My intrepid tour of Morocco has 7 people only and out guide, Abdul seems good. For those of you on the Central Asian tour with me, you’ll be interested to know our guide provides us with maps marking things, like sights to see, where to meet and when, our hotel etc. In fact I’m typing this on our train ride to Meknes and he handed us a map for Meknes, some details of what we will do tonight and tomorrow and also a guide with Arabic phrases on it. Very organised. The rest of the group is good, but the only two Aussies on tour come from Canberra and even live within 10 minutes of each other! Everyone seems pretty normal and friendly.
Kasbah gate
So this morning we had a decent departure time of 10:20 am. We boarded a train for the hour trip to Rabat. Abdul had already told us what we could see and do in Rabat and told us where to meet because we were headed to Meknes on the 5:12 pm train. I wandered down past the parliament house to the Kasbah. For some reason the song “Rock the Kasbah” came into my head. For the purpose of research I found the film clip on youtube Rock the Casbah – The Clash. The Kasbah is an old fortified section of Rabat. The walls were built in the 12th century. The streets are full of white and blue buildings with a very Mediterranean feel. The locals were full of scams to try and get money out of me. Apparently the whole Kasbah was closed, even after I’d already entered it. Abdul, had warned us about this, not that most of us needed warning as the scams were obvious.
Kasbah street
I found some of the rest of the tour (I’d kind of lost them but none of us felt we have to follow each other) and we stumbled on the garden in the Kasbah. It was a really nice, serene place with no hassle from locals and a lot of kittens. Yes the kittens made the garden more magical. One of the security guards was feeding them, so I feel they are being looked after.
Kasbah kittens
We then headed along the waterfront up to the Hassan tower, which was under renovation and the. It was quite hot in Rabat, but we seemed to get a nice breeze every now and then, which was appreciated greatly. We met Abdul at his favourite juice bar, where some people tried the avocado shake. I had a raspberry drink, which was nice and refreshing. Nobody finished their avocado shake except for Abdul. The reviews were mixed on how good the avocado shake was.
Mohammed V Mausoleum mounted guards
So now I’m on the train to Meknes where we have dinner waiting and then have an evening of wine tasting. Claire might be jealous, she really wanted to do a Bulgarian wine tasting. Tomorrow we explore Meknes and the roman city of Volubilis, before heading to Fes late in the day.