Morocco

Image: Rabat Kasbah

21 September 2023

Post 1 of 4.

Coming in at number 55 on my list of visited countries is Morocco. A proud nation with diverse landscapes, climates and people.

An earthquake hit central Morocco in late August, just 2 weeks before our planned arrival and in areas where we were hoping to be tourists. We did reconsider our travel plans but received advice that our tourist dollar would be of great benefit to the communities impacted by the earthquake, which certainly proved true once we were there.

We on this trip is me and my fantastica amiga Heather – a new resident of Madrid and avid traveller. Heather is wisely celebrating her significant number birthday with an extravaganza of activities in Europe. Our trip to Morocco was the first activity of the said extravaganza.

We flew from Madrid to Tangier with a decent hangover on a drizzly Sunday. Tangier was a lovely introduction to Morocco as its location at the very north of the country with views of Spain, means it is a great mix of Europe and Africa. Locals spoke Arabic, French, Spanish and English. Very clever!

We stayed in a traditional Moroccan riad in the centre of the medina (old town). A riad is a home (or hotel these days) with multiple stories centred around an open-air courtyard with a fountain. It was decorated throughout with beautiful tiles making mosaics of many colours.

We wandered through the medina with its fortified walls, narrow and twisting laneways, and cool doors. Eventually found our way to the well-regarded Café Hafa, a huge open-air cafe with about 8 levels of seating looking out across the Gibraltar Strait, where we enjoyed our first fresh mint tea and chicken tagine and watched the locals do their Sunday arvo thing. (The tagine was really just a roast chicken and chips – good hangover food). The underwhelming tagine and the highs and lows of the cafe service became very familiar throughout our Moroccan stay. It was fine but not great.

I had booked tickets on the fast train (2hrs) to Casablanca a few months before, but we got bumped to the local train (6hrs including a change of train). We stocked up on water and snacks to ensure we were prepared for delays or dramas, and were pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. On the first train our seats were in a booth with 6 locals who kindly shared their DELICIOUS dates and were very polite with their curiosity about us. On the second train our seats allowed for lots of quality people watching. The trains were on time, well organised and mostly clean.

A few friends had suggested that there wasn’t much to do in Casablanca, which I can now confirm. The Hassan II Mosque is absolutely stunning and well worth a visit, but beyond that, there’s nothing too special for the tourist.  

We were in Casablanca because our 12 day tour called “Morocco Uncovered” started there. The tour was always going to test our patience – eating on a timetable, organised shopping, group activities and of course being friendly every day to our fellow tour members. But the ease of navigating Morocco, being guided through the tourist sites and visiting the regional areas was definitely worth the pain of the tour. And to be honest, the group generally got along very well and listened to instructions. We didn’t need to vote anyone off. 

In the first few days we visited the country capital Rabat, the wine capital Meknes, the old capital Fes, the tourist capital Chefchaouen and the ruins of a capital Volubilis. All very capital in their appeal.

Rabat was very clean and ordered given it is the capital.

Our tour guide was a devout Muslim so there was no scope for wine tasting in Meknes, but we were ok with that cause our livers needed a rest. We visited the markets which were full of tasty goodness.

Chefchaouen is the blue city and became so purely as a marketing ploy. And a very good one at that.

Fes was home to the “biggest, best and oldest” of everything – some pictures below. More on Fes and the story of Volubilis in post 3. Off to the Sahara first!