Morocco and Tunisia (1/2)
This post is part 1 of the "ma-tn-2024" series:
I spent nearly 3 weeks exploring Morocco and Tunisia. This was supposed to be a trip to Algeria (instead of Morocco), but that fell apart when the tour group lacked the minimum number of participants. This makes the second time that I failed to get to Algeria. That said, it was a good trip overall, and things went fairly smoothly. What follows is the time spent in Morocco, see the second part for Tunisia.
Day 1
The gate was the usual assortment of chaos. They boarded the kids & wheelchairs on time, then nothing for nearly 20 minutes. I managed to get a seat with no one beside me. The wacko in front of me apparently used miles to upgrade from economy thinking he was getting a bed in biz class. He kept paging the crew asking "how do I get my bed?", and would not believe that he basically wasted miles on an upgrade that had no bed.
the flight to Paris itself was fine. food choices were very weird. it was some vegetarian thing with zuchini or veal in some cream sauce. obviously, i had the veal. we landed on time, but spent 20 minutes taxiing, then walking across 2 terminals. e-gate immigration actually worked, but then another long walk to the trains. it was basically an hour from when i stepped off the plane until my RER B train into Paris departed.
the train was packed. like zero empty seats, plus rude people coughing & sneezing everywhere. i got to dylan's place at noon. we went to a bistro for lunch, and i had duck confit with potatoes. it was yummy. after that we wandered around for the rest of the afternoon. we passed notre dame, and a bunch of other stuff. it was nice. he had a work meeting at 5pm, so we returned for that.
dinner at Verjus was really nice. it was a prefix menu, and i got the wine paring. there was an apple cider with dessert that was really good too.
Day 2
I spent the night on Dylan's fold out couch. it was fine for 1 night. i slept until my alarm at 7:40am, got a shower, packed up, said good bye, and headed back to CDG at 8:25am. it rained overnight and the street was wet. the train was packed, and I had to stand for nearly the entire 40 minute trip.
I think must have walked the length of the entire airport. first I needed terminal 2F to get my boarding pass (because once again AF refused to let me get it online or even the terminal machine). then i had to walk to 2E to clear immigration, which had huge lines. thankfully the e-gate line was shorter, but people were struggling to scan their passports. then I had to walk to hall L, and finally to my gate 29 which was most of the way down. I got some food to eat, and waited for my 12:30pm flight at 10:15am.
boarding started on time. the small plane was 100% full. no seat power for the 3 hour flight. I landed at 15:40. the terminal looked sorta old, but not ancient. the immigration line was very long and very slow. i had no issues using an ATM. However finding the car rental counters was a huge ordeal. there were signs that kept directing me in circles. I tried asking at information, but they claimed that there were no rental cars at the airport, which i was confident was not true. eventually I exited the terminal, and started walking. after a minute, I saw all the rental companies in a line, just past the airport entrance gate.
picking up the rental car went smoothly. they gave me a Fiat 500, which is this super tiny clown car with a very bizarre layout on the dash. plus it has no actual gear shift. its either in drive or reverse and that's it. i literally set the park brake to keep it from rolling away when the engine is off.
the weather is nice. low 70s and clear skies.
the drive to Rabat was fine overall. much of it was a real freeway, but there were tons of toll gates, and police checkpoints (where they blocked all lanes except 1). the max speed limit was 120kph, which was nice when it lasted. they gave me the car with under a half tank, so I ended up stopping for gas about half way. thankfully they took cards, so i will hopefully not need to carry tons of cash for gas all the time.
not much scenery during the drive though. mosques do look different here. all hard angled and lines, nothing rounded. even the minaret is a huge rectangle piercing the sky.
finding the hotel was a bit of a pain because google was ignorant of all the one way streets. i had to circle the block 3 times before I got on the correct end of the narrow streets. it was nearly 7pm before i parked the car and got my room.
dinner was decent but not amazing. my first choice was closed. 2nd choice had a line out the door. third choice (Liberation Restaurant) worked. i got this tangine thing with a tomato sauce base, bright yellow olives, small meatballs, and chopped carrots, with flat bread. it was good.
Day 3
i slept fairly well and was awake at 6am. breakfast didn't start until 8:15 though. breakfast was ok, but not amazing. crepes, preserves, hard boiled eggs, bread, olives, dates, fruit.
i headed out for the day at 9am. it was mostly cloudy the entire day. I did a large walking loop of the older part of Rabat. First was the first, old cemetery, on a hillside near the ocean. It was impressive, with tightly packed, raised gravesites. The only crappy part was that lots of sub-Saharan migrants were using it as a campground. I made the mistake of saying bonjour to two of them, which they decided meant, let's follow this white guy around and he will give us money. Eventually they gave up, but it was weird and creepy for a few minutes.
After the cemetery I followed the coast north towards the original old kasbah (no rocking was to be had) & fortress. I also passed a huge lighthouse. The kasbah was fun to explore, with narrow, twisty passages, plus lots of cats! There was one cat that decided that napping on the edge of the wall above the sea was a great idea.
Next I walked a bit further east and headed into the medina. Normally it would be packed with hordes of tourists and obnoxious hawkers. But I guess since it was barely 10am on a thursday in February, it was nearly dead. Some shops were just opening. The highlight was lots and lots more cats. I finished up just before 11am, and headed back to the hotel to get the car.
Thr drive north to Tangier was fairly relaxed. Not much traffic, and the freeway didn't have much roadwork either. Still lots of tolls though. The Moroccans sure do love tolls on freeways. I even had to take a ticket to pay later. I stopped at a freeway rest area for lunch, as there was basically no where else without a long detour from the freeway. It was very basic food, but fine. The scenery was mostly farm land, and I even crossed a bridge over a real river at one point.
Once on the outskirts of Tangier, I stopped for gas and an ATM, and pulled into the hotel at 3pm. Once again google screwed up navigation, wanting me to drive up a staircase. I went around the block and parking was fine.
Since it was relatively early, I headed out to see some of the city. First I went to the American Legation Museum. Apparently Morocco was the first country to formally recognize the US, back in 1777. As a result, the first American embassy was in Morocco, in Tangier. That one was destroyed by French bombing a few years later. But was rebuilt, and the new building was the embassy through the 20th century. Then it became a Peace Corp facility, and in 1976, the museum. Its also the only US national landmark not on US soil. It was fairly interesting and a good way to spend an hour.
After that, I wandered around the souk for a while, passing the grand mosque. Then I got to an overlook for the Strait of Gibraltar and actually saw Spain way off across the water. Plus lots of cats everywhere.
dinner was a traditional moroccan restaurant called Kebdani. i got a soup with harissa & chickpeas, and a tangine with lamb, orange, almonds, apricots, dates and figs. also there was a complimentary mezze platter with pickled beets, marinated olives, toum, and a harissa pepper sauce with flat bread. all of it was very very good. the place is tiny (8 tables) and was full before i left. it started raining on the walk back to the hotel, and apparently its supposed to rain all day tomorrow too.
Day 4
I slept until my alarm at 7:30am. I showered and had breakfast at 8am. It was fine, pretty similar to yesterday, maybe slightly nicer.
The weather is crappy. Lots of wind, and light rain. I borrowed a hotel umbrella and headed out anyway. First stop was the tomb of Ibn Batuta, the 14th century Moroccan traveler. He made it as far east as China, and down to Tanzania, and wrote a book about all of it. The tomb was sandwiched in the medina's tiny twisty alleys, with a small plaque.
Next I hiked up a steep street lined with mandarin trees (that the wind was blowing so hard that the ripe fruit was falling and rolling down hill), to the kasbah. Another huge, old fort & walled town. It would have been much more enjoyable to explore if it wasn't for the weather. Still it was fun, and I got more views over the strait of Gibraltar. Due to the early hour, not a ton of other people out yet, and no obvious tourists. After an hour, I decided it was enough wind & rain, and headed back to the hotel.
I departed at 11:30am. The rain was constant, with a lot of wind. The roads were ok for a while, but no more freeways (or tolls), just 4 lanes. I lost cell signal as I climbed into the mountains. Then the road got very crappy (but cell signal returned), with stretches of gravel or uneven, large potholes. They seemed to be working on a project to widen & improve the road, but it was far from finished. I got to the hotel at 3pm.
Since the weather was still miserable and i never stopped for lunch, i drove to dinner at 6pm. I ended up going to a pizza place, Chez Aziz. i got an avocado shake and mushroom pizza. the shake was good, the pizza was not horrible but far from good. but for $5.50 total, i guess it was worth it.
Day 5
i slept ok until 6:30am, when all the rooms around me started making noise. Loud talking, blow dryers, slamming doors. Then the call to prayer. I napped until just after 8 when I gave up. It wasn't raining but still dreary. When I went down for breakfast at 9, it was nearly full of loud Chinese tourists, and the full picture came together. Breakfast was actually pretty good, and the Chinese slowly piled outside, and an older British couple sat down. The sky started to clear a bit and the Brits got so excited it was as if they hadn't seen the sun in months.
Since it seemed like the weather was cooperating, I headed out at 10:40. The old, historic part of town is basically spread out across the side of a mountain. The big deal here is the color blue. All the buildings are painted blue. Also, lots of cats. It was quite nice for a while. Not many tourists, twisty narrow blue streets. I got fairly high up the hill and had a great view of the city below. Then it started raining again. Not hard but enough to make it yucky. I found a covered entry way and waited there for a few minutes, and the rain stopped.
I worked my way back down steep, wet staircase towards the kasbah. Its a fairly imposing, huge fort with tall walls and several towers. At the entrance were two grouchy guards blocking the way. I watched for a bit and a guide pushed past them with his group, so i followed. Of course, just past the entrance was a ticket booth where they wanted $1 for Moroccans, and $6 for everyone else. I figured why not, i'll never be here again. I handed them the equivalent of $10, and they insisted that they had no change. I didn't either, and they didn't care so I had to leave.
And then the rain started again. It was past noon, so I looked for somewhere to get lunch and escape the rain. I ended up getting a large salad with tuna with mango juice.
On the way back to the hotel, I passed a bank, and figured that I'd get a bit more cash from the ATM. Just after I inserted my card, a guy walked up to me and warned me that he just tried to use the ATM and it stole his money (never dispensed anything). I hadn't even entered my PIN yet, so I hit cancel. The ATM ate my card. After a few seconds, it flashed an error that it failed to expel the card. And of course the ATM bank itself is closed for the weekend, so there's nothing that can be done to get my card back. Thankfully, I have the backup card, and it has about $700 in that account which should be fine for a while. As soon as I returned to the hotel, I transferred more cash into the backup account, and then reported my card as lost.
I walked a bit up hill for dinner to a traditional Moroccan place. I got the soup with harissa (again) and a lamb tagine with plumbs. It was good but the place in Tangier was much better overall.
Day 6
i didn't sleep well. lots of weird dreams, and random noises (barking dogs, roosters, etc). i was up for the day at 7:30am. i went down for breakfast at 7:30am, and lots of Chinese came down too.
I was on the road just before 9am. Initially it was raining again, but the weather gradually improved as I drove south. The scenery was gorgeous with green hills and fields everywhere. The road was 2 lanes total nearly the entire day. By late morning the sky had cleared and it warmed up a lot to 21C.
That's also when I got caught in a speed trap by a crooked cop. He pulled me over descending a hill, claiming that I was going 88 in a 60. I'm sure that I was in an 80 zone. He wanted me to pay about $30 (300 DH), but when I handed him the money he suddenly changed his tune and pretended like he was going to let me go with a warning. Except he kept 100DH ($10), and didn't bother to write the ticket. I got out of there, and finished the last 30 minutes of driving.
I arrived at Volubilis, Roman city ruins just before noon. The parking lot was nearly full. I paid the entry ticket,
brushed off a 'guide' and started exploring. Its a fairly large site, dating back to 200AD.
Most of the structures are little more than 3ft tall stone foundations/walls, often overgrown with plants, but there was still plenty to see.
There were about a dozen original mosaics spread around the city, in varying degrees of decay. Some were really gorgeous, and quite easy to view.
Others were badly faded & degraded and it was unclear what they represented. There was a huge arched entry gate at one end, another even larger
(nearly 3 stories tall, with fountains) at the other end. Also lots of columns with ornate carvings. There were 'you are here' maps posted in a
few places, and a bunch of interpretive signs in Arabic, French & English. I spent 90 minutes and enjoyed it a lot.
After that, I had about a 90 minute drive to Fes. Google routed me on a narrow, twisty mountain road. It was always paved, but not in great shape in some areas. Lots of small villages along the way, with sheep herders, and friendly kids waving as I passed by. I stopped for gas on the outskirts of Fes, and reached the hotel (which is a guesthouse with 12 rooms) at 3pm.
Since I arrived relatively early, I headed out to explore the medina and visit some stuff that was planned for monday. Two madrasas from the 14th century. Unlike the medinas that I saw in Rabat & Tangier, this one is much larger, the 'streets' much more narrow, and is super packed with stalls selling stuff. Plus its not primarily for tourists, as I passed clothing stalls, electronics, and basically anything else normal people might need to buy. Much of it was quite crowded too. The two madrasas were absolutely gorgeous. Tons of intricately carved wood & stone, with Arabic calligraphy, often in the Persian style with the cupped alcoves.
After that, I decided to get more cash at an ATM, except it rejected my card claiming an invalid PIN. I tried two more bank's ATMs, and my card was rejected there two. Now I knew something was very wrong. I headed back to the hotel, and called the bank. They saw all of my attempts, and they were due to using the wrong PIN. I have no clue how or when it changed. They let me reset the PIN. I was able to use an ATM to withdraw cash an hour later.
Day 7
I slept well until the call to prayer at 6:30am, and then I was up for the day. Breakfast was at 9am for reasons, but it was basically the same as I've had at previous hotels. I checked out at 9:30.
My first stop of the day was supposed to be Borj Nord, a huge 16th century fort, converted into a museum. But when I got there the gate was closed and the guard said it was closed indefinitely for repairs. I was disappointed as its supposed to be a great museum. Next I attempted to visit a 15th century synagogue. When I got there they refused to let me enter because the care taker was sick. And so all my remaining plans in Fes fell through.
I started the 5 hour drive south to the city of Ben-Mellali. Initially the sky was cloudy, and I was concerned about rain, but it cleared up after an hour. Overall the drive went fine. Lots of nice scenery, and the roads were mostly in good condition. For a while I was driving past huge cattle ranches, then olive farms. It got much hotter and dryer too, hitting 25C. I even saw a lot of cactus in one valley.
There were also lots and lots of police checkpoints. Basically they were setup at the entrance to most towns. I stopped counting after 10. Most just waived me through, but 3 stopped me. That went poorly when they spoke no English, tried Arabic, then French, and they gave up after I fumbled with French.
I got to Ben Mellali at 3pm, got gas and then checked into the hotel. Its surprisingly nice for $30.
Bath towels in this country must have a rough life. They are all old and feel like sand paper.
I had Italian food for dinner because there weren't many other options within walking distance besides generic cafe places that were basically juice/coffee plus pizza+sandwich+taco as food. the dinner was actually not bad. i got mushroom arancini and chicken mushroom pasta with lemon juice to drink, all for about $7.
Day 8
i slept ok until the 6:30 call to prayer. breakfast was pretty good for a $30 hotel. I departed just before 9am.
I spent much of the day driving, but the scenery was spectacular. In the morning I crossed over one mountain range with great views to the north & south (out towards the Atlas mountains). My first stop of the day was at 10:30, at Ouzoud Falls. Its the tallest in the country at 330ft (across 3 stages), as it plunges into a rocky canyon. There were two trails. The first runs from the road to the top of the falls. It was a surprisingly small river feeding into the falls. The second trail descends all 330ft (mostly steps) to the base of the falls. It also passes a plethora of shops & restaurants. Thankfully I arrived early on a weekday, so there were very few other tourists and most shops were still setting up. The storm that plagued me over the weekend must have made a huge mess here. Much of the staircase was wet and quite muddy, and it looked like a torrent of water and debris passed over the falls. It was quite pretty, and a good hour.
Next was the drive further south, up into the Atlas mountains, where there was lots of snow. The terrain was very dry, rocky and brown. Some twisted trees, and not much else. Also the road was paved but just a single lane. Not much traffic though. At one point google wanted me to turn onto some mystery 'road' that was little more than huge rocks & boulders. I noped that and continued on the paved road down into the valley. Villages were fairly primitive initially, with mud brick walls and thatched roofs. Also no cell signal for quite a while. As I neared the town of Tadant, things improved, and there were stone and concrete structures, with occasional cell reception.
I pulled up to the guest house at 14:30, just as a woman was leaving. She spoke no english but phoned her husband who did speak some english, and said he would come by. If I had arrived a minute later, no one would have been here. The guy arrived a few minutes later, introduced himself, but gave me some nonsense story that he didn't know about my booking. I showed him the booking confirmation, then his story changed to something about billing problems. I had prepaid on hotels.com, but he was demanding that I pay him cash anyway. Thankfully I was able to cancel & get a full refund, and I paid him the ~$20. I'll ding him on all of this nonsense in the review. His wife showed me to my room, which looks like the online photos, and is primitive, but fine for 1 night. Then they served me tea and cookies on the patio. he asked what I wanted for dinner. I asked what my choices were, and it was the typical list of Moroccan food. I opted for the tanjine. Then the guy left to go to the market, but claimed he would return.
The internet in this valley is poor. I got 1 bar in some places along the road, and basically no service as soon as I got away from the road, even a few feet.
The guy returned just after 6pm, and started building a fire in a very small wood stove. It was maybe a quarter the size of our stove. I was at nearly 7k elevation, and it was going to get cold overnight. Then he asked what time I wanted dinner. I was starving, as I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, so I asked if 7:30pm was ok. He said yes. Then a boy around 12 showed up (i guess, his son), and was tasked with fetching more wood and feeding the fire.
Dinner was a watery soup that seemed to be cream of wheat, but was basically tasteless. Then a tanjine that had chicken, potatoes, carrots, squash, onions and beans with saffron. It was ok, but desperately needed some sort of actual seasoning. There was fruit for dessert.
Day 9
I didn't sleep well for a variety of reasons. the bed was not comfortable. i was slightly cold, i was stressed about the long drive, I had bad dreams, and i had an irrational fear that I was going to be locked in the room (the door had a bolt on the outside for some reason). i gave up at 6am. i got a shower (which thankfully had hot water), ate a Cliff bar, and then hauled my stuff out to the car in the dark & cold. i spent some time checking emails, then started driving before 8am.
sunrise is officially 8am, so it was still mostly dark and chilly outside. I drove past lots of kids walking to school. I spent 2 hours driving west over the mountains on narrow, twisty roads. the roads were often not good, with missing pavement and debris from the storm. by 10am, I finally got out of the mountains, and the roads were much easier to drive. I stopped twice for the toilet and once for gas.
I got into Casablanca just before 2pm. I checked into the airport hotel first, and dropped off my bags. Then drove 5 minutes to the airport and returned the car. Thankfully no issues with the return. I caught the hotel shuttle back, and spent the remainder of the day at the hotel.
Dinner at the hotel was fine. I was starving since i had nothing to eat other than the Cliff bar this morning.
All trip pictures are posted HERE
This post is part 1 of the "ma-tn-2024" series: