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Published: January 13th 2013
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The best laid plans and all that! Our intention had been to head South from Agadir but we found out that a good friend was about to start working in Rabat and so we took the opportunity to head that way instead. On the way up we decided to take a look at the small town of El Jadida where the underground cisterns were made famous by Orson Welles in his 1952 version of Othello.
Getting there meant a very long day! The alarm went off at 0700 and, after breakfast, we got a taxi out to Agadir's remote bus station. Three and a half hours later our Supratours bus got to Marrakech. We had half an hour before the train to Casablanca left which was just enough time to grab lunch - at McDonalds!! Yes, sometimes the Golden Arches just represent the easy option!! When we got on the train our tickets bore no relation to the configuration of the First Class carriage. There were no compartments and our seats were backwards facing, much to Russ's annoyance. We had specifically chosen forward facing seats. Oh well, at least they were comfortable. After the usual aggravation of people being in
the wrong seats and non-first-class passengers trying to pull a fast one, the conductor had everyone sorted and the journey passed without incident. We had a further hour to kill at Casa Voyageurs station before our connection to El Jadida. A fixed price taxi then took us the the gates of the Portuguese City and we arrived at our lodgings about 10 hours after leaving the hotel in Agadir.
The
Maison d'Hotes de la Cite Portugaise was tucked down a little alleyway a only a couple of minutes walk inside the old city walls. It's in an old house on three floors and we loved it straight away - traditional, cosy and friendly. The terrace on the roof is lovely too, but it's probably better when the evenings are warmer.
Finding a place to eat in the evenings wasn't too difficult. There are several expensive choices, but we opted for a cheap place with fresh fish which was delicious. The Dauphin El Bahia was so good we went there both nights, mostly because we were not prepared to pay the prices in more salubrious restaurants. All that was missing was a beer! We found one place which served beer but inside it was
a sleazy den of iniquity and we decided to give it a miss. Visit the Restaurant Le Tit if you dare!!
During the day there isn't really an awful lot to see. It was really interesting to see the cisterns and the lady on the door even agreed to turn the lights off for us for a short while which made it much more atmospheric. Wandering around the old Portuguese defences was fascinating and the walls are remarkably well preserved with lots of cannons and good look out points. We didn't manage to find the local bakery though, which was a shame as we had seen women wandering around with their dough and smelt it cooking.
At the port we found groups of men playing cards and draughts. There were also nice views of the kasbah and lots of birds around too. Whilst there was nothing too exciting to see, it was just generally a nice place. In the summer there is the beach to enjoy and we sat in a cafe watching the local boys (and one girl) playing football on the sand. We were quite relaxed by the time we had to leave.
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