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travel@pangolin.liMorocco 2006 - Diary
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| A few memories of our trip to Morocco, written down
while sipping mint tea... To see more pictures of the locations
mentioned, click on the highlighted links which will take you to my
gallery or related pages. Go to: Morocco main page - accommodation page - Moroccan medersa comparison Go down to: Rabat - Volubilis/Meknès - Fès - Atlas/Tinerhir - Todra/Dadès/Ait Ben Haddou - Marrakech Thu, 6-Apr-2006 Arrival in RabatAfter a Zurich-Casablanca direct flight with Royal Air Maroc (3 hrs), we arrived in Rabat late night, in splendid Hotel Farah (ex Siaha).Fri, 7-Apr-2006 - Rabat sights
After an excellent breakfast with many African women of an African
Women's development congress, we started to tour the city. Hassan Tower
and the Mohamed V Mausoleum were close to the hotel, and surprisingly
uncrowded - and it stayed like this for the rest our our stay in Rabat!
The sheer size of the place around the tower is even more impressive
when you learn that this was planned to be the mosque's interior. The
mausoleum of the king's grandfather, father and uncle is open to
non-Muslims - an impressive building decorated with the modern
interpretation of Moroccan art. Interesting to compare to all the old
buildings and artwork...We then walked to the Grand Mosque (not open) and the Chellah, which is the place of the first settlement. Several of the Chellah ruins are in good shape, but what impressed me most was the size of the area, and, even more, the dense carpet of wild flowers and maintained gardens - thus very well worth a visit, and even the long walk! My brother now started his documentation about the cats of Morocco - whereas most other visitors were more thrilled by the picturesque stork nests draped on dead trees, but also the old minaret... After a lunch (first brochettes, first tajine!) at the Restaurant el Bahia, we strolled through the medina, via the colourful souks (they seem quite "local", not just tourist curios), to the Kasbah des Oudaïas. The whitewashed buildings and the view to Salé are gorgeous, and the garden classic Andalusian style. After a sundowner at the hotel's rooftop pool, we had dinner at the beach, at Restaurant de la Plage. Sat, 8-Apr-2006 - Plage des Nations, Jardins exotiques, Salé
After another gorgeous breakfast we fetched our rental car from Avis -
a brandnew Landcruiser! We decided to explore the surroundings, and
drove Northeast towards Kenitra, to the Plage des Nations beach. The
beach is long but rather dirty, but fringed by dark cliffs overgrown
with colourful plants - which will probably be gone when the high
season comes. There is one ugly hotel and a surf base which were
clearly off season. There were not a lot of people, most of them locals
with kids and a few surfers - the waves and their skills were not that
impressive. After an hour or so, we drove back, to the Jardins
exotiques (Exotic gardens).The Jardins exotiques intend to represent the flora of other exotic regions, like Polynesia, Brazil or a savannah. To my knowledge, as a non-botantist but keen gardener, they are not botanically correct - e.g. the Polynesia section is dominated by arum lilies which I think are African, and there is bamboo all over. And the savannah just didn't exist - or else it was overgrown. This struck me: parts of the gardens are excellently maintained, whereas others seem totally neglected, with lots of local weed flora (which is exotic at least to us). Anyway the place with its high trees and ponds must be a nice spot to spend a lazy summer afternoon. The restaurant was closed, so better bring your own picnic! We then headed back for Salé, the sister town of Rabat on the other banks of the Bou Regreg river. Salé seems more medieval than Rabat, having had its high times as a pirates stronghold when Rabat was only a jumble of decaying ruins before being rebuilt by the French. We entered through Bab Sebta, strolled through the food market and souks, to suddenly find the Medersa (koranic school) Abou el Hassan. It reopened a year ago after thorough renovations, and it was truly impressive - this being the first medersa we visited. Small (and a few years older) compared to the medersas in the royal cities, it is still very finely decorated, and the contrast between the dark cedarwood and the bright white plaster was handsome... We were also allowed a glimpse into the big mosque. Unfortunately, we were in Salé 2 days too early - the famous Sidi Abdallah Ben Hassoun procession would only take place on the eve of Mouloud (the Prophet's birthday, on 11th April this year)! After a stroll through the Rabat Mellah to buy some fruit, and another sundowner at the poolside, we went for a great dinner at the Tajine wa Tanjia Restaurant. back to top Sun, 9-Apr-2006 Rabat-Volubilis-Meknès
This time we had breakfast with an enormous group of Moroccan business
men clad in traditional finery - looked like the wealthier members of a
brotherhood gathering for one of the Mouloud processions. Our hotel
staff was completely overloaded with so many guests, but in the end we
took off towards Volubilis and Meknès.We took the same overland road towards Kenitra as the day before - so this time I could take a picture of the shop-window dummy workshop along the road :-) Kenitra looked like the modern part of Rabat. To get to Sidi Kacem/Volubilis, you drive straight through, and the turnoff will only come a few km North of Kenitra. The landscape looks very green and fertile, though we are, from Switzerland, not used to such big areas of fallow ground, with beautiful fields of milk thistles. But we also came across eucalyptus plantations and vineyards - we would try the local wine later... The most beautiful part of the trip came close to Volubilis, where wild flowers had formed colourful blue carpets in the olive groves. The ruins of the roman city of Volubilis were well worth a visit - again also because of the flowers growing all over the ruins. Contrary to the Rough Guide, the site was not closed at noon (though it might be in summer). We spent 2-3 hrs there climbing through the ruins and finding baths in huge mansions (imagine a flat of 2000 m2), oil presses, public buildings and some beautiful mosaics. I liked the Orpheus and the Venus/Diana mosaic best, but even more the whole scenery with those roman ruins, flowerbeds, the rolling fields and the bright white city of Moulay Idriss across the hill. 
Arriving at Meknès, we first checked into our Hotel Zaki. This
being a bit of a disappointment, we soon fled to see the city. And
Meknès became one of the trip highlights, for me! In the late
afternoon, we visited the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail - for once, the
difference of 230 years between this and the Mausoleum of Mohamed V in
Rabat, in decorative art, was very obvious - contrary to other
places where the islamic arts canon is rather strict...We then took to the souks - of the local, everyday kind - to get to the Bou Inania Medersa. This one is a bit finer in its decorations than the Salé one, but not renovated. We then ended up on Place el Hedim - my highlight in Meknès! The square, surrounded by buildings and walls and lined with brochette joints or orange juice stalls, just started to become an openair theatre to the likes of Djeema el Fna in Marrakech. Only, Place el Hedim felt natural, authentic, local, after which the hassles of its famous counterpart in Marrakech felt strange. We had one or two Thé à la menthe and just enjoyed peoplewatching - like the two old men sitting on the ground with scales in front of them, offering a weighing service. Or the herbalists selling strange concoctions, trying to outdo each other with loud shows. Or just the two ladies in beige and pink robes crossing the place, each with a dummy in matching colours under her arm... Later, we had dinner at Le Collier de la Colombe. Mon, 10-Apr-2006 Meknès-Fès
After an abominable breakfast at the hotel Zaki, we left for another
sightseeing tour of Meknès, focussing on the region around Bab
Mansour and the sultan Moulay Ismail's mansions - or what is left and
accessible of them: Heri es Souani (or Dar el Ma), a huge complex of
granaries and storerooms to strenghten the city in case of a siege. The
high domed vaults and endless rows of roofless chambers afterwards give
the impression of a roman church. Without many other visitors, the
ruins were a bit eerie, but also calm..We then took the overland road to Fès and, after some searching, found our accommodation, wonderful Ryad Mabrouka. After settling in, we undertook a first exploring walk in the souks, of course (but intentionally) getting lost in the maze of little alleyways - why hire a guide which will prevent this fun? Well, we did cheat, by occasionally using the city tourist office's Star signs indicating tourist routes through the city - our ryad was close to Ain Azliten parking which is the start of two routes. The atmosphere in the souks is mesmerizing - so many people do shop here (well, some of the stalls are for tourists, sure), so many good and bad smells, so much colour and noise. It's just not the place to sit down and enjoy, you must be part of the flow to really experience it... We visited Palace M'nebhi (impressive, and a good view from the rooftop - and once more a place to conduct cat studies while having a mint tea), and then let the flow carry us towards the Kairaouine mosque. We had a tea on the rooftop of the Nejjarine Foundouk (a woodwork museum) with views of the mosque and the surrounding roofs and satellite dishes, before joinig the flow again. However, it suddenly stopped at the splendind Zaouia (mausoleum) of Moulay Idriss, to let countless worshippers emerge. We couldn't even get near the door to catch a glimpse until the next day, but also the zellige in the doorways and gates were impressive! The mosque itsself (anyway off limits), as well as the Seffarine and Attarin medersas were closed for restoration. So we just let the flow take us back to the ryad, to enjoy a sundowner on the roof terrace. We had our dinner at the Palais de Fès Dar Tari. back to top Tue, 11-Apr-2006 - Mom's Birthday - Fès
Our first walk after a chilly breakfast in the garden brought us to the
Bou Inania Medersa - along with many others. Well, beautiful as ever,
but just another Medersa to me, difficult to tell from the other two...
We decided to stroll down to the Kairaouine, and to visit a leather
tannery there, but they were all closed because of Mouloud, the
Prophet's birthday. Also many of the other shops where closed, changing
the atmosphere considerably. But JJ found something he had longed for:
a hole-in-the-wall stall selling nothing but beignets (a kind of
fritters) which have a single knotted palm leaf as a handle. Yummy! We
returned to the hotel, and then undertook the Green Walk, the palace
and garden walk signposted by the tourist authority. We first visited
the Dar Ba Mohamed Chergui palace and garden - the palace not much of a
show, but the garden with its star-shaped, and zellige-adorned
flowerbeds was quiet and pleasant. Through narrow lanes opening up to
the odd courtyard or bakery, we found Riad Moqri, which is a school for
traditional artisan apprentices. Due to the holidays the school was
deserted, but a very kind caretaker showed us around this magnificent
riad with a wonderful garden. He turned out to be the gardener, and he
does a very good job there. The garden, with a view over parts of the
medina, is on 3 layers - an andalucian-style tiled court garden, a
level with colourful flowerbeds, and a sunken garden with a
well-manicured lawn and a tiled fountain. Also the building itsself is
impressive - kind of a maze with lots of artwork and also some
workshops where the apprentices refine their skills. After this sight,
we decided to walk on towards Dar Batha and Bab Boujeloud, where we had
lunch in one of the openair restaurants there - constantly being
stalked by a black and a red cat with wonderful turquoise eyes. They
still left some of my brochette to me...After a short stroll through the Boujeloud garden, we returned to our ryad, to discover that the neighbor cat had 4 kittens... It was a hard decision not to take one home! For sunset, we drove to the Merenid tombs, together with many locals - a great spot for sunset, with awesome views over the medina! Then came the birtday dinner, back at Ryad Mabrouka, where Michel and his staff had prepared rabbit with lemon and olives on mezzanine floor - and a surprise birthday cake with music. Well, I had arranged that with Michel beforehand, and I expected it to be one or two guys with a guitar, serenading. I couldn't have been wronger! Suddenly, after the main course, we heard drums beating in the courtyard below us, soon accompanied by the loudest trumpets I've ever heard. The 2 m long, straight trumpets must have been of the kind that tore down Jericho - just one tone, but very very loud. The band was very much fun, and the surprise for mother was perfect! We almost forgot to eat the savoury chocolate cake! Wed, 12-Apr-2006 Fès-Atlas-Tinerhir
This would be our driving day, covering the 450 km/8 hrs route over the
Atlas mountains into the Todra valley, and Tinerhir. We left Fès
in drizzly mist, and this weather stayed with us until the Middle
Atlas, past the french-looking hill resort of Ifrane, into the first
cedar-covered hills of the Middle Atlas. The forests gave soon way to
endless rolling plains without a single tree. We made a 1 km detour to
Aguelmane Sidi Ali, a blue mountain lake deceptively looking like set
on a Swiss mountain pass in May - including some snow fields left from
winter! 20 min later, after the highest point of the 2178m Col du Ziad,
we reached a viewpoint where the first snow-patched summits of the High
Atlas could be seen through the cedar trees and the haze - bad luck the
weather wasn't better. We descended into the valley and followed it
past a few fortified mudbrick hamlets towards Midelt, the Tizi
n'Talrhmeht pass, Rich and the Ziz Gorge. Some landscapes here reminded
me very much of Namibia, though they were lacking the yellow grass and
the steel-blue skies, and had much more human stains like powerlines.We finally dived down into the first palmeraie of the Todra valley at Goulmima, and reached Tinerhir and our Hotel Kasbah Tomboctou after exactly 8 hrs. JJ and myself went for a thé a la menthe and a "Moroccan Pizza" at the souk, and then went to a nearby hillside to enjoy the sunset over the valley, turning all the mudbrick colours into a balmy red. The rest of the family had in the meantime visited the Mellah, and finally a workshop "where the women work" - we had had so many offers to see women at work that we suspected that the men don't work at all in Morocco. We had dinner in the Kasbah Tomboctou. back to top Thu, 13-Apr-2006 Todra Gorge, Dadès Gorge, Ait Ben Haddou
First thing in the morning we visited the Todra Gorge. After a
beautiful palmeraie (palmery) with the occasional mud-brick kasbah and
village glued to the hillside, the gorge comes as a surprise. It is
narrow with sheer brown-red walls - dotted with the occasional
freeclimber. The Todra river - or creek? - flows through the gorge,
it's hard to imagine that a creek like this has formed these walls.
However, also a road leads through the gorge, there is a hotel in the
middle of the gorge, and several curio stalls. Seems to be a major
tourist sight - again a bit of a contrast to the last gorge I've been to
in Namibia...We then left for Boumalne - a small town with not much to see - and decided to pay a visit to the Dadès gorge, because of the beautiful kasbahs and the "weirdly shaped erosions" mentionned in my Rough Guide. And weirdly shaped they were indeed, a stunning backdrop for two fine kasbahs, the Dadès river with women doing their laundry, and fields and orchards where poppy flowers bright red on green. Beautiful! We had lunch in one of the roadside restaurants too small to accommodate tour groups, just opposite the kasbahs, just above a bridge where women carried their laundry to then spread it over shrubs to dry. It took the chef a while to fire up his gear, so we only left late for the 200 or so kilometers to Ait Benhaddou. Therefore we only made a stop in Skoura, to first find and then visit the Amerhidl Kasbah. The path to the Kasbah would be easy to find, if you know where to look (drive from Skoura town towards Ouarzazate, after a few 100 m you'll see the Kasbah Ben Moro Hotel appearing to the right. The path to Amerhidl, which is the big kasbah you can also see, leaves ca. 500 m before Ben Moro, to the right). However, a bit short on time we accepted services of a young man who squeezed into our Landcruiser and showed us around - he did indeed know a few things about the kasbah. Amerhidl is privately owned and thus well restored, and with its several towers with fine decorations really a postcard kasbah. We could visit several rooms, the garden, the rooftop, the kitchen and a court where traditional tools had been laid out. A fee towards the conservation was expected. We arrived at Ait Benhaddou and our hotel Dar Mouna just in time to see the sunset lighting up the ksour of Ait Benhaddou. It looked lovely, especially when seen from the Dar Mouna terrace with a cold Special Flag beer in hand... This UNESCO heritage site and filming site for an endless number of desert or historical movies looks as if built by a giant kid with giant toy building bricks. A wonderfully scenic sight to behold - from afar... Fri, 14-Apr-2006 Ait Ben Haddou - Marrakech After breakfast we set out to explore the interior of the Ait Ben
Haddou ksar. We hopped across the river dividing the historic site from
the hotels, and marched across the sand to what looked like the main
entrance. We hadn't yet entered the compound when three people arrived
with handmade "fee certificates" to get some obscure restoration fee
out of us. With UNESCO paying the restoration of the buildings, this
"fee" will probably rather go in the restoration of the man's teeth...
The pestering continued, with curio shops lining the paths through the
ksar. Only two women were really friendly and had a short chat with us
without begging for fees. They also inhabited one of the houses that
did look restored - because from close up, Ait Benhaddou is far from
splendid - its facade a true movie backdrop also in this sense! We
climbed to the top, where the ruin of an agadir (granary) presides over
the landscape.After leaving the ksar, we followed the road towards Marrakech, again over the High Atlas and the Tizi n'Tichka pass. We first passed a beautiful green valley looking like the Nile valley, and then the road ascended slowly but surely, through terraced fields and lined with stalls or men selling semiprecious stones. With the weather being misty, we didn't see much of the mountains, unfortunately. We stopped for lunch in one of the restaurants on top of the pass - not so special fare, but the views must be great with clear weather. The road down towards Marrakech was then a completely different thing: many hairpin curves, steep descents and ridges. Again a reminder of our home country... We arrived in Marrakech in the afternoon and set out to find our Riad el Zohar there. Having booked it via the neighboring Riad Orangeraie, I had agreed with the latter that they would bring us to Riad el Zohar, as this was hard to find. In the road description it was noted that the Rue el Yamani, the road to l'Orangeraie, was broad and paved and accessible by car, so we drove in. Our guide then walked us to the start of the souks, we parked our car, wandered through a maze of narrow lanes and ended up in a beautiful little riad. 
The problem now was only to bring our car back to the rental agency. My
brother drove, and I read the map. It seemed easy: just follow the route
back to the main road. Which was made impossible by a one-way sign... A
local told us to turn and head towards "la place". So, with our big
broad shiny new Landcruiser, we had to enter the souks. Imagine carpets
and baskets just brushing the sides of the car, and the odd shopowner
pulling back his feet, or rearranging his goods. So we ended up driving
down Rue Mouassin, sharp right at FNAC Bérbère to Place
de Bab Ftouh to Djeema el Fna, "the place" in Marrakech. Orange juice
stalls to our left, flower sellers to the right, the calèches
ahead - and a grumpy policeman who was obviously used to such stupid
tourists! Anyway, our car and us escaped unscathed.JJ and myself later retraced our path on foot, an enjoyed the souk. Marrakech's souk comes as an easy path after Fès, much easier organized, but also more tourist-oriented. As the whole city. If I'd go again, I'd start at Marrakech, so that the tourist hordes will become less during the trip. Also Djeema el Fna was a bit of a disappointment. We had imagined it like the more spectacular version of the Place el Hedim in Meknès which we had very much liked. But here in Marrakech, the atmosphere was much less relaxed, with much more hassle and much more posing for tourist pictures. Imagine being charged for a taking a picture of the mosque because someone happens to be in the foreground... Or just compare the price of mint tea: 1 Dirham in one of the foodstalls, and 12 dirham in the tourist traps overlooking the place! The fascinating thing, however, happens at dusk. A previously empty space is suddenly populated with foodstalls on wheels, brightly illuminated with endless ropes of naked light bulbs, with tables and benches around it and pots of soup steaming or barbeques sizzling. The air starts to smell of fish and coriander and brochettes, of snails and spicy sausages, and heavily spiced tea. This is where we had dinner. back to top Sat, 15-Apr-2006 Marrakech
On our last full day, we again split up: more sightseeing for the
culture buffs in the family, whereas JJ and myself had a lazy day.
First a bit of wandering around the souks - we did get lost after a
while, but by chance again discovered a beignet stall somewhere behind
the food market - lucky us! Well we did end up in the Ben Yussuf
Medersa, after all! Again a medersa, but this one was different in the
respect that is was really huge, with several side courts, a beautiful
prayer hall, and an intersting range of room qualities. Check out my medersa comparison page!Back in the riad, we met the rest of the family ready to get a shisha (waterpipe). JJ tried, I chickened out. Of course I wanted to stay clear-minded to enjoy the Majorelle garden in the afternoon. Yves Saint Laurent does have a beautiful garden indeed, and many gardeners. But I really would mind the serpent of tour groups meandering through my garden busy with taking pictures of the garden without other tourists spoiling the picture... The famous blue colour is grand, and there is clearly a concept to this garden (focus on succulents, bamboo, tree ferns and several formal ponds) - but in a way I was most fascinated by the cat meowing for her young from the top of a majorelle blue block. Sorry, I'm a cat addict, probably even more than a flower addict! From the Majorelle Garden, we took a taxi to another of the absolutely-must-see sights: The Saadian tombs. We just saw the ordinary tombs, because we didn't bother to queue for 20 min to get a 5-second glimpse of the highlight tombs. Luckily, my stepfather had taken a pic in his 5 seconds... The evening was again spent in the foodstalls on Djeema el Fna. Sun, 16-Apr-2006 Marrakech - ZurichOur plane to Casablanca and Zurich left at 13:00, so we didn't do much on our last half day, except for a last stroll through the souks, to buy some dried mint. And Thé à la menthe is what I drink now while writing this diary...back to top Go to:
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