Cheap As Chips (and salad, cheese, rice etc)

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Last night we were too exhausted to set alarm and this Morning when we woke at twenty to one we realised that was a slight oversight. We packed ever so hurriedly and went to find out if we could leave our bags anywhere. The cleaner put them in a room for us and demanded 20dh. We couldn't be bothered with the aggravation so we paid and left to explore.

Azrou is a beautiful little place and just outside of the centre there are some quite big, expensive houses. We were both immediately concerned with eating, so we found a place that made up Sandwiches for us. We had a sandwich each with cheese, salad, rice, potato, etc and then a cone of chips for 14p each. We couldn't believe how cheap it was. We sat and ate the sandwiches looking out over valley and watched the comings and goings of the people in the little towns.

Neither of us had much energy so our usual exploration of a place was limited to a gentle stroll around the main areas. It was a pretty enough town but there was nothing special there. We know that the main attractions lay in the walks around the surrounding countryside but we really didn't have the time or effort.

Sometime in the afternoon Rob decided that it was time for a cake and juice break. All the patisseries were men only domains, so we picked the one with the nicest looking cakes and sat at a table watching over the street. We selected two of the finest cakes on offer and washed them down with two entirely refreshing freshly squeezed orange juices.

Eventually we tired of walking around and so we hopped on a local bus heading for Meknes which took around an hour. We got off at the main bus station and realised that we hadn't quite prepared ourselves for the chaos that is Meknes.

We walked from the station into the medina in search of Hotel Maroc. We did find it and were glad to collapse in our rooms except for that when we went to pay; they tried to charge me more than I was told on the phone. I was more than prepared to over to another hotel as it was a dump, but he showed us to another room and said we could have that one for 120dh.

We consulted Lonely Planet and discovered that all the affordable eateries were in the Ville Nouvea, so we climbed the hill up from our hotel. It wasn't that much of an interesting place and there were a lot of "interesting characters" around which left me feeling slightly uncomfortable. We walked up and down the main high street and found an Italian type place for food. I ordered pasta and Rob had pizza but neither was particularly good. We are both now pretty fed up of Moroccan food. In medinas etc and most restaurants you can have tagine or couscous and sometimes if you're lucky, some grilled sausages etc. In the newer parts of town there are usually plenty of Italians with offers of pizza or spaghetti with cheese sprinkled on top.

Just as we were finishing our meal a group of Americans arrived and so I went and asked if they were staying in a better hotel than our dump. It turned out that they lived in Meknes but they were lovely and one guy even invited us to crash on his couch.

Back at the hotel I felt pretty ill and so dived into bed after making use of one of my Xmas presents. I dozed on and off for a while until Rob joined me. We are now both laying here trying not to feel cold and listening to the torrential rain outside. We are slightly worried as to how well Moroccan medinas survive heavy rain. Night night. Stob.

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Comments

[Brian]

Xmas Presents
only yesterday we were laughing at your unusual xmas presents, sorry to hear you needed them, keep smiling!!!