Twenty years ago my wife persuaded me to go on a family holiday to Morocco, namely Essaouira on the Antlantic Coast. This was a great achievement, nicely planned and perfectly excuted since I don't like to leave my comfort zone (at home). Anyway, she knew which button to push. "What would you say if you could stay at the same hotel as Jimi Hendrix did", she said. This master stroke settled the matter. The flight from Stockholm (ARN) to Agadir (AGA) was very long, over 5 hours. The kids were patient and expectant. Almost all passengers went to the nearby hotels. There was supposed to be a transfer waiting for us on the airport to take us to Essaouira (distance 176 km or 110 miles). But, no transfer came. My wife called the travel agency in Sweden. "Sorry about that, take a taxi", they said. We got a taxi, driven by an elderly man in his worn-out Mercedes. The taxi ride went northwards along the Atlantic Coast. After an hour or so the scenery changed. We drove on serpentine roads along mountains, ravines and valleys. The taxi driver seemed very tired and squinted with his eyes. We thought that he would fall asleep any second. About four hours later we arrived at the one of the city gates of Essaouira (no car traffic was allowed in the inner city). A transport trolley took our luggage and we arrived five minutes later at the hotel, Riad Al Madina. We were dead beat, checked in and went directly to bed. In the very same hotel as Jimi Hendrix stayed in.
In the morning we ate breakfast in the hotel yard. It was December and the mornings were cold and crisp. Then the temperature rose and it got warm like a normal Swedish summer day. The hotel was very nice and friendly. To emphasize Hendrix stay at the hotel, a large portrait of him hang on one of the hotel walls (see image). Essaouira is a fortified town with walls and towers. It got its modern design in 1760 adapted to the needs of foreign merchants. Once built, it continued to grow and experienced a golden age and exceptional development, becoming the country's most important commercial port but also its diplomatic capital between the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The Medina of Essaouira was designated by the UNESCO a World Heritage Site in 2001. It was off-season and there were plenty of things to see: blue and white medina, the Souks, the 18th-century ramparts, the port and, last but not least, the beach. We got used to the minaret prayer call, adjusted to new flavours and explored the wind-battered town. I understood why my wife had chosen this destination for family vacation. Essaouira is a quiet little town.
We had planned to make a day trip to Marrakech. I knew beforehand that Marrakech was crowded and intense. We started early. The bus ride was comfortable and took 3 hours, and included a tea break. We arrived and went to legendary Jemaa el-Fnaa, a square and market place in the medina quarter. The commerce hadn't started yet. It was about to change. We went further into the Souks. The tempo ratched up. It soon became crowded. People were selling rugs, pots and pans and souvenirs, offering tea and guiding or just begging. There was a cultural clash. In Sweden, no thank you means no thank you. In Morrocco, a no thank you is the beginning of a yes, thank you. The best advice is to keep on walking. Which we did until we got lost in the maze-like narrow streets. We thought that we could manage on our own with a map. It was a mistake. After no end of bother, we managed to find our way to Madrasa Ben Youssef and Almoravid Qubba. At this point the whole family were totally stressed out. We found refuge in the Majorelle Garden, one-hectare (two-acre) botanical garden and landscape garden. The garden was created by the French Orientalist artist Jacques Majorelle over almost forty years, starting in 1923. We stayed there for a while to regain our strength and energy. Marrakech is a very beautiful place, but too crowded and intense. Then we went to the bus station to go back to Essaouira. 
On more than one occasion we were approached by "guides" who asked: "Do you want to go to Castles Made of Sand". What they meant was an old watchtower (known as the Borj Al Baroud), half buried in the sand and part submerged at high tide, near the village Diabat. You can walk there from the beach in Essaouira. My wife and kids tried a camel ride on the last stretch. It resulted in rash. You might think, from all the fuzz, that Jimi Hendrix was a frequent guest in Morocco. In fact, Jimi Hendrix visited Morocco just once. The trip, which also included time in Casablanca and Marrakech lasted about 11 days. The visit in Essaouira is surrounded by erroneous information and fictitious stories. Repeating something enough doesn't make it factually true, but it does create the illusory truth effect. What do we actually know for a fact? In July 1969, Hendrix flew to Casablanca from Paris. He hired a limousine and asked the driver to take him to Essaouira, where he stayed in Hotel des Iles (and not in my hotel known as "Hotel du Pacha" in 1969). This false claim has been made several times by the management of the hotel, also in numerous travel programs produced for TV over the years. Seems easy to falsify, but hard to kill. Jimi Hendrix dined in "Restaurant du Port/Chez Sam" while in Essaouira. In fact, the restaurant did not exist back in 1969. Allegedly, Jimi Hendrix jammed with many local musicians while in Morocco. In fact, he didn't even bring a guitar with him. Despite this, he was often seen with a guitar placed on his back. And it goes on and on. Allegedly, Hendrix wanted to buy the village of Diabat. In fact, he never even visited Diabat. While local people claim that "Borj Al Baroud" inspired him to write "Castles Made of Sand", the track was released on "Axis: Bold As Love" in 1967, two years before he visited Morrocco. When you scratch the surface the stories and tales fall apart. "Castles made of sand are not made to last" is a telling line from the song.