As I said below, we spent most of New Years Day on a bus from Ouarzazate to Marrakesh passing over the High Atlas Mountains. The bus was actually better than the car trip the day before as we could see more out the bigger windows and didn’t get that back seat queasy feeling on the bendy road. Plus it had a groovy soundtrack.
Archive for the 'Morocco' Category
Here’s a video taken in the main square of Marrakesh at dusk. You can watch the motorbikes narrowly miss me and again hear the call to prayer. I apologise for the unsteady panning.
The rest of the trip went something like this:
27/12: Train from Fes to Rabat
We had a fantastic time in Rabat. It was sunny! We left Fes on the 7am train with a bag of still damp things from our flooded room incident. In Rabat we walked straight from the train station to the Hotel Splendid and luckily they had the perfect room for us. It was spacious with a little balcony, the sun was streaming in, and there was a proper bathroom with hot water! We showered and hung all the wet stuff out to dry and then headed round the corner to a great patisserie for some coffee and pastries. Off to a good start in Rabat. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around site-seeing and visited the Kasbah overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and some Roman ruins.
28/12: Train from Rabat to Marrakesh
The good weather continued in Marrakesh and where we spent three nights at the Riad Hamza. Highly recommended! We spent the first afternoon wandering around taking it all in, the second day site-seeing and the third shopping.
The best part about Marrakesh is the main square that is always full of action and noise.
31/12: Driving over the High Atlas Mountains to Ouarzazate
Over breakfast at the Riad the day before we met a couple of Aussies with a rental car who invited us to come along to Ouarzazate with them for New Years Eve. The drive over the mountains was spectacular. Along the way we visited the Kasbah at Ait Benhaddou.
That night in Ouarzazate we all went to dinner at Chez Dimitri (along with another Aussie we’d accumulated) before heading back to the hotel to see in the new year.
1/01: Bus from Ouarzazate to Marrakesh
Feeling not too hungover on New Years Day we headed to the bus station to find the next bus back to Marrakesh. Another scenic trip going back the way we’d come the day before. We spent our last night in Marrakesh at Riad Doha as the Hamza was fully booked.
2/01: Train from Marrakesh to Casablanca
Back to the start again! Casablanca is not as romantic a city as it sounds but does have some interesting buildings. On our last night in Morocco we ate (not very good) Chinese food.
3/01: Plane and train home again
Up at 5am for our early flight to Paris, three hour stopover, flight to Newcastle, train to Glasgow. We were home about 10:30pm just a tad tired.
The photos are up here. There are still a couple of little videos to share soon too.
PS. Dave thinks this is not detailed enough so if you would like more information about any of the above feel free to ask!
We’re back! I’m slowly picking through the photos and choosing the best to share here. We’ll fill you in on what we did after Fes soon too. But for now – here is a video taken by Dave from the window of our (second and dry) hotel room in Fes. The hotel is on one of the main ‘roads’ heading into the medina and you can hear the evening call to prayer.
Yesterday we arrived in Marrakech a day earlier than planned due to cutting our time in Fes to two nights instead of three. Why? Let us tell you.
When we arrived in Fes we checked in to Pension Batha, a place that got good reviews in both the Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide. We noticed our room felt a little bit damp but put it down to the fact that it was cold and raining and everything was a little damp. The other feature of the room were three photos of strange looking babies. One rode a motorbike, one was dressed in a leopard print wrap and one was on the phone saying ‘Hallo!’ Their eyes followed us around the room.
We went to sleep that first night trying not to think of the babies looking over us. The next morning dawned wet and rainy again and we discovered half our room was flooded. Not from the rain, but from a leaky pipe under the sink. Anything on the floor, including our shoes, was soaked.
The hotel receptionist (who spoke no English) got the cleaner to mop it all up and despite all her ‘Ooh La La’s’ we got the distinct impression that she had mopped this room up yesterday. We were told that we could change rooms after breakfast.
After breakfast we packed everything up and were then told that a new room would be ready after our tour. So off we went on a guided tour of the Fes medina.
The tour was great. Our guide seemed to know a lot of the locals who would greet him, shake his hand, give him a kiss and a bit of a hug before letting him move on again. He led us for a few hours through the maze of narrow lanes that is the medina. There were shops selling everything from inflatable santas to camel heads. We also visited the tanneries where the tradesmen still use the traditional methods (pigeon poo and stomping with bare feet) to treat the leather. One advantage of the rain was that the normally pungent smell of the tanneries was subdued.
Ok, back to whinging…
After returning to the Pension we were told that we couldn’t change rooms, but look! the leak had been fixed. With tape. That still leaked.
Our next idea was to ask for a refund of the next two nights we had prepaid. At this stage things got farcical. They couldn’t give a refund because they had no money, they couldn’t call the manager because the phone only took incoming calls, they couldn’t call on our mobile because they didn’t know the manager’s phone number.
So we left our bags there and went off to find another room. Pension Talaa came through with a comfy and dry room at a cheaper price. Dave went back for the bags and along the way ran into the elusive manager. After a heated conversation and a demonstration of how the basin leaked and where the water had been, we were offered a nicer vacant room upstairs (WHY DIDN’T THEY OFFER THAT 2 HOURS AGO?) A refund, however, would be impossible. Goodbye 420 dirham. Goodbye Pension Batha. On the way out Dave was inspired by the devil babies as he saw a fresh couple of tourists being shown the ‘wet room’.
"Hey" I said. "I’ve just been offered a room upstairs that is much nicer than this and that I have already paid for. We don’t need it and I reckon you two can have it." The elusive manager exploded. I could still hear him swearing as I walked off, followed hastily by the fresh tourists.
Since then things have been a lot better. But we’ll tell you about sunshiney Rabat and Marrakech another time. Our comfy bed in our lovely Riad is calling us.
