Advertisement
Entry way
Typical entry to Kasbah, Medina or palace. This is the King's place, and as close to him as we got.Morocco was hectic, eventful, exciting, exotic and thoroughly interesting. It is very pleasant now to lie back in the luxury of the Ronda villa (Los Alamos –with its own branded crockery and hand embroidered towels).
We were simply so busy – up at 6 am and then to bed at 10 or later, that any thought of writing, let alone blogging, simply faded out of the priorities.
These revolved around charging (cameras, phones, laptops), washing sundry dusty/sandy clothes in the handbasin (or bidet) and seeing everything that was on offer.
Insight was way better than we experienced in Europe years ago with Brian and Mary. For a start the tour director, Hassam, was interested in his 40 charges and passionate about his country and its development. He is extraordinarily well educated and where he did not know something, would research it and tell it to us in the morning – complex things; like tax regimes.
Of course we did all the tourist stuff – why wouldn’t we? Yes, I rode a camel, Davie didn’t. We visited many mosques, but unlike Christian churches, unless one is a believer (and I suspect a male) you are barred from entering.
Dear little donkeys
They look so cute, but really , they have a pretty tough life. There were exceptions though, which made the visit that much more interesting.
We saw a palace for a vizer with offices and separate wings for wives and concubines in harems – didn’t see any women there though. The architecture was extraordinary and the detail so intricate and glorious, far less flashy than the rococo stuff we saw earlier in Spain, and incredibly elegant to boot. The courtyards in this palace had lovely gardens with citrus trees with the fruit remaining as decoration – quite a common feature in both Spain and Morocco.
We had a number of traditional meals – some with the expected bellydancing, but usually the entertainment was comprehensive and multi-themed, or not at all. There was a magician in Fez at a restaurant deep in the Medina (past donkeys and through narrow alleys with scary sorta people). A somewhat chubby elderly woman with a tray on her head did slow acrobatics, like touching her toe to her face – with a tray of lit candles on her head.
Most musical entertainment was loud, raucous and quite thrilling. Many of us can ululate with the best of them now (same technique as when
Our bedroom
Very touristy hotel, all adobe and cutsie. playing cowboys and Indians in the late 1950’s).
Food was mainly fine, and occasionally really good. Disappointingly the best meal I had was a lemon, olive and chicken tangine – but it is the same as we make at home! It was yummy. Lots of flatish bread and baguette, salads were dominated by bowls full of beetroot, lettuce, cucumber, grated carrot and olives. Not a lot of real greens were on offer at all.
Meals were often tagines, as expected, with lamb, fish, chicken and I think beef. We had a couple of examples of the fantastic pie made with chicken and vegetables and were offered a great number of very sweet pastries and the like.
Breakfasts always featured lovely fruit. The watermelon was just so sweet and delicious, and now we have cherry everything – although no fresh ones here in Spain so far. There is a sort of flat bread that looks like a large failed crumpet – lovely with their honey which is quite different to ours.
Hotels were pretty European – with all the expected mod cons, working at various levels of efficiency. Showers gave us the odd surprise; beds were invariably
here's looking at you kid..
The interior of Rick's Café in Casablanca single for us, and sometimes hard and sometimes soft. But – hey this is a developing country, and everything was clean and regular.
On the road was tough – many hours, as expected. But we have seen such an amazing country and such wonderful things that the hours on the seat were well worth while. Our Tangier guide (Shariff) told us that we had seen more of Morocco than most locals, even guides!
Was it what we expected? Well driving through the driving snow was a big, and very cold surprise. The tourist tat shop vendor was surprised too as a busload of tourists descended and bought every scarf in the shop without bargaining!
The commentary about what we were looking at and the history/geography/social structure/politics of the country was way better than I could have ever expected.
And yes there was a lot of poverty along with poorly treated donkeys. Hassan was adamant that Morocco is no longer a Third World country, rather it is developing. He was a champion of the king, who, he said, was creating jobs for everyone and working hard to hold onto, but reduce the reliance on, tourism for income.
The one-handed one is me!
Camels were far less intimidating than I thought. So many people told us how important we were and how much they wanted us to spend money.
Davie and I left the group in Casablanca after dinner at Rick's and caught a train to Tangier. This was an adventure - French was a marginal second language for everyone we sought help from. We somehow made the train which left at a different time and different platform than we were told. Our first class couchet was the least luxurious I have ever seen - it was more like a jail cell with four tiny fixed bunks. There were no blankets, and only thin little pillows on the plastic bases. Hmmn. No private loo either. Never mind, we made it to Tangier without major incident.
We caught a petite taxi, which was as hairy as the old train, and popped and jumped up to the top of the hill to our hotel in the Kasbah with views across the Straits of Gibraltar and nice private facilities.
A private tour of the medina and Kasbah was fun and interesting - and we were so brave and ventured out through the markets and hubbub to find our dinner on our
Sahara sand
John and Ali are pulled up to the top of the dune. It was mighty steep and a real effort. Note the sand at their feet! own down at the port. And, we walked back in the dark through the souqs. How brave we are!
Was it worth it? Oh yes, and yes, I would recommend it to others.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0736s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
