Blogs from Morocco, Africa - page 197

Our next stop after Gibraltar was technically North Africa, but still not exactly Morocco: the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Ceuta is a vestigial holdover from the time that Spain claimed all of northern Morocco as a colonial possession (dividing the imperial spoils with the French) but only Ceuta, Melilla and a few insignificant Mediterranean rock outcrops are left. Ceuta and Melilla are close analogues of Gibraltar, foreign enclaves isolated on strategic peninsulas, and their retention by Spain make its perennial demands for the return of Gibraltar ring ironically hollow. Nominally, we chose Ceuta as our next destination because it allowed us to bypass Tangier, whose notorious reputation as a European day-tripper's hellhole put us off (think: African Tijuana), and because we could then start our tour of Morocco by cycling along the Mediterranean coast, eventually turning ... read more

Very strange that you can search such a long time for such a huge palace. I'm sure you understand by now, that it wasn't easy for us to find the entrance of the El Badi Palace... Nowadays, the El Badi Palace (which apparently means "The incomparable") is mostly in ruins. If you go upstairs, you can admire the stork nests from a closer view. The palace itself was built in the 16th century by Ahmed el Mansour. It is said that parts of it were paved in gold. In the central courtyard, you can see four sunken gardens and some pools. The Saadian dynasty ruled Morocco around the 16th century. At the tombs you can find -we haven't counted them, but they say- more than 170 tombs, not only family members of Ahmed el Mansour but ... read more

Finally, we were going to see Marrakesh, which has been for a long time on our to-see-list... We arranged flights and sleeping accommodation in a riad in advance. The expectations were high, not to say very high. After arriving at the Menara airport, we decided to take a "petit taxi". Despite the fact that we urged three taxi-drivers to use the meter, they all refused and proposed a fixed price (which was much higher than the price listed in our travel-guides). We weren't even able to negotiate a lower price with them. So after a little bit hesitating, we decided to go for the proposed price (which was the same for all three of them) and drove to the city centre. On the road, traffic was coming from all sides at all times. It was a ... read more

Cascades d'Ouzoud - Atlas Mountains - Sahara Desert...what a dream! Well day 3 in Morroco, and we get up early to have breakfast on the Jamaa el-Fna, check out of our hotel and make our way to the new city to pick up our rental car. It all went smoothly, we got into the car and drove off east the road to Fez, to get of in the direction of Demnate, we regret not having bought the morrocan lonely planet, but at least we're glad that we took note of what all the people were saying about sites to visist and where they were to decide what wee can achieve or not, naively so, as we were soon to find out. Once in Demnate we were told that there were two different waterfall sites but the ... read more

I suppose it is to be expected that we finally feel like we are getting good at living in Morocco as soon as we are bound to leave. With only seven days left it seems as though we are just mastering some of the basic tasks of daily living. I refer mostly to the fact that I just successfully pulled off a feat of rather impressive qualifications. From the moment of my arrival in my new home in Fes I was immediately in love with my rooftop room—gorgeous views of the medina bowl during the day (black smoke rising from the tanneries) and, from the opposite vantage point, nighttime glimpses of dramatically lit forts and old city walls (standing solemnly on hillsides, as if to serve as reminders of the centuries they have witnessed in this ... read more