Deutsche Bahn Chiltern Railways

A rare shot of a Class 165 train set between breakdowns

DB Chiltern Railways on good form tonight. 18.36 to Aylesbury from Marylebone cancelled after it leaves platform 1 when brakes hang and then takes 20 minutes to reverse back into station. Maintenance on the Class 165’s is becoming more laughable by the day. Chiltern tell us your proud record on Mean Distance Between Failures (MDBF) on Class 165 stock?

Passengers were told to go to Platform 5 to board the incredibly crowded 18.51 which actually leaves @ 19.13 (but is taken off the board at 18.50 just to add a further sense of adventure for the old and disabled!) and crawls forward having missed its window on the Met Line from Harrow to Amersham. Got to Aylesbury over 45 minutes late. Of course no apology, no mention of Customer Refunds for a delay over 30 minutes. Of course IF you did get one of these (not that they tell you how) by filling in a Customer Comment form they would give you a voucher from the Company Store for anything under £30.00. Strange that most Season Ticket Holders don’t bother? How long must this customer abuse from UK Taxpayers subsidy by this wholly owned subsidiary of German State Railways continue?


Marylebone concourse without 100's of passengers wondering why their delayed / cancelled train is no longer showing on the display

Contrast this oppressive customer contract with the enthusiasm for demanding £20 Penalty Fares from customers now that they have reduced Ticket Office opening hours. Saw their icentivised (they get a £1.00 for every PFN they issue) Revenue Staff in action. They don’t say they are issuing a penalty fare, rather they say you MUST pay a £20 minimum fare even if they are regular commuters and there were ticket office / machine queues. Their Penalty Fare leaflet is totally deceptive and tells the story the Railway wants to tell and does not even approach a fair summary of the Penalty Fare Regulations. So shy are they of this seminal work that they don’t have it on leaflet stands but is kept by Revenue Protection Staff at barriers to intimidate customers into parting with their money.

Let’s rebalance the Customer Contract – No Cash Penalty Fares without immediate Cash refunds for delays!

Read your Penalty Fare rights here; DB Chiltern won’t tell you;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/08/penalty-fares-fair-to-passengers.html


Enjoy your journey on one of our overcrowded short formations to/from Aylesbury

Art Nouveau District, Riga, Latvia

Riga was a major centre of the Hanseatic League, deriving its prosperity in the 13th–15th centuries from the trade with central and Eastern Europe. The urban fabric of its medieval centre reflects this prosperity, though most of the earliest buildings were destroyed by fire or war. Riga became an important economic centre in the 19th century, when the suburbs surrounding the medieval town were laid out, first with imposing wooden buildings in neoclassical style and then in Jugendstil. It is generally recognized that Riga has the finest collection of art nouveau buildings in Europe. In 1997 the Art Noveau District of Riga was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.





Jugendstil



The Historic Centre of Riga boasts the largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in Europe. Between 1896 and 1913, the city expanded and a housing boom followed. The style which developed in Riga was influenced mainly by German, Austrian and Finnish architects.



Before World War I Riga was a growing industrial city and the wealth of the 'haute' bourgeoisie naturally found its way onto the facades of their new luxury town homes. Many of the designs were of the Art Nouveau style. I am particularly fond of this short-lived style because so much emphasis was placed on creating something unique, free flowing, and just a little 'off the scale.' ...Not so different from today's avant-garde and in a way it’s uniqueness expresses Latvian’s desire to be free and part of the European mainstream.

















Alberta Street



After the revolution of 1905 a distinctively Latvian variation of Art Nouveau developed, known as National Romanticism. Architects started to use traditional Latvian folk elements and natural building materials. Typical elements were steep roofs, heavy structures and the use of ethnographic ornamental motifs.

Riga as a city made its first mark in history in the 1201. In that year, Albert the Bishop of Bremen established his first German fortress here. With his Knights of the Sword he executed a Crusade to the Baltic’s. The town started to prosper as a trading station. This resulted in joining the Hanseatic League in 1282. What makes it different is something to do with Latvia and Lithuania being the last two European countries to adopt Christianity in the 12th Century and as a result most of the traditional symbols and icons are distinctly pagan. Pre-Christian symbolism persists in Latvian folk tradition and can be seen in Art Nouveau buildings which display the face of Mother Nature and the look of intricately carved wood, both of which are distinctly Baltic features. It's a little eerie (and possibly fun) to walk down a dark side street and notice all these symbols normally associated with witchcraft and the devil.





Mother Nature















Walking around in Riga what most surprises is the eclectic architecture. Notably in the Old Town there is always a medieval highlight next to some Stalinist leftover. This diversity in styles adds a lively atmosphere to the town. Generally, Riga is less an open-air-museum like than Tallinn for example. The main reason for inclusion is Riga's fine collection of Art Nouveau buildings. They can be found a few blocks north from the city center. There are several streets adorned with great specimens. The buildings by Mikhail Eisenstein are well restored and freshly painted. Another feature of Riga are the 19th century wooden buildings. They are less prominent than the Art Nouveau ones, and less often renovated.















The architectural and artistic answer to the literary Modernist movement that began in the late 19th century was the Art Nouveau movement in Europe. The Art Nouveau movement reached its peak in the early 20th century, which is when the majority of Riga’s Art Nouveau houses were built, beginning in 1899. Riga’s term for the movement, Jugendstil, comes from the German and Scandinavian movement named after the avant-garde periodical Jugend (“Youth”). Unlike the stiffer sensibilities of Victorian style, Art Nouveau stressed a complete creative freedom, mixing fantastic elements with a tendency to show all utilitarian construction elements as artistic value, with very characteristic elements such as dynamic, undulating, and flowing lines and geometrical ornaments. In Riga, Art Nouveau could be split into two main directions, decorative and romantic-nationalistic Art Nouveau.





Jugendstil Frauenkopf



Riga is one of the largest centres of Art Nouveau, with more than a third of the buildings of its Central District built in the style; other significant centres include Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna, Krakow, and Moscow and St. Petersburg, among others. The main street for Riga’s Art Nouveau district is Elizabetes, which intersects Brivibas Boulevard. In addition to Elizabetes Street, Alberta and Strelnieku Streets also feature impressive examples of the style. In total, there are over 800 Art Nouveau buildings in Riga, but finding them all would be quite an ambitious undertaking, so I’ll try to guide you to the most noteworthy ones. Significantly, most of the Art Nouveau buildings were designed and built by Latvian architects.











Buildings in the decorative Art Nouveau style by one of the most famous architects, Mikhail Eisenstein can be found at Elizabetes 10a and 10b, as well as at Alberta 2, 2a, 4, 8 and 13. On Alberta 13 stands a building from 1904 which now houses the Riga Graduate School of Law, which is fully restored and publicly accessible. Right around the corner, Strelnieku Street also features eccentric examples of the style. Romantic-nationalist Art Nouveau can be seen in the buildings by Latvian architects E. Laube, K. Peksens, and A. Vanags, such as those on Terbatas Street 15/17 and Brivibas Street 47, 58, and 62. The most famous of the local architects was Mikhail Eisenstein. His son, Sergei, was a pioneer of early cinema. Ironically, Sergei moved to Moscow to make propaganda for the Bolsheviks who despised (and eventually destroyed) the same bourgeoisie that supported his father and fed him as a child.





Art Nouveau Staircase







More information can be learned about Art Nouveau and other architecture in Riga in the Latvian Museum of Architecture located in one of the Three Brothers in the Old Town. The Riga Art Nouveau Centre in Latvia, that used to be linked on the website of the City of Riga, now has its own website where the centre and Art Nouveau architectural heritage of the city are presented and where events related to Art Nouveau in Riga are listed. The Riga Art Nouveau Centre also moved into new premises in the Art Nouveau building located at 12, Alberta Street, the facade having being restored a few years ago and the interior still being in the restoration process.



This is their website; (Only in Latvian at the moment)



http://www.jugendstils.riga.lv/lv



Riga is a rewarding place to visit both for its Architecture and its vibrant urban life. The old town is richly textured with the wondrously titled “House of the Blackheads”, essentially a palace for visiting Hanseatic merchants. Due to their indulgent lifestyle they developed blackheads and turned this into a little joke by calling this rather rich palace after what was originally its nickname! The old town is a rich and rewarding mix with Swedish gun towers, a castle, museums, Art Nouveau district and many fine churches including St Peter’s Cathedral in the Baltic brick gothic style. St Petri has a lift to the top of the steeple affording good views of the city and the river Daugava on which it sits.



I’ll remember it for its energy, sense of purpose and historic and human interest which makes it such a worthwhile travel destination. The persistence of the ideals of personal freedom and free association cemented by trade of the Hanseatic League can be seen in the way the cities of the newly free Baltic countries have readopted their Hanseatic titles after gaining their freedom.



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/lbeck-queen-of-hansa.html



My abiding feeling coming back from Riga is how important freedom is to people who have been deprived of it and how much in the West we take it for granted, not something they will ever do in Riga which is watched over by the symbol of Latvian nationhood “The Freedom Monument.” The Art Nouveau District is another testament of the determination of the people of this small nation to look westwards and assert their unique culture, language and cultural identity. It is a deserving UNESCO World Heritage Site.



See also;



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/riga-capital-of-country-in-transition.html











For more on Architecture and Design see ArchiBlogs in the Blog sidebar.

Malahide rail viaduct collapse 21 August, 2009

Irish Railway Safety Scandal



Under the Railway Safety Act 2005, Irish Rail is required to commission an independent audit of its safety management system every four years. The next audit is scheduled for 2010. It will consider if inspections of the Broadmeadow viaduct were regular enough, and if an underwater survey of the pier should have been conducted. Irish Rail and the RSC are also expected to appear before the Dail Transport Committee next month to answer questions about safety.



What is particularly disgraceful about the state of Irish Rail is that it has had ten years worth of European Union and taxpayer funded largesse and has spent money on high end capital projects and new equipment without even looking at the fundamental business cases for such expenditure or indeed reinforcing its basic operating discipline or customer focus in that time. Indeed it has dreamt up more grandiose schemes such as the 3 Bn Euro Dublin underground Interconnector to connect Heuston to Connolly Station even though they are already linked by Rail. Such is the Government’s lack of faith in Irish Rail that they bypassed them for the Dublin Light rail and proposed Metro system with the result that a separate Quango has now come up with totally disconnected and grandiose schemes for these. In Ireland they say “It’s an ill horse which blows no wind” and hopefully the collapse of the Celtic Tiger will ultimately result in more realistic Public transport policies and a safer system?



Original on Blogger;



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/08/irish-railway-safety-scandal.html

Irish Railway Safety Scandal

Collapsed Broadmeadow Viaduct

Irish Railways have always had a bit of a Noddy status suffering from a toxic mixture of neglect and confused pork barrel politics. The neglect resulted in the system being starved of meaningful investment for years and gaining a negative public perception for shabby crowded trains particularly at peak times. I remember standing in a 40 year old coach from Mullingar to Dublin where the floor was the ashtray for a carriage full of chain smokers. Over the past 50 years a number of lines have closed to passenger services and gone into that euphemistic state “In the care of the Chief Engineer.” More seriously railways have been justified on social grounds with bottomless subsidies given as a PSO (Public Service Obligation) and pensioners, irrespective of means given the “right” to free unlimited rail travel. Well, as Ireland has certainly found out recently, there is no such thing as a free lunch and somebody has had to pay for “free travel.”

The confusion in policy is very apparent on routes such as Dublin / Galway where the Irish state pays a subsidy on the rail trip, the bus trip (By the state bus monopoly) and on the flight (110 miles!) on Aer Arann. Whilst paying subsidies unnecessarily on competing links it has also improved the roads so much that it is quicker to drive from Dublin to Galway than go by train – Irish Rail no longer uses the shorter direct route to Galway to save on maintenance. Their operating standards have always been a cause for concern. When I was at college a friend of mine, who was studying engineering, worked for Irish Railways for the summer. He was somewhat incredulous to find when he inspected the newly installed pneumatic signals south of Pearse St. Station that they were now in fact hydraulic signals! – the bleed valves had not been opened and the compressed air tubes which operated the points had filled with water!



Last time I went by train from Dublin to Limerick I had checked at the ticket office that there was a First Class service on the next morning’s train. In going to Heuston Station in Dublin the next morning I had to stop three times to show my ticket BEFORE getting on the train and went into the First Class Carriage to be greeted with the well practiced words before I even sat down “You know there is no First Class on this train, they’ll refund the difference on your ticket!” Indeed a lot of use a refund in 2 months by way of a euro cheque would have been to me in the UK. I told him I had checked the night before so why was there no First Class. Quick as anything he replied “Staff Shortages.” I then had the surreal experience of spending the whole 3 hour trip to Limerick as the only person in First Class apart from THREE Irish rail staff who spent the entire trip listening to a Gaelic Football final on a radio! It seemed like a shortage of motivated staff. Indeed there is strict demarcation on Irish Rail as I noticed once on the Belfast Train when the staff had to break into the buffet as the “catering staff” had not opened it. Every year on some pretext the Train Drivers hold customers to ransom by going on strike to protect their lack of productivity and restrictive practices which would be laughed at in the commercial world. Go into www.irishrail.ie/ now and they will still take money off you for weekend services timetabled as First Class (Premium in Irish rail Speak) at weekends where there will be no such service. There is no concept of a “Train Manager” multi-tasking and ensuring joined up service is delivered to the customer on Irish Rail.

But more serious than the lack of customer focus and the free ride at the taxpayers’ expense are the safety lapses. On the main line to Belfast just 10 miles north of Dublin the Broadmeadow viaduct, which runs over open water in north Dublin, collapsed into the sea last Friday despite being passed as safe following two inspections by Irish Rail engineers. The company last night stood by its inspection regime, defending a decision to pass the structure as safe despite being told by the Malahide Sea Scouts (Hi Lo!) that one of the supporting piers was damaged. It has also emerged that the pier that collapsed, causing the viaduct to fall into the water, will not be rebuilt. Instead, engineers will strengthen the line.


Irish Passenger Rail Network

Critical railway safety checks have not been carried out for the past three years because the Irish Railway safety watchdog does not have enough staff. The Railway Safety Commission (RSC) was established under the Railway Safety Act 2005 on the back of EU legislation requiring each member state to have a national railway safety authority. And Irish Rail admitted last night that its inspection regime -covering more than 1,200 bridges - would need to be reviewed after one of the busiest rail lines in the country collapsed into the sea last week.

The RSC had warned about a lack of inspectors since it began operations in 2006. It said this "lack of resources" prevented it from "devoting the time we would wish" to safety checks. It had just four inspectors responsible for almost 2,000km of rail line and hundreds of bridges until this year. Only in 2009 could it recruit an additional three inspectors, bringing the total employed to seven. It revealed that it was too busy approving new rail projects to carry out planned safety checks, and it was only able to recruit its full complement of safety inspectors this year. The RSC is charged with ensuring Irish Rail and other operators perform to the highest safety standards, but last night it emerged that just half the necessary staff were in place to cope with the huge workload of checking safety systems. The RSC began operations on January 1, 2006. It is responsible for safety on the entire rail network, including heavy rail and tram systems. It currently employs seven inspectors - three of whom were only appointed this year. The commission has four primary tasks including safety approval, which assesses if new infrastructure or rolling stock is fit for purpose. It is also responsible for safety auditing and monitoring, safety enforcement and investigations. Auditing and monitoring has included studies on the safety of level crossings, emergency escapes at stations and bridge-protection warning systems. The RSC has warned in all three of its annual reports that it has committed less time to compliance auditing "than we would have wished".



And it emerged:

The collapse of the rail viaduct over Broadmeadow estuary in north Co Dublin last Friday evening might have been a disaster, causing significant loss of life. A commuter train had just passed over it minutes earlier and another would have followed but for the alertness of driver, Keith Farrelly, who raised the alarm when he noticed the bridge starting to collapse as his train was crossing it.

That is how close we came to a real human tragedy on Irish railways. Amazingly, it transpired that the 180 metre-long viaduct had been inspected just three days beforehand and no evidence of any defect was reported to Iarnród Éireann. Yet after one of its support piers had crumbled, the State railway company was able to say there was “little doubt” that tidal scouring was a factor in the incident.

Rail Users Ireland spokesman Mark Gleeson rightly suggested that what happened raises serious questions about the maintenance and inspection regime on Ireland’s rail network – and not for the first time. After the derailment of a cement train caused the partial collapse of the Cahir viaduct in Co Tipperary, the Railway Safety Commission found “serious deficiencies” in Iarnród Éireann’s management of its infrastructure, and concluded in its 2006 report that these critical shortcomings in the company’s inspection and maintenance regime “were principally responsible for the accident”. The number of passengers carried on the line that runs through Cahir from Limerick Junction to Rosslare is minuscule compared to the 20,000 passengers per day using Dublin’s northern commuter line or the Belfast Enterprise express.


Iarnród Éireann’s Logo

But serious questions have been raised over how a supposedly 'safe' bridge could fall into the sea after two inspections. There are also concerns about safety on the network, especially as the Railway Safety Programme was extended from five to seven years in an effort to reduce costs in last year's Budget. Ensuring that bridges, viaducts, rail lines, level crossings and all other pieces of rail infrastructure are safe is a key plank of the RSC's brief. Last year, it also approved 57 infrastructure projects, ranging from construction of new bridges to approval of Luas extensions, which led to it postponing inspections.


Broadmeadow Viaduct

"The number of railway projects that required RSC approval meant that we were able to commit less time to performance auditing and monitoring than we would have wished," it warned in its 2008 report. A safety management system is only as effective as its implementation. Assessing the railway undertakings' safety case compliance is an essential part of the RSC's work but lack of resources has, in the past, prevented us devoting the time we would wish to this task."

Fine Gael's Transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said that the Railway Safety Programme had seen its funding cut, and that there was a "lack of accountability" in relation to the Broadmeadow inquiry. "They're the regulator of the industry and the guarantor of safety on the trains. I would be very concerned," he said. Under the Railway Safety Act 2005, Irish Rail is required to commission an independent audit of its safety management system every four years. The next audit is scheduled for 2010. It will consider if inspections of the Broadmeadow viaduct were regular enough, and if an underwater survey of the pier should have been conducted. Irish Rail and the RSC are also expected to appear before the Dail Transport Committee next month to answer questions about safety.


Irish Rail Class 22000

What is particularly disgraceful about the state of Irish Rail is that it has had ten years worth of European Union and taxpayer funded largesse and has spent money on high end capital projects and new equipment without even looking at the fundamental business cases for such expenditure or indeed reinforcing its basic operating discipline or customer focus in that time. Indeed it has dreamt up more grandiose schemes such as the 3 Bn Euro Dublin underground Interconnector to connect Heuston to Connolly Station even though they are already linked by Rail. Such is the Government’s lack of faith in Irish Rail that they bypassed them for the Dublin Light rail and proposed Metro system with the result that a separate Quango has now come up with totally disconnected and grandiose schemes for these. In Ireland they say “It’s an ill horse which blows no wind” and hopefully the collapse of the Celtic Tiger will ultimately result in more realistic Public transport policies and a safer system?


Collapsed Broadmeadow Viaduct

Fair Weather Britain

Britain ground to a halt this morning as the transport systems lack of operational competence and depth was once again cruelly exposed. Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "We are doing everything in our power to ensure services, road, rail and airports are open as quickly as possible, and we are continuing to monitor this throughout the day." No doubt these words will ring as true as his meaningless “British Jobs for British workers” boast. The Highways Agency said the organisation was well prepared to deal with snowfall over roads after criticism over its reaction to severe weather in 2003 but for the long suffering commuters this morning there was no sign that lessons have been learnt and all these organisations which insist on fining commuters in cash if they don’t have the correct fare were not offering them cash refunds for this transport disaster.

LONDON was overwhelmed by six inches of snow today with the threat of at least as much again to come in the next 24 hours. Forecasters warned that the big freeze could last until the weekend. Every bus was withdrawn from service for the first time in living memory because of fears for passenger safety - not even the Blitz stopped the capital's buses running.


Snow in Chiswick

All but two Tube lines were either totally or partially suspended. Many mainline trains in and out of the capital were cancelled with Southeastern and Southern services completely shut. Roads were either impassable or treacherous after the heaviest London snowfall in 18 years.

Dozens of motorists on the M25 gave up trying to drive in treacherous conditions and stayed in their cars on the hard shoulder. The AA warned motorists they risked hypothermia if their cars broke down. Both runways at Heathrow airport were closed and passengers were advised to check with their airline before leaving for the airport.


Snow White City

A spokesman for the worst World Class airport operator BAA (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/up-up-and-away-with-baa-no-2.html)said while Gatwick was open, there were significant delays and cancellations. Stansted, London City and Luton airports were shut. Hundreds of thousands of commuters were forced to stay at home, hitting businesses already suffering from the credit crunch. Most schools were shut.

Network Rail said it had been unable to cope with the sheer volume of snow. An NR spokesman said: "We knew the snow was coming. We had teams of track workers at key junctions. We had people out all night clearing the tracks but the snow was so heavy that once the tracks had been cleared the conductor rails were covered with snow and ice again."


Epsom Downs Station

Many of London's best known sights were blanketed, affording spectacular views of Parliament and other landmarks. Up to six inches of snow fell in London overnight with the same again expected over the next 24 hours. The snow, brought in on winds from Siberia, is the heaviest since 1991 when six inches fell in London and 20 inches in Yorkshire.

While the whole of the UK was affected, London and the South-East bore the brunt. The standstill angered workers who asked why London was unable to cope with conditions that had been predicted several days ago. "London looks beautiful but I'm really angry the transport system has collapsed," said Michael Topper, 24, as he walked from his home in Kensington to offices in Soho. "They've known about the snow since yesterday. The later I get into work the more money we will lose and it's a really worrying time."

Transport for London announced on its website that all London buses, which carry five million passengers a day, had been "withdrawn from service due to adverse weather and dangerous road conditions". The Highways Agency said 500 Lorries had worked through the night spreading grit. A spokesman said: "Our real problem is HGVs which skid, jack-knife and block the roads which mean our gritting Lorries can't get through." The National Rail Enquiries phone line crashed at 7.30am - normally the height of the rush-hour - because so many people were trying to get through.
David Brown of Transport for London said the situation was "exceptional". He added: "We haven't had a circumstance like this for over two decades. We were prepared in the sense that all our cold weather plans on the underground were put into place. But I think that actually the volume of the snow falling during the middle of the night was very difficult for us."


Barons Court Tube Station

At midday the Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced the £8.00 Central London Congestion charge was being suspended for the day – an empty gesture for the empty streets. ( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/london-congestion-charge.html) Disruption caused by the heavy snowfall could cost UK businesses about £1bn, business groups have estimated. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said that 20% of the UK's working population, or 6.4 million

Trading on the London Stock Exchange was thinner than normal. Stephen Alambritis from the FSB said its estimate of £1.2bn was a cautious one and the actual cost was likely to be higher. "There is also the knock-on effect of passing trade going down as people won't be buying their sandwiches for lunch or picking up a coffee or newspaper," he said.


Alfresco at Canary Wharf

Questions have been asked about whether authorities were sufficiently prepared for the snowfall, given that it was widely forecast. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, admitted that the capital was not equipped to deal with such an unusually heavy snow fall. "This is the kind of snow we haven't seen in London in decades. We don't have the snow-ploughs that we would otherwise need to be sure of getting the roads free," he said. But Mr Johnson said it did not necessarily make sense to make a major investment in snow-ploughs if they were only used once every two decades.

This may be so but taking today’s almost total wipe out of transport systems serious questions need to be asked about how the lack of resilience is hitting the economic viability of Britain and how London can claim to be a World Class City if it and its economy grinds to a halt under six inches of strange fluffy stuff? Has the limits of outsourced Britain been ( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/10/outsourcing-or-ouch-sourcing.html ) discovered as the superficial consequences of the outsourcing, franchising and the tendency to concentrate on short term solutions at the expense of longer term and more robust responses to problems? Is this a country powered by an economy and transport system which only works in fair weather? Is this Fair Weather Britain?

Marrakech the Red City - On a Budget.

The city of Marrakech is one of those places on earth which lives up to the hype. It is an amazing medieval city contained within 12 kms of walls or "ramparts" surrounded by a Francophile "Ville Nouvelle", surrounded by palm groves and overlooked by the High Atlas and with an amazing culture and vitality. Traditionally there has been nothing between the backpacker's holiday and the expensive up market experience as exemplified by the famous Mamounia Hotel where Churchill stayed and luxurious Riads (Garden Houses) in the Medina. However the onset of budget flights from the UK and internet hotel booking allows you to put together your own package. I did including flights, transfers and hotel for £80 a head for 3 nights / 4 days and in the process probably saw more of the real Marrakech than people on expensive packages. Let me tell you how.

I went down to Marrakech from London for the first time in December 2006 spurred on by Ryanair opening up from London Luton and being able to obtain a round trip for £37 including taxes - Since Gordon Brown introduced revised APD from the 1st February this tax has jumped to £40 from the UK alone as Morocco is outside the EU and long-haul so it is taxed at the rate as a ticket to Australia - how fair is that? I booked a budget Ibis Hotel because you know what you get and the price of 440 Dirham per room meant that 3 nights / 4 days equated to 80 travel, board and transfers per person - a bargain compared to advertised packages particularly as I saw the same Marrakech they charge £300 / £450 for!

Koutabia Mosque

The taxi rank at Al Menara Airport is an exercise in chaos and here, as everywhere else, prices are negotiable. The petit taxis are Peugeot 205 type cars and don't impress and the Grand Taxis are Mercedes 200's and more practical. They'll ask 100 dirham for the 2.5 mile trip to the hotel but expect to pay 70 in and 50 Dirham (the official fare) back.

The route from the airport is through a scruffy Quartier Industriele but the hotel is a pleasant relief. Whilst 2 star, it is an attractive hotel with secluded gardens and a good pool. The railway station doesn't intrude as it has about 8 services a day and means there are taxis and shops beside the hotel.

The public areas are decorated in traditional Moroccan style and the rooms are good sized and clean. The only real negative was the bar - both times we used it we had "problems" with either short change or being kept waiting over an hour for change. We stopped using it as we didn't feel comfortable - friends who have been there since reported exactly the same experience so there appears to be a little operation there requiring management attention. Breakfast was good in the pleasant restaurant but when we used it in the evening it was good value and competent but the food was dull (an achievement with a Moroccan brochette!) - still it was a safe bet and well priced.

Ibis Hotel
Information at the hotel was in short supply with no leaflet stand. We arranged excellent tours to the Atlas Mountains and of the Medina and while the receptionist was very helpful and gave good advice but there was no price list or receipt and you got the impression that this was a direct transaction between the receptionist and the company. We had a minibus for two of us with a driver and guide and this would be the same price (and really good value) if shared between a few guests.

The Hotel was a gentle 15 minute stroll through the Ville Nouvelle to the Medina and the Gueliz had a very continental atmosphere with good cafes and hassle free shopping in the "Prix Fixe" shops - a lot easier than the hustle and hype of shopping in the souks. Despite any niggles this is a really good value and comfortable base for a Marrakech trip. There is a newer Ibis now open in the Palmeriae but this one has the advantage of being in walking distance of the Medina and the facilities of the New Town and closer to the airport.

Marrakech or Marakesh known as the "Red City or Al Hamra," is a city in southwestern Morocco in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains and the name Morocco itself derives from Murrakush. Marrakech has the largest traditional market (souk) in Morocco and also has the busiest square in the entire continent of Africa, called Djemaa el Fna. The square bustles with acrobats, story-tellers, water sellers, dancers and musicians by day; and food stalls by night, becoming a huge open-air restaurant.

Marrakech Street Scene

Like many North African and Middle Eastern cities, Marrakech comprised both an old fortified city (the medina) and an adjacent modern city (called Gueliz). It is served by Menara International Airport (RAK is the code for the city) and a rail link to Casablanca and the north. You can obtain a guide through the hotel desk but the cheaper way to do it is through the tourist office in Place 16 Novembre for around 150/200 dirham. Our guide was called Feta,(call me Feta, same as the cheese!) who was very knowledgeable about the area, history and culture and a really interesting personality. I would certainly recommend a guide the first time you go through the Souks and to give you the background to the city and culture

Ben Youseff Mederesa

The souks are hugely confusing to the uninitiated and I'd recommend starting at the Ben Youssef Mederessa and work your way down to the great open air theater which is the square called Djemaa El Fna, literally in Arabic, "The Square of the nobodies". The "nobodies" were the executed prisoners whose heads were displayed on spikes in the square in days (long) gone by. No doubt they would have agreed with the description of themselves! Take a taxi to the Ben Youssef Mederessa or arrange to meet your guide at one of the gates to the Medina you won't find it yourself. The Ali Ben Youssef Mosque and Mederessa are well worth a visit - this is the oldest surviving mosque in Marrakech. Generally mosques in Morocco (Other than the great mosque in Casablanca are not open to non-muslims. You can visit Ben Youssef as it is no longer in use as a mosque). The Mederessa is a place of peace and meditation with stucco decoration as well as zellij. Next door, The Marrakech Museum is housed in a 19th-century palace. Having fallen into neglect it was acquired by arts patron Omar Benjelloun and reopened as a museum in 1997. Items on display include archeological artifacts, ceramics, jewellery, traditional weapons, garments and uniforms, historic documents and calligraphy, as well as contemporary art exhibitions. After enjoying the exhibits visitors can relax in armchairs dotted around the exquisitely tiled inner courtyard.

Djemaa El Fna

Next follow your guide for a spectacle from the Arabian Nights through the Souks or covered markets. Here you sense the atmosphere and vitality of a medieval city. For here everything is made from scratch and in particular I found the metalworker's souk an assault on the senses with torches, burners and furnaces conquering up a vision of the underworld. There were insights into the amazing craftsmanship this city is deservedly famous and the spectacle of a family of 6 in a space no bigger than a desk making nails by hand. In the midst of all this you spy cats oblivious to the surrounding chaos snoozing. We were not very good a bartering, but by the end of the trip the shop keepers said we were like Berbers. Generally in the Souks they ask for about 4 times the "real" price so be prepared to bargain. You should first look at a "prix fixe" shop to get an idea of prices and aim to pay less in the souks. Remember your luggage allowance; it isn't a bargain if you have to pay six pounds / Kg to an airline to get it home! There are 14 main Souks and whilst not obvious to the visitor there is a definite structure.

Souk Marrakech

One word of warning if you are buying leather goods. Traditionally cured leather is tanned in a mixture of camel urine and pigeon droppings (just sniff it and you can tell!) but if you are buying it to use in damper climes it must be leather which has also been silicon treated and this is always more expensive. Feta mentioned that he had previously brought this Irish guy called "Ivy" around and he kept sending him his friends who needed a Marrakech guide and he was coming there in 2007 for a family celebration. When he showed me the number, in his mobile, the penny dropped that it was Edward Guinness, The Earl of Iveagh! Feta is a good Muslim and not a Guinness drinker!

Eventually you'll emerge from the enclosed world of the Souks to the focal point of Marrakech, The Djemaa el-Fna, a vast square in the old town and backdrop for an amazing theatrical spectacle. The drama is most intense at dusk when lanterns blaze on rows of open air food stalls filling the area with mouthwatering aromas. Jugglers, storytellers, snake charmers and even acrobats and clowns vie for the attention of the jostling spectators who listen intently or fall about laughing depending on the act, while Hustlers, merchants and vendors work the crowd. Be aware if you take pictures they'll expect to be paid, 5 dirham is normal.

Mustapha's snails - Djemaa el-Fna

The food stalls are all licensed and you should try the fresh orange juice at 3 dirham a glass. You can get a hearty meal from the many stalls consisting of a spicy lentil & vegetable soup called Harrisa, a main course with rice and vegetables and a pastry for two pounds or less. Or try some of the specialty stalls such as Mustapha's snails which are deservedly popular at only 5 Dirham (38p) a bowl and are definitely fresh as you can see them swimming around in the basins of water underneath awaiting their moment of glory in his steaming cauldron! If you fancy relaxing more there are any number of restaurants around the square where you can sit on a terrace or balcony and enjoy the spectacle whilst enjoying a tagine.


Overlooking the Djemaa is the Koutoubia mosque whose 210 feet high minaret dominates the skyline and at dusk, hearing the sound of the call to prayer echoing across the city can be an incredibly evocative experience. Although the zellij and painted plaster which adorned the outside of the Koutoubia have disappeared the decorative panels remain and are a mind boggling illustration of the possibilities of Islamic design.

Another low cost option is to take a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour which also leaves from opposite the tourist office. Your ticket lasts for 24 hours and allows you to travel on two routes. An outer route which brings you around the Palmeriae (The Palm Grove), of Marrakech and an inner route which brings you around the medina.

On the outer route stop at the Jardins Marjorelles. These iconic gardens were designed by the French painter, Jacques Marjorelles who brought an artists eye to the gardens with his wonderful use of colour. In amongst the cacti, bamboos and bougainvillea is the magnificent blue villa housing Museum of Islamic Art. The gardens and museum were restored and are owned by Yves St. Laurent and his partner who have a house in the grounds.

Jardins Marjorelles

On the medina route alight in the Kasbah district of Marrakech just beside the Mellah, the ancient Jewish Quarter. Off this square through a narrow passage which gives no clue to what is beyond are the Saadian Tombs. This burial ground in Marrakech was created by Sultan Ahmed el Mansour of the Saadi Dynasty in the late 16th century as a cemetery for himself and his successors. In all there are 66 indoor tombs, decorated with intricate mosaics. The central Hall of Twelve Columns, containing the tombs of Ahmed el Mansour and his family, is dark and lavishly ornate with a huge vaulted roof and grey marble from Carrara, Italy. Outside, there are hundreds more tombs among the palm trees in the serene gardens.

Restaurant - Atlas Mountains

Overlooking Marrakech are the Atlas Mountains and a trip up the Ourika Valley with a guide, driver and minibus will cost around 700 dirham if arranged through the hotel. If you can get a small group together this is well worth doing and will give your trio a different dimension. This was how we found ourselves leaving Marrakech and being stuck behind a snow plough with army conscripts clearing the road, there is a ski resort up here at Oukamaiden. The Berber market at Caid Al Oukri was a revelation with forges repairing 30 year old farm machinery, stalls selling second hand plastic bottles and tooth pullers doing a busy trade and not cheating on their customers who felt everything! We stopped at a restaurant which could have come from Shangri La. Indeed with the snow capped peaks and fortified villages called Kasbah the landscape could almost pass for Tibet and indeed the movie "Kundrun" about the Dalai Lama was shot here. For me though the finest meal I had in Morocco was in a Berber village in the Atlas Mountains with no paved roads and a well to draw water. There with our Berber guide Haj we met his niece Fatima who welcomed us into her simple home, showed us her Hamman and laid out a table for us. She brought a kettle of warm water to wash our hands and a snack of flatbreads, butters from both goats and cow milk and olive oil from her village press. There we broke bread and shared and reaffirmed our common humanity in a way that people have done since biblical times.

Caid Al Oukri - Tooth Puller
The Atlas Mountains extend about 2,400 km (1,500 miles) through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, including The Rock of Gibraltar. The highest peak is Jbel Toubkal, with an elevation of 4,167 metres (13,671 ft) about 5 miles and is the second highest mountain in Africa after Kilimanjaro. The second highest mountain is the M'Goun of 4071 meters. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert.

Atlas Peaks

The Marrakech you’ll see is an ancient and revered Islamic city but with a reputation for tolerance. Partly this stems from the mix between Arab and Berber with 70% of the people being Berber, a distinct people with a more welcoming and tolerant tradition who are intermingled with all levels of Moroccan society including the Royal Family. Furthermore it always had a tradition of trade and visitors with a large Jewish quarter called the Mellah. This is the Arabic word for salt as the Jews largely made their living from the lucrative trade in salt and sugar. Whilst there is no longer a significant Jewish population and Jews in Morocco enjoyed mixed fortunes over the centuries. Morocco has never been strongly anti-Semitic and the present King’s grandfather refused to let the French Vichy Government implement the Nazi race laws in French controlled Morocco and didn’t obstruct Jewish emigration to Israel. In the Ville Nouvelle you may feel you were in metropolitan France if it were not for when you sit on a cafe terrace within 5 minutes somebody has offered to polish your shoes, sell you a newspaper and sell you a single cigarette.

The combination of the walled Medina, the Souks, the gardens, the mosques and palaces, the vitality, atmosphere and tolerance makes Marrakech is unique place which is only four hours away from London but otherwise a world away from Europe. If you go on a budget you have a far better opportunity to savour and experience the real city and people. Go soon!

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