Morocco

 

Our flight to Casablanca from Madrid arrived before we took off due to quirky time zones. We were picked up and taken to our hotel. We had a nice lunch, met some tour members then walked to the beach.

We later had a group meeting and dinner. We had 16 folks on the tour; 13 were female, three were male; all were considerate, friendly, intelligent, prompt, fun and well-travelled. Our guide was Samir. His logistics game was spectacular, everything ran like clockwork. He not only had information to give us about history, but he also enlightened us on Moroccan culture and botany. Hassan was our driver. He made us always feel safe and he kept us on schedule.    

Next morning started with the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, a gorgeous edifice that is the third largest mosque in the world. It is somewhat of an engineering feat as it is partly built over the water.

Next to Rabat, the capital. We went to a mausoleum of Mohammed V and walked through its Medina. We would visit several medinas during the trip. It is basically the old city inside protective walls. This one was founded in the 12^th century.

We finished the day in Fes.

In the morning, we headed first to the local palace of the King. 

After that was the Jewish Medina where Jews in the area lived and worked for centuries.  

Next was the Medina which still holds 100,000 people. We saw dyers, weavers, leather tanners and ceramic artisans.

We went by the oldest multidisciplinary university in the world which has been open without interruption since 859 A.D. It was from here that Christendom was introduced to Arabic numerals (side note- in a recent survey 56% of American respondents were not in favor of teaching Arabic numerals in school).

Teresa and I took a walk after getting back to the hotel to find gelato, which was pretty good. The stand was in a park which we walked through.

We had dinner in a restaurant inside the Medina’s walls.

In the morning, we drove to Meknes and saw its three layers of imposing walls. They were created, as was the first Moroccan standing army, by Moulay Ismail. He also accumulated four years’ worth of food for the people and the 12,000 horses. This stronghold was never attacked. This leader was greatly revered, and we visited his mausoleum.

We journeyed into the country side to the ruins of Volubilis, founded by the Romans in the first century A.D. It appeared that the mosaics had never been cleaned.

Back to the hotel where we convinced Lelia to accompany us on our trip for more gelato.

In the morning, we started our traverse of the Middle Atlas Mountains. They were way more interesting than I had expected.

We stopped at Ifrane which looked like an Alpine village.

The mountains had cedar forests, palm trees at high elevations, aggressive Barbary Apes, and nice towns. We made it to the Ziz valley with its gorges. 

Finally to Erfoud, and our quite luxurious hotel.

In the morning, we first went to an establishment that found 300,000,000-year-old marine fossils then created and sold products made from them. The area is known for its petrified remains of plants and animals.

Next, we went to a good-sized town that was having its twice-weekly market.

We made a stop to see a Bedouin tent. 

We then went to an operation that manufactured and sold rugs.

Next was a concert in a small village of Moroccan music.

Onward to pick up our camels for the hour and 15-minute trip Merzouga Dunes Camp for our overnight stay.  

  

In the morning, we headed to a ksar, which is a fortified village. It had a formidable wall around the city and its architecture promoted coolness on hot days. There was a very good museum there (owned by the same guy whose restaurant provided us with a great lunch).

               

                      Device used in construction of walls.

We then journeyed to Todra Gorge and its spring fed river.

Lastly, we went to Boumalne Dades and to the Xaluca, another wonderful hotel.

The next morning, we travelled to the Dades river, the Dades Valley and the Dades Gorge. We visited a house next to Kasbah Ait Youl. A kasbah is a fortified residence that served as the last line of defense for villages.

Next was a rather long drive to Ouarzazate where Morocco has long provided sites and settings for numerous films, American and otherwise.

In the morning, we visited Ait Ben Haddou where a lot of the film-making took place in the area. Along the way we saw where Moroccan movie productions set up shop. 

We then crossed the Anti-Atlas Mountains to our stop at Taroudant.

The next morning, we visited the medina of Taroudant which is enclosed by 6 km (it seemed like a lot more than that) of walls. We walked the streets and the market.

We headed out of town for lunch in a private home. On the way, we were hoping to see goats in trees. We had to wait for our return drive to see them close up.

That afternoon Teresa got a massage; she was also supposed to get a hamman but her request got lost in translation.

The next day was a travel day. We drove to Agadir where we walked the beach and ate lunch.  

On to Essaouira and our hotel, Atlas Essaouira.

The next morning, we walked along the beach to the fishing port where we saw the catches being unloaded.

Then to the Medina where we explored its walls, after which Samir  took us into woodworking and jewelry cooperatives, and then, after lunch, we explored more on our own before going to the hotel pool.    

The next morning, we headed to Marrakesh. We stopped first at an Argan Oil cooperative for more demonstrations and shopping. A later rest stop included a menagerie.

We got to Marrakesh in time for lunch and ate at a restaurant that provided some scenes for the movie “The Man Who Knew Too Much” with Jimmy Stewart.

We then went to the Majorelle Gardens, further developed by Yves St. Laurent. After that we got a horse-drawn carriage ride back to our hotel.

In the morning, we went back into the Medina, first to the Koutoubia Mosque and then to a palace that was turned into a museum that featured Moroccan art.

We continued with a tour of the Souks, the markets in the narrow streets and alleys. We left the Souks and made our way to a snake charmer.

After lunch we went on our own to two palaces (the Bahia was the one that was worthwhile) and to the Madrasa (merdusa).

We had some trouble finding our way back to the hotel as neither of our phones was functioning. We found ourselves in the middle of the souks and were not able to use the sun to navigate since the sky was blocked while in there. I was almost run over by a motorcycle in the souks that day- 27 times. We did make it back in time though not without some drama.

The next day began with the hike of the High Atlas Mountains. The bus took us to base camp, and we hiked during the morning. Half our group took an alternative route back. The weather was perfect – sunny and cool.

We had a nice late lunch on the outside terrace of a restaurant.

This was our penultimate full day in Morocco, and we spent the late afternoon arranging our packing.

It was back to Casablanca. In the afternoon we took a long walk toward the Hassan II Mosque to see it from the ocean side and then along the coast where youngsters were swimming.