traveling companion Tanja spent the first half of our first day indulging my teenaged fantasies of a life au Maroc. Sans the hashish but with a bottle of smooth Moroccan red wine she took photographs as I floated around 'our' villa in a variety of outfits designed to satisfy a dream of being draped elegantly in YSL while entertaining a salon of witty raconteurs.I didn't exactly have the YSL and the witty raconteurs are now drug addled and ancient but I did have Marrakesh, the sun, the moon and the stars. Staying with the Amanjena it was all I needed to make my dreams come true...