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Published: April 6th 2022
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So, as Europe began to reopen again, we decided to head to Spain, with thoughts of doing a portion of the Frances camino, the one across Northern Spain. But somehow I stumbled on a discounted package to Morocco with Intrepid travel. Not usually our style, but it looked like a great way to see a new country. Intrepid prides itself on small group travel, and local interactions. So, we signed up and Patti and Doug decided to join us.
It was a great tour!! There were only 6 other people on our tour, and most of them had done other Intrepid tours. 3 women from the UK, Anita from Australia who had been traveling since Dec, Angie from Columbia, and Iris from Toronto. We were fortunate to have a great Intrepid tour guide.. Mohammed was excellent. Incredibly knowledgeable, aware of all of us, and ensuring we were all ok. Most of the meals were not included with the tour, but he always had recommendations and many time joined us for the meals. Intrepid uses a tip kitty where we all pay an extra $50 each and he used that for all tips, extra tours, upgrading our train class.
It is a great idea, and i am not sure how Mohammed managed to stretch that kitty so far.
We arrived a day early in Casablanca and enjoyed walking the town, taking the tram out to the ocean, and the evening at Rick's cafe for a drink. Our first stop was Rabat, a one hour train ride from Casablanca. Walking thru our first medina (old city), it was a combination of small shops, souvenirs, narrow alleyways, eventually leading to Kabash des Oudaisas. It was amazingly clean and enjoyable.
Then it was a 3 hour train ride to Meknes, and a 45 minute taxi ride to Moulay Idriss. Moulay Idriss is the holiest place in all of Morocco and the second in the Muslim world after Mecca. It is a very small village, pop @ 11,000. We stayed at a lovely guesthouse and had our first tangine meal, which was (in my opinion) the best meal of the trip! And we discovered the delicious combination of cinnamon over fresh oranges. The oranges thru out our trip were amazing, perhaps ruining me for any oranges i will eat in the US!
The next
morning was spent at Volubilis, Roman ruins from 1st century AD, that are being restored. The mosaics were impressive. Back to Mekenes, we toured the medina and finished the morning with a camel burger for lunch. It was a ground meat with some spices. Nice flavor. I think we have already been eating this meat, as it tasted familiar from earlier lunches.
Fez - we liked Fez, not just because of the name, although we did have to take a pic with the Fez hat! We spent 2 days in Fez. It is described as the 'most medieval city in the Arab world and the most ancient of the Morocco's imperial cities'. Not sure if that is true, but it was a fun city and worth the 2 days we spent there! Before we entered the medina, we drove to a pottery factory with some beautiful ceramics. In the medina the alleyways were, at times, very narrow, barely able to squeeze one person through, let alone the occasional donkey. So much to see, spices, dates, copper, silverware, and the beautiful madrassa with the intricate carvings and tiles. And the tannery... 4 years ago we were in Florence
and almost bought gorgeous leather jackets, but did not, telling ourselves we would return. So now in Morocco, these were gorgeous soft jacket and we all succumbed to the most gorgeous jackets!
The next day it was a beautiful bus ride thru green, agricultural hills. Not at all what we expected to see in Morocco! And on to Chefchaouen, the Blue town, pop @ 40,000. This was probably one of the reasons I wanted to visit Morocco. Various times I would see pics of the blue street scenes, and thought they were beautiful. It is truly a very gorgeous photographic blue. Although, our first day of rain, so perhaps not quite as stunning. But we enjoyed our time there.
Continued onto Tangier, about a 3 hour drive. Considering it is a port town and the first entry from Europe, it appeared to be quite cosmopolitan. Ferries were not yet running from Spain, due to covid, so we were told it was quieter than usual. Then an overnight train on the Marrakesh Express, or at least that is what we called it. I love overnight trains so thought it was great fun. Although, as Jo
stated the bathroom was 'grim'...
The Marrakesh medina was crazy, with so much going on - snake charmers, bands, almost carnival atmosphere in the main square, with all the narrow alleys selling just about everything! We did enjoy a tangine cooking class, and ended up buying a tangine and their cookbook, so looking forward to replicating the meal at home.
It was a quick goodbye as most of the group continued on for another 7 days on the Southern portion of Morocco. We flew back to Madrid for 2 days. Patti and Doug returned back to Boston, and Ed and I are travelling down to Seville and visiting more of the Andalusian area.
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Lynn
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If you ever...
If you ever invite me again I will join you! That looks incredible, what an adventure!