Category: Meandering in Morocco

As our train pulled into the Marrakesh station I overheard the taller of the two American guys standing in front of me turn to his friend and say, “This will make 22 countries we’ve visited.” “22 countries and all the continents,” his friend added. The man in front of them turned around and said, ”I’ve…

Ali pulled his Toyota Land Cruiser up to the hotel at 8am sharp. We loaded up, strapped in and then his “cousin” called. She’d left her wallet in the car. No way she could be without it for the next 10 days. Who could blame her? We detoured, did a quick handover and THEN we…

Here is our tentative route for today. And just because it looks cool and I forgot to post with yesterday’s entry. The Fes train station. You can see Grubb on the right, sort of.

We took the morning train to Marrakesh out of Fes through the high-rises of Nouvelle Fes, and then rolled by the disadvantaged burbs: unfinished ravaged apartments, weatherbeaten dwellings with paint peeled away in patches, shantytowns behind low concrete walls looking like they have been created out of landfills.  After that, the flat brown landscape parceled into…

Up relatively early, we went downstairs for breakfast to find our young Hassan (the staffer who has attended us for breakfast and dinners), sound asleep on a sofa, all lights off, no one in the office.  Uh oh. We cleared our throats to wake Hassan up. He popped up, sprang into action, and in 15 minutes…

Breakfast, I guess it happens everyday but for someone who doesn’t usually eat this morning meal, I’ve been chowing down. I’ll spare you the details today but here are a couple of photos of our view whilest dining. The Riad manager spent some time with us after breakfast helping to organize our day. We wanted…

Succumb to the maze of the Medina, get a whiff of an unusual spice, rub up against a certain lamp, and it’s possible a spell has been cast and your belief in dreams has been enhanced.  Take my Berber doppelgänger, Ali Baba bin Berzerki Berber.  Bin Berzerki has often dreamt of owning a Picasso.  So today he exits…

Yesterday our driver, Zamir, took us to Volubilis, the site of Roman ruins dating back to the third century BC.  Built on a hill looking out onto what was once probably a much more fertile valley, the settlement appears to have been as large as Pompeii.  It has the stamp of empire with the columns and the…

Monday. Oct 25. All the staff at our Riad are young and super friendly. Hanna, who seems in charge, said they are trying to make this an unforgettable experience. Great so far! I’m lounging on a sofa in this sitting area as I write. Breakfast: traditional Moroccan pancakes, sweetbread, homemade yogurt, cheese omelet. Coffee.  Dinner:…

Sunday, while we were wandering through the shoulder-wide walkways with Hakim, it became clear that calling Fes a walled Medina referred to more than the exterior fourteen-gated rampart surrounding the town.   Inside the Medina, whether we turned left or right, there was always a seamless wall two-to-three stories high on either side of us.  This wall…

Sunday. We started the morning with a Moroccan breakfast  (included with our room). Three kinds of bread. One a flat round made with semolina, one a sweet bread – like a light pound cake, and the final a thin round, looks like a bagel but flatter, almost cracker-like bread. An array of  jams, marmalade, and butter..Fresh squeezed…

As I shuffle into my dotage, I’ve become an aficionado of slippers.  I’m forever in search of the perfect pair, and I’ve always wondered how a curled pointy-toe pair of yellow Ali Baba specials would feel on my feet.  Where better to rub the magic lamp and see if my wish might be granted? Mohammed kept having…

Yesterday, when we got off a full-to-overflowing train from Casablanca (it’s the beginning of a week-long holiday for Moroccan families), we followed the crowd over the tracks into the taxi parking zone where two Moroccans were heatedly screaming at each other.  No blows were exchanged, but at one point they hung fire when one of them,…

On the train, one of the women told us “Casablanca, it is nothing”, with a flick of her wrist as one would do to shoo a fly. “Fes is the real Morocco.”  Keep that in the back of your mind and let’s see what unfolds. I mentioned there were four women in our compartment. All young…

Boy, for a travel day, the adventure expanded exponentially. Is it easy to take a train in Morocco? Sure. Quick taxi to the new Casa Voyeuger station in Casablanca, trains clearly listed on the big airport style display…well, anyway, there was no confusion. We got on the train, shared a first class compartment with 4…