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Dash Around Morocco

December 2023
A whistle stop tour around Morocco taking in Marrakesh, Rabat, Fez, Casablanca and back to Marrakesh. Read more
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  • TravelerDash Around Morocco

    Heading South - and Eastwards

    December 2, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ -1 °C

    It the may be pretty right now in North Yorkshire, but leaving the snow behind isn't a hardship..
    Maybe I won't get a chance to see many big landscapes in Morocco, but this first shot might be a kind of backdrop to places I'll be visiting during this trip.Read more

  • TravelerDash Around Morocco
    Day 1

    Marrakech, 3rd December 2023

    December 3, 2023 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    I can already tell that everything's going to be fine with this trip - except the trains and the flights. The rail strikes/overtime bans meant that, even though I allowed extra time for my train from Northallerton to Manchester Airport, trains. were first delayed and then cancelled. I eventually decided to go via Mc Piccadilly, then on the Metro to the airport - arriving fractionally less than 2 hours before my flight at 4pm. Ryanair deserve every lousy review they get. They're awful. Barely hidden charges anyway and charged me an extra £55 for the late check-in.
    However, however, arriving in Marrakech was a breath of fresh air. The main streets are clean, the traffic's bearable (left it up to the hotel driver) and the tiny side streets look interesting/grotty. I like it already.
    My first hotel on the trip is colourful. Just what you'd hope from a Moroccan tourist hotel. Mint tea and biccies on my arrival and a welcoming chat about the additional trips on offer.. The swimming pool in the middle of the atrium is a bit small to dive into though.    Read more

  • TravelerDash Around Morocco
    Day 2

    Marrakech, 4th December 2023

    December 4, 2023 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The hot water took a darned long while to come through the pipes to my room, but my morning shower was very welcome. Breakfast was a wide selection of things on plates and dishes: egg with (I think) cheesy bits, two small breads with fennel seeds, a pancake with shaved nuts, side salad, yoghurt, fruit cocktail and black coffee. It sounds like a lot, but they were all small portions.
    At 10am 'a guide' arrived to take me on an escorted walking tour around a few of the city's must-see sights. After a short while it was obvious the chap was a bit of a wide-boy, needlessly aggressive and not worth sticking with, so I made an excuse and left him to go it alone. (Aaah, much better. Free to wander on my own.)
    It's clear the recent earthquake had a significant impact on the more shaky buildings in the centre of Marrakech. There's rubble and gaping holes in a great many buildings, with a lot around the royal palace area being shored up with wooden scaffolding.
    Some of the people have evidently had a bad time. The souks and alleyways in the centre are obviously very touristy, much of these areas of Marrakech are 'souvenir central'. There's some small commercial activity going on but the centre of Marrakech clearly relies on tourist Euros. Often, the people are friendly and hospitable. Then why were so many of the locals so very aggressive? Even when I wasn't 'taking their photograph' I got shouted at and sworn at using fluent American slang. Aaah, the camera is an instrument of the devil.
    Tomorrow's an early breakfast and a drive to a new location.    Read more

  • TravelerDash Around Morocco
    Day 3

    Rabat, 5th December 2023

    December 5, 2023 in Morocco ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Something old, something new. Rabat has an old town area, surrounded on three sides by a sprawling new town, and on the other by the Atlantic Ocean. The old town is where I'm staying and is much the more interesting part.
    My hotel (riad) for the night is gorgeous. Down an alley in the Medina, but the interior architecture is lovely: stunning Moroccan mosaics and tiles. The women who obviously run it are charming and very helpful. I wish I was staying here longer.
    Off to stroll around the Medina and grab some shots.    Read more

  • TravelerDash Around Morocco
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    Day 4

    Meknes and Fez, 6th December 2023

    December 6, 2023 in Morocco ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Breakfast in the hotel (not quite as large breakfast as the previous hotel, but absolutely okay) then off to meet my driver Mounis for the drive to Fez via Meknes. The landscape was a lot more interesting on this leg - mountains, fields of olive trees and even a break in the clouds later on.
    Meknes was a nice break on the journey. Clearly it was an interesting place architecturally in years gone by. Sadly, the mosaic-covered gates and impressive square that they're so proud of were closed-off for renovations.
    After a bite of lunch in a not-very-salubrious fast food emporium, it was on to Fez. The city's a lot more hilly, butting up against what seem to be the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.
    The hotel is again a 'riad' (a family-run home turned hotel), snuck away down alleyways between shored-up walls and renovations to larger buildings. The riad manager is a bit officious but the place inside is again a gem.
    I spent the afternoon doing more wandering down alleys in the (very old) walled city. Mounis the driver tells me it's the oldest city in the world where motorised traffic is forbidden. Horses, donkeys and carts seem to be the thing they opt for to get things about. The opportunities for photos are plentiful but the people are reluctant subjects.
    (Fortunately?) I get persuaded to sit down at a grubby restaurant and plied with bean soup, bread and mint tea (the only thing on the menu). It's not exactly delicious, but it fills a spot - and it's what my 2 ladies dinner companions are having, and they look okay on it. To be truthful, this evening is feeling a lot more like 'travelling' than mere tourism, which suits me pretty well.
    On the way back to the riad I spot a cafe with some footie on the telly. It's the Spain v Morocco World Cup qualifying match, so I stop for a coffee and a watch. The standard of play is poor - a nil-nil draw with Morocco eventually winning on penalties. On this evidence, England have a fairly good chance of making progress when it comes to penalties ;(    Read more

  • TravelerDash Around Morocco
    Day 5

    Fez, 7th December 2023

    December 7, 2023 in Morocco ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    The staff promised a glorious view from the rooftop terrace, and they weren't telling fibs. The city of Fez looked stunning in the early morning light. A bit of mist, a bit of sunshine; the whole city seems surrounded by mountains on all sides.
    Everything revolves around the old Medina and souks - alleyways mostly under cover where the grubby, messy essentials of life are carried out - and where trinkets are haggled and flogged. Well, I needed a new pair of slippers and a brown leather belt. The tanning workshops and leatherwork crafts are hard to miss. I tried getting my leather shoes re-soled but the chap wanted to stick on a rubber piece! No standards :(
    Blimey, it's easy to get lost here. Gleefully lost, but it doesn't last for long. The map I borrowed from the hotel is pretty much useless, and the locals don't seem to be able to read it any better than me. Walking and a bit more walking begins to make some sense of the place.
    My digital SLR was acting up this aft. I changed the battery and thought the electronics were jiggered (expensive repair), but a change of battery kicked it back into life. (Where's my Leica when I need it?)
    I'm feeling a bit worn out this afternoon. Fez is fascinating but hilly, which = tiring. My old plates of meat are aching almost as much as the poor donkeys that carry just about everything up and down the Medina, bless 'em.    Read more

  • TravelerDash Around Morocco
    Day 6

    Casablanca, 8th December 2023

    December 8, 2023 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Up bright n breazy, breakfast with a familiar theme, and off to meet my driver. We're off on our continuing road trip, today to Casablanca. I've seen the film a few times so let's see if the place is really in black & white.
    I must say, I'm warming to the countryside here: Fields of olive trees, rolling hills that sometimes remind me of a John Ford Western. Even the road surfaces on the autoroutes are good for the most part.
    However... there's always a however. Casablanca hasn't got much to recommend it. Even the driver admitted there's just the mosque and the bit of old town near the hotel that are worth seeing.
    The hotel is a leap into the C21st, if a little too 'corporate business-type stopover'. Sadly there's no pool for me to break out the swimming togs I optimistically packed, and the sauna is 980 dirham a pop. I politely declined.
    That's about Euros 100 in real money.
    What's purported to be the old part of Casablanca is a fairly predictable warren of grubby (in a good, picturesque kind've way?) alleys, but meandering down even the least touristy ones didn't really lead anywhere fascinating. I don't think I'm getting jaded, but maybe I've been spoiled in Fez.
    [The road bridge in the shaky photo is apparently the biggest in the whole of Africa!)
    Confession: not too many photographs today. The camera was a acting up again so I had to revert to the iPhone (sometimes the standard wide-angle lens is a tad extreme).
    The last shot was whilst I was eating a shwarma sandwich inside a North African 'eatery', with cracking afro-beat music playing on the system.
    Only one night here, but it's a good opportunity to rest a while. Tomorrow's a fairly long drive back to Marrakesh.    Read more

  • TravelerDash Around Morocco
    Day 7

    Marrakesh, 9th December 2023

    December 9, 2023 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    After what seemed at first to be a 'hearty' breakfast, it was off with Mounir the driver on our last long leg of this trip - a 3 hour dash from Casablanca back to Marrakesh.
    Shortly into the journey it was clear the breakfast wasn't agreeing with me, so we stopped at a rest area/service station. Mounir got the chaps in the cafe to make up a cup of tea for me with 'herbs from the mountains'. It did the trick!
    Thanks go to Mounir's mum who apparently always recommends it for a dicky tummy. - Always do as your mum tells you :)
    The drive across this patch of desert was similar to the last time. It varies between bits resembling the Nevada desert, to olive plantations, to bare scrub land with little more than a few goats.
    I'm writing this after returning to my last hotel of the trip, after yet another wander through the souks and rubble in Marrakesh. (While looking at a tumbled-down building I asked a shopkeeper opposite if it was from the earthquake. He shook his head. Apparently a lot of Marrakesh is rubble anyway.
    My feet are tired and I think I've peaked.
    Next: food, then shower, then bed.    Read more

  • TravelerDash Around Morocco
    Day 8

    Marrakesh, final day, 10th December 2023

    December 10, 2023 in England ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    This is the last (almost full) day in Marrakesh. There are just a few places I want to revisit to grab some shots before heading back to the riad/hotel for the drive to the airport, and the return flight to rainy, cold, windy Manchester.
    While wandering down by the Royal Palace area without a camera, I'd spotted a few palm tree-lined avenues that looked promising. As a bonus, I noticed a couple of men resting in the shade from the morning sun - just my photo cup of tea.
    When I got back there, the palm trees were still there, but the men had left; probably not gone off to work, but I did get a shot of a workmen checking his phone in the bushes. Otherwise, I restricted my shots to a few grabbed iPhone shots of things other than people, so as not to upset the locals too much.
    Being my last day, and with the Moroccan Dirham being a 'controlled currency', which means I can't exchange/use it outside the country, I cashed in 200 Dirham for the princely 18.30 Euros. What I had left I blew on a tajine for lunch (very overrated).
    Being a sensible chap, I made sure I was back at the riad for the agreed pick-up time of 6:30pm. Well, that was wasted effort. The driver was late, then it was obvious he wasn't coming to drive me to the airport. I was getting slightly panicky and the staff couldn't give me a straight story about when the driver would get there. 45 mins late, a complete stranger led me to a car driven by a chap from the travel company. The original driver has 'clipped' a motorbike and had to wait there to clear things up.
    Marrakesh driving? What can you do?
    We got to the airport in okay time, but it wasn't exactly with hours to spare.
    The flight back was bearable, even if the landing at Manchester was a bit rough in the heavy rain and wind. The muppets on board cheered the pilot, probably not realising that 'George' did all the hard work.
    Then, just as I thought I might be in for a fairly straightforward train ride home, the service was cancelled from York onwards. The staff assured me that my ticket would be valid for another train, but that was cold comfort.
    What an awful return leg this was. I'm holidaying in Bognor next time.    Read more

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