Today is our last full day in Essaouira and we have spent it in much the same way as all our previous days, doing nothing!

We have never had a “do nothing” holiday before and it has been quite good fun. We do spend a great deal of time in the main square people watching and are beginning to become mini Dylan Thomas’s in our descriptions, or imagined descriptions, of all the characters. There are the two shoe shine boys who forlornly look at everyones feet, 95% of whom are wearing flip flops or trainers.

Then there is the blind man who sells tissues, the Africans selling shirts and sun glasses and the George Galloway of Morocco (very smart poncho and wide brimmed hat) selling trinkets from a sheet on the pavement. Every half hour a gang of buskers come past, most are not very good and don’t get anything from us but occasionally they are better and get a reward.

Last time we came to Essaouira (in 2007) it was inhabited by British hippies (supposedly Jimmy Hendrix stayed here long ago but this is an urban myth) but now they have either all gone or grown up so most locals are Moroccan and half the tourists are day trippers from Marrakesh or Agadir.