That excitement in the airport that comes with the realisation that we were embarking on a much bigger adventure than our recent European jaunts. I was using a Lonely Planet for the first time in over 20 years. Arriving at night in Marrakech and that first experience of the maze of the Medina trying to find the central square, Djemaa El Fna, following a lad through the dark alleyways, then lost again but finally plunging straight into that immersive carnival of light and sound, monkeys and snakes and incredible smells of food.

Our Riad was a sanctuary – its own inner world based around two open balconies with a roof terrace and beautiful pool below. Tiny songbirds flitted around the the interior spaces. In the narrow passages of the medina mopeds weaved through the crowds, you felt the heat of their exhausts as they skimmed past your ankles.
We walked everywhere, through the midday heat, to the gems of Marrakech: Koutoubia Mosque & Gardens, the Saadian Tombs, the other world of the Kasbah, through the Souqs, and out through Ville Nouvelle to Jardin Majorelle. We had cocktails and beer at the French colonial era Grand Café de la Poste. And on the last day visited the beguiling Maison de la Photographie.

Watch: Four Days in Seville