On to Fes

The call to prayer was our wake-up call on Christmas day.  Down to breakfast for fresh juice (trees are full of  oranges and mandarins and they are so tasty!) Also a pancake type bread with the choice of olive oil, for dipping (also extremely good), olives (you see the trees everywhere), or butter and jam.

The donkey arrived at the door to take our bags down the narrow paths to waiting taxis. We were off to the Unesco world heritage site of Volubules. This site is a perfect example of a roman town which had been destroyed by an earthquake but the ruins were amazing. The site showed remains of huge houses and so much of the mosaics are still there. The morning was beautiful, blue skies and was warming up from 3C!

Anotner taxi ride took us to Meknes where we visited the old walled city. We visited vaulted gra ary stires and saw where 2000 horses were stabled. This too had been partly destroyed by an earthquake and Ididn't feel too comfortable standing under some of the arches!!

We were then taken through the medina. The sights and smells were amazing - spices piled high and the different olives, preserved lemons, dates and other fruits were out done by a  Bulls heads,tongue lolling from it's mouth, sitting on the butcher's bench! We neared some very smoky shops where we had Christmas lunch - a rather delicious camel burger!

The railway station was the next stop and we were praying that we would get a seat without too much difficulty. We wre lucky and end in a compartment with a group of young women who, like all young people, had their music blaring - we could hear a few English words amongst the Arabic.

An hour later we were at our destination and with a bottle shop across from the hotel the group got together for a Christmas drink before heading out to an interesting restaurant. We would never have  found this place without our guide as it was up many little, twisting alleyways. It was in someones home! The interior was beautiful and food delicious.

Day 2
Today started early with an 8am train trip to Rabat,  the capital of Morocco. Plenty of seats and space and an hour after departure we arrived in Rabat. We left our luggage in a local cafe, were handed a map and sent on our way! Others took off quickly and we were following at a distance – checking our map frequently. We came across the Medina  and were soon heading through interesting areas  checking out all of the things on sale. It’s interesting what you can find!
We obviously missed a place as we were wandering the Medina as we totally missed the kasbah but the surrounding  waterways were beautiful.  The sky was so blue and so was the water. The fishing boats were lying in the sun. We finally found our way to  Hassan tower which was Mohammed V Mausoleum.
Our trip back to the cafe was really a lot of guess work and a little use of school girl French but we eventually  made it for lunch before we got another train. This train spelt problem right from the start! I was first in the line for our group and fought my way up to the carriage – it was totally packed. Then spent the next hour standing and when anyone tried to pass i was knocking people in the face with my backpack which was rather embarrassing. It was also very hot and struggling to take off a jacket was a job for houdini!

We finally got a seat and 2 hours later arrived at our destination.  It was then into a taxi for another 45 minutes before reaching the sacred city of  Moulay Idris. It was a long hike up to our accommodation and our bags arrived by donkey. We were then taken on a tour through the place which was natrow streets going all over the place- would be easy to get lost.

The call to prayer rang out as we were watching the sunset - this is the first time weve heard the call since being in Morocco.

No Christmas celebrations here but hope everyone had a good one.

Made it to Morocco

After an uneventful flight caught up with valda in Doha and then it was on to the next flight to Casablanca.. This was a strange flight as we really stood out as western women on a flight mainly consisting of Moroccan men. We were hemmed in onall sides by them! They would hang around the aisles talking loudly with little respect for personal space. When we landed they all jumped up before the plane had stopped which cause shouting from the crew but they didn't care!

A 30 minute drive bought us to our hotel in the centre of Casablanca and after a shower we had a mooch around the local area. Pavement hard to walk on as people were setting out their wares across it.

Managed to sleep through the night with a couple of bouts of reading. Yearning for a cup of tea and some breakfast got us up and organised. We then arranged to have a driver take us to some of the attractions.

We started at the Hassan II mosque which sits jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean.

We then went onto to Rick's bar.

Rick's cafe is based on the film Casablanca and has afew original pieces from the movie. Yes they know it was filmed in California! They hsd somd old promotional materials and the film was playing, it was a pleasant ambiance.

Met up with rest of group - total of 15 women, 1 man plus the male guide.