Monday, January 15, 2007

Fes






















We arrived in Fes towards the evening, after having visited Meknes. Very impressed with our hotel, a former palace, now a very nice Sofitel.

We saw places that pretty much resembled what we had seen before in Morocco so I will not go into much detail. It was an uneventful, yet pleasant stay.

On Sunday morning we were off to the local airport to catch a plane to Paris ... So long Morocco! Do I recommend the destionation, I was asked .... Yes, I do, but make sure you book good hotels otherwise you may be in for a nasty surprise :-)

Heh ... the holiday is over for a while ... It's back to work for me and back to intense travelling. And that is not that bad ...

Meknes




















We visited Meknes en passant, on our way to Fes. Although I quite liked the place, I was negatively impressed by the lack of toilets at the tourist places. Additionally, as we were travelling by car with our entire luggage and we left the car in a parking lot, I had to take the laptop with me while visiting the town since I wasn’t brave enough to leave it in the car. This is how Meknes became the town which was visited with a rather heavy backpack. Not too comfy
:-(

After having avoided lots of cheeky persistent false guides trying hard to sell their services (one of them told us plainly that ‘he was famous’ – I couldn’t help but laugh in his face), we ended up accepting a more reasonable one and went exploring – first the Medina (of course) and the souks (markets) and, in the afternoon, on our own, the medersa Bou-Inania (religious school) and a museum of Morocco’s traditions.

We were told that, in each Muslim medina, there are five important elements which are always present: the mosque, the well, the Koranic school, bakery and public bath.

We were tricked into visiting a place where various types of carpets were woven (some of them by women, other by men). Impressive but … no, not really. We were not interested in buying carpets and our guide was, of course, disappointed as no commission was coming his way. Of course we had made clear to him from the very beginning that we didn’t intend to buy anything but … well, he tried.

Fes is less than 100 km away so I was very relieved when, sometime in the (late) afternoon, we were back in the car and on our way to Fes, the last town on our list.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Rabat






























And no, I'm afraid it’s not Rabbit :-) …. Was the next city that we visited. And probably the city I liked the most. The kingdom’s political and administrative capital, apparently Rabat, as compared to Casablanca, is a bit as Washington as compared to New York.

Calmer and wiser, a town in which the modern pleasantly combines with the old. And much, much cleaner than Casablanca, thank god! The town was built in 1150 by the Almohade sultan Abd al-Moumin, situated north of the antique Roman city of Sala Colonia (this site is, however, nowadays occupied by the Chellah necropolis).

On the first day we took long walks in the medina which resembles the other ones that we had visited before, and the Kashbah of Qudaia. Lots of false guides were lurking at the gate, as all over Morocco’s tourist places. One of the town’s first Arab constructions, the Kashbah was built in the 12th century on a site that had been occupied since Roman age. We paused to admire the luxurious plants and palm trees in the Jardin Andalou. Here, two cats in heat were living their little love story in public, totally ignoring the human presence all around them. After they closed the garden, we went to Café Maure for a coffee (and a mint tea) and some patisserie. This café was full of both locals (mostly couples that were dating) and some tourists. Very beautiful view of the beach and the ocean. This is where we met Cochi, a cat which fell in love with A the moment she set her eyes on him (Cochi from 'cochilie' which, in Romanian means 'shell' and was inspired by the form of the cat on A's lap). She just approached him while he was seated, occupied his lap and went to sleep carefree, showing total trust in him. She would have never left his lap, had we not been forced to leave the café by the cold. I tried to feed her patisserie, but she was not too impressed. I teased A forever, saying that he should have adopted her as his pet and that we should go back to the café and take her, etc.

On the second day we visited the Chellah Necropolis. The place is beautifully green, with lots of stork nests (where you can actually see the birds, in pairs), lots of cats, antique Roman ruins and tombs. The air is totally fresh and unpolluted, a little paradise.

The last place that is worth mentioning is Mohammed V’s Mausoleum. Tens of colonnades, beautiful construction, incredible view of the city and the port.

Lacking inspiration and other interesting spots, we popped in the archaeology museum but all that really impressed me there were two large, black tomcats. Beautiful specimens, brothers, incredibly huge, like two small panthers. Ah …. Why do I travel all the time! Why can’t I have a pet!