Volubilis, Meknes Fes

We left Chefchaouen a bit after 10.00am on saturday morning for the day's drive to Fes (a distance of around 200klm), the so called cultural capital of Marrakech.

Once out of the "blue town" we drove through this region's rich agricultural lands - dry dusty sage green country, but quite intensively cultivated with groves of olives, haystacks, orange orchards, and ploughed fields as far as the eye could see - but all very bleached dry. By mid morning we were in more fertile plain lands in the expansive valleys between the mountains and I could see little pockets of landscape that reminded me of Tuscany - green oases on hilltops with cypress trees as accents amongst the olive groves.

It was around 1.00pm that we reached Volubilis, the UNESCO World Heritage listed ancient Roman city, dating from the 1st century AD. The site was very damaged in the severe earthquake of 1755. The French colonisers started excavations and some restoration (and a lot of looting) during its occupation (1915 - 1957).  Today the restoration work has got to a stage where it is really easy to imagine the site as a busy, well resourced, efficient (with excellent roads, shops, community spaces and amenities including a spa and a brothel) and rather beautiful Roman city overlooking the fertile, surrounding farmland and distant mountains.

We really enjoyed our private guided tour of Volubilis, not only our guide's knowledge of the history of the place but also the lively way he incorporated Latin references to the way words are used today. The beautifully preserved, vibrant mosaics decorating the floors of the patrician's villas are a real highlight of this site.

It has been very hot and thirsty work exploring the ruins so we are all pleased to eventually get to Meknes around 3.30pm for a very late lunch and a serious session of rehydration (no alcohol - we're in Morocco!)

We all like the look of Meknes, a relatively affluent looking city with extensive sandy coloured ancient city walls and expansive and well maintained parks, gardens and community spaces. Its an ancient seat of power of the Berber dynasties, but today is the centre of this region's rich agricultural industries. we stop to admire the famous Bab Mansour (gate) built by the sultan My Ismail before enjoying a wonderful lunch on the rooftop terrace of the Cafe Salma, set into the fortified walls of the old city (medina). We are loving Moroccan food, even the olives here are a taste sensation for us.

It's well after 5.00pm before we leave Meknes for Fes, the so called cultural capital of Morocco, in the calm capable hands of our driver Mohammed. 

Our Riad Salma Fes, located in one of the winding laneways of the old city is quite jaw droppingly beautiful. We are greeted in one of the beautifully decorated water cooled courtyards with gifts, mint tea and sweet almond shortbreads. Our rooms are ornately decorated in traditional style and quite palatial...what an experience! We end off the day with a drink and many laughs on the beautiful rooftop terrace overlooking he ancient medina. We sneak a glass of wine or two as the Muslim calls to prayer bounce around the glowing bell towers of the mosques dotting all corners of the medina.

Chefchaouen 2

We were lazy tourists this afternoon enjoying a late afternoon couscous lunch at our favourite rooftop terrace cafe in Chefchaouen and then a few hours on our own private rooftop terrace at the Ryad Lina sampling some local beer and not so wonderful red wine from the historic Volubilis region.

Fridays are  prayer days for Muslims so the local mosques have been busy with extra loud calls to prayer throughout the day (and early morning). Our fave cafe only serves couscous on Fridays - but this was no hardship for us. Today our meal cost us just over $6AUS a head!

There are (skinny) cats everywhere in Chefchaouen (as well as goats). I liked this group of sleepers staking out their claim to the flour stores in one of the blue washed laneways.

 This is the lower level entry to our beloved Ryad Lina.....

 ......and sunset view from our rooftop terrace.

Chefchaouen

This was the view from our own private terrace at the beautiful Lina Ryad & Spa this morning as the sun rose...

 First course at breakfast this morning was a selection of Moroccan breads and baked goods, served with hand made jam, honey and local cheese and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Rachid had to work hard to get us away from this beautiful classy place and our wonderful breakfast with its limitless coffees and mint tea.  But we had a village to explore.......

Rachid led us through the blue washed, photogenic laneways, up to the source of the mountain water supplying the village and surrounding farms and then along a rocky path to an ancient mosque overlooking the town. We passed goat farmers and groups of men an women washing rugs in the fast flowing spring water.  I was interested in this wood fired oven sited a little way from a farm house on the mountain side.

We are really appreciating our guide Rachid. He is the Wikipedia of Morocco, but smart funny and perceptive with a good humoured cynicism we can all relate to.  We feel privileged to hear his well informed views on Middle East politics and religion (he is a proud Berber and an atheist).

These young women were carrying large bottles of goats milk back down to the village - the morning milk run?

We finished off our long morning walk at this little cafe beside the running spring water drinking big glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice, sharing more stories about the complexities of Moroccan history and the joys of growing grapes at Murrumbateman.

It was a hot walk back to the Ryad Lina by late morning - but a picturesque one.

Morocco - It's all OK now

It took us around 30 hours from leaving the driveway in Canberra to fly to Casablanca, via Bangkok and Dubai. So the slow moving queues and general air of chaos at Casablanca airport on our arrival Wednesday really tested our patience. This irritation paled into insignificance though when we learnt we'd arrived in Morocco, but our luggage had not!!

After one of the worst two hours we've ever spent at an airport anywhere in the the world the lovely Ahmed from Morocco Expert Tours (MET) was a welcome sight greeting us as we emerged from Customs, grim faced, without our baggage.

As Rob and I pondered all the things that were likely to prevent us reconnecting with all our precious travel aids we tried to focus on our new surroundings and what we were embarking on in our two week tour of Morocco. Casablanca is the industrial and financial centre of Morocco and the drive into the city centre certainly showed us its rambling, harsh, unfinished, city under construction aspect. There were lots of traffic jams (and at least 3 accidents we saw) so it took us almost another hour to get to our hotel.....but not the one we were expecting. Instead of the beachside Hotel Club Val D'infa we are booked into a pretty basic city centre hotel with erratic aircon and very quirky systems.

Despite our bad moods Rob and I are lucky to be with our friends Jennie and Wayne who succeed in making us enjoy a wonderful first meal in Morocco at the gorgeous Etiole Centrale restaurant just around the corner from our funny Oum Hotel. We head back to bed with neither of us feeling confident we'll ever see our carefully packed bags again, given the chaos of our airport experience. We both toss and turn for a long while working out how we'll cope, at least until we get to Spain where the shops are a bit more accessible.  Youssef our MET man of the moment turns out to be super apologetic about the hotel mess up...has an explanation and makes a peace offering that is somewhat reassuring.

We turn up to breakfast yesterday, our first morning in Morocco in our 30 hour travel clothes (thank goodness for the Emirates toothbrushes we saved from the flight). Maxie and Rod join us at breakfast so our party is complete. Our friends are wonderfully supportive sharing deodorant, undies and sox and a fresh razor for Rob. Our funny hotel turns on a wonderful breakfast (and the staff are lovely) which we really enjoy. We meet up with Rachid and Mohammad our MET driver and guide for the next two weeks and we are immediately at ease in their charming and intelligent company and beautifully equipped new vehicle. Rachid promises me he will sort our baggage problem for us!

First stop is at Casablanca's wonderful Hassan 11 Mosque, a stupendous yet highly refined and beautiful architectural marvel that took only 6 years to build in the late 80s-mid 90s, costing the people many millions of dollars but also demonstrating the amazing skills of the country's artisans and builders. Jennie organises us a private guide so we can really gain the most out of our of our short visit.

We then take a look at the Corniche (coast), the popular beach side area of Casablanca city, lined with private clubs, restaurants and drinking spots with their own areas of private beach. On this greyed over misty day it all looks a bit down at heel to our eyes, but easily the most "charming" area of Casablanca we've seen in our short stay.

We then make the trek back to the airport and to our relief and amazement our bags are found!!! We are overjoyed and grateful for the sound systems and care taken by staff at the airport despite the apparent chaos. No marks for Emirates who were no help at all! We are also grateful to our friends for their support and good humour in spending another hour or so that they didn't need to at this awful airport!

Rob and I skip back to the vehicle (with our bags) and we head off on the long drive (345kls), 5-6 hours with stops, northwards along the coast then through the Rif mountains to Chefchaouen.

It's around 9.00pm before we've settled into our rooms at the exquisite Lina Riad & Spa. We love the look of this blue painted village perched on the southern side of the mountain range and find our late evening meal on the terrace of a little cafe deep in the laneways surrounding the main square absolutely sensational!

We were shocked to be charged about $50 for the 6 of us for this wonderful meal (including drinks) - that's around $9 something each!  The lamb with "plums" (prunes) was our favourite - and we all find the Moroccan bread is to die for! Luckily, there are a lot of steps to be climbed in this village.