Today is the start of our tour, an early rise at 6:30am and down for breakfast around 7am. It’s amazing how the breakfast changed from being a hotel guest to being a hotel guest with a tour group! It’s just not quite the same!
We checked out at 8am and were on the bus and moving out at 8:15. We started the day by doing a “panoramic” of the city, a drive by with commentary. We stopped at the great Mosque of Hassan II for about 30 mins. It was long enough for us to have a good look around the outside and the forecourt. It’s a massive building, with a capacity for 25000 worshippers inside and another 15,000 outside. The building was completed in 3 years, with the workers working 24 hours a day 7 days a week. ( It still looks like they are still working on it, but the official line is that it is complete. Everything about it is huge, giant doors and the tallest minaret in Africa at over 200m, and the list goes on, it is the 3rd largest mosque in the world. It sits on the coast with 2/3 of its structure out over the water. We continued driving around looking at miscellaneous things and we finally got on the highway north, heading for Rabat.
After 2 hours we stopped for drinks and pee stop, Abdel got some paper work done and then we drove onto Rabat.
Once there we drove up to the Kings Palace. We had a short stop for photos out in front of the Palace. During which we were told that it isn’t allowed to take photos of the police and military. (mmm Maybe a bit late??). We then got back in the bus for a short drive up to the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V. We were allowed to go inside and take photos here, and encouraged to take photos of the guards standing guard outside and inside the Mausoleum. Inside there was one guard leaning on his spear talking on his mobile, I went to take a picture of him, and he looked me straight in the eye and shook his head, I smiled and laughed and put the camera down, he returned the smile. Next to the Mausoleum was the site of what was going to be a mosque, but the King whose project it was died before it was anywhere near complete, so there is just a tower and large minaret there now. In the square they have placed around 355 roman pillars (from Meknes, they fell down there during an earthquake, so they made use of them here). Each pillar represents a day in the Islamic calendar.
We then hit the road for Meknes. Meknes is a small medieval town that is some 1600 years old. It has a large Medina and the Official Palace of the King. We visited a mosque here, one of only two mosques in Morocco open to “infidels”. It was old but very well looked after. Its walls were a mix of tiled mosaics and carved plaster. Highlights were always made with intricate patterns of wood and ceramic. It was a amazing place to visit. We also went and had a look around the towns square. It was very big, but reasonably quiet, got some nice photos of people here.
We then drove from Meknes to Fez. We went straight to our hotel and were told we were having our highlight dinner tonight, complete with “Band” and Belly dancer.
The meal was delicious. It started with a spicy soup, followed by a pastilla of chicken and almonds, followed by a Chicken and Preserved Lemon Tagine, and finished off with Orange slices with cinnamon, and of course Mint Tea. It was a fun night and we really enjoyed the meal. One of the guys in the band who played a drum looked alot like Freddie Mercury complete with moustache! He had a great smile.
A little about Morocco.
Morocco has a population of around 30 million, 4 million live is Casablanca and about 2 million live in Rabat and about 1.5 million in Fez. It is a Kingdom and a Republic. Rabat is the political capital and Casablanca the economic capital.
Morocco has a history dating back around 3000 years, and in that time they have been conquered by the Romans, the French, the Spanish, the Arabs and others, however, they are the only Muslim state in North Africa not to have been taken over by Turkey!! As a result of this all their mosques have square or rectangular minarets, rather than the more commonly known round minarets of Turkish design or influence.
We have really enjoyed the ever changing landscape in this wondrous country.
We will be able to post another blog for Sunday before we leave Fez, and then our next net access maybe Marrakech! Love to you all ,us xox
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