Rabbiting on about Rabat.

---

Another lovely breakfast at the El Minza. The renovations have seen a beautiful old serving area that was delightfully decorated in that Arabic mosaic style replaced with a fully functional wood and stainless steel serving counter which to us is such a pity. Other renovations are sympathetic and for the better and really their wifi service and bathrooms are terrific but the hotel has lost something and has not lived up to my expectations. Reception staff seem aloof and their first reaction to several of our requests has not been satisfactory. Our taxes bill was 227 dirham which is fine as that is levied by the government but when I handed them 240 dirham there was no change forthcoming. It’s my decision to tip or not so I said I wanted change but they said they had none so it was me that went through my purse and wallet and scrapped all the lose change I had which fortunately came to 7 dirham which forced them to return my 20. Similarly with a hotel transfer that I confirmed the previous day their initial reaction today was to order a taxi. No thanks. They did the right thing but I should not have to ‘remind’ them.

The station in Tangiers is quite a model. Sparkling marble floor to ceiling with facilities that are excellent. Not great information service (no English) but good everywhere else. The train recorded 324 km/hr but the information screen was too far to get a decent photo. The ride is fast and smooth and in fact was surprised the speed achieved what it did. The high speed line does not go all the way into Rabat, stopping as it does at some grand station in some small satellite town, so we changed trains and took a fairly fast train to Rabat Ville.

No train concerns today so we are here in Rabat and very comfortable. It’s one of those small delightful raids that look ordinary from the outside and extraordinary from the inside. We think there are 8 rooms but it is difficult to tell for sure. We were welcomed with mint tea and those wonderful biscuits that I often associate with Greek Easter but it’s obvious that I need to broaden my understanding of these tasty treats. Sitting in the central courtyard with the water fountains trickling, sipping tea and nibbling biscuits should be a compulsory check in procedure (La Minzah take note) as it’s certainly welcoming and relaxing. Rabat is not the same as many or most Moroccan cities, strangely the pace seems a little slower, the streets just a little wider (even in the Médina) and the people just a little less pushy. Even more unusual is the lack of places to eat here. I found some very touristy places on the waterfront (pizza,,spaghetti, omlettes and tajine style) but very little else. Our riad made some suggestions but they seem too expensive so it looks like at least a 1 km walk to the French quarter to hunt down some reasonably priced food. That walk is through the Médina so it will take a while and some places may have opened that weren’t open when I went through before.

Then I walked down to the Tower of Hassan and the Mausoleum of Mohamed V and the Grand Mosque of Rabat. They are obviously 3 of the biggies here in a town that’s not on every tourist’s itinerary. The Mausoleum is really big to Moroccans because they just love the late and present kings and the building that house the actual tomb is very ornate, very beautiful and very impressive. The Tower is equally impressive although in a very different architectural style. It was never finished so super grand plans have resulted in an impressive structure but it’s a tough concept to grasp that it may have been even more impressive if it were completed.

Just returned from a little meal. We paid about $15 for the 2 of us, about one sixth of the price of a few of the big restaurants around here. The food is universally praised (by the hotel here and on electronic media sites) but too much for what we want in price and quantity. Lee had a bean, rice, tomato and coriander soup that was pretty good and I some local sausages that again were pretty good. With salad, bread, a dipping sauce, big water, tea and coffee that‘s a meal for us (particularly as we had some really good nougat and some peanut brittle this afternoon). The cheaper restaurant area is not far away and as the walk is through the souks it’s entertaining. Nothing opens until 7:30 so we are usually their first customers but usually there’s enough English somewhere for us to get the message across without too much confusion. Some places have menus with pictures so the universal language of pointing makes everything OK. I often have an espresso at the end of my meal and tonight the waiter walked off down the street after taking my order only to reappear with my espresso and Lee’s mint tea obviously purchased from a friend down the street. That’s not uncommon here. For supper we have some nuts and a little fruit. Breakfast here is on the sun terrace and if it’s as good as the rest of the facilities here it should be a good way to start the day. It’s not that we’ve had bad pastries anywhere but here the pastries and sweets are better than most places and easy to find so they are certain to play a big role at morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and supper times.

I have a couple of touristy things to check for tomorrow so I’ll add a couple of photos and call it stumps for today.

---