MOROCCO 2023

Unofficial Day 1

My first afternoon in Morocco where they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving  but apparently do celebrate Black Friday!

If  you like lively nightlife and fabulous shopping they say to go to Casablanca. If you like more historical and cultural experiences they say to go to Rabat. I am pleased to say I’m in Rabat!

We stayed in a Riad which is a house converted into a small hotel. It is in the Medina which is the old Arabic part of Rabat. Our host Kerem poured mint tea for us all.

Unofficial Day 2

We meet as a group for dinner tonight and then the official tour starts tomorrow.

The market near our Riad. 

Cat with eggs!

Walking near our neighborhood.

How did Tigger get to Morocco??

The other single traveler and I had lunch on this boat. Our view for lunch.

How many cats can you count in this photo? In case you can’t guess, there are cats roaming everywhere!

Then today some if  us had to change to a different Riad. This one is a bit fancier.

Official Day !

Scenes from Modern Rabat outside the Medina.

This is the King’s palace. It is the main palace and he has 13 others. Technically it’s a constitutional monarchy with a parliament and prime minister. But, if the king doesn’t like the prime minster, he replaces him. There are 28 political parties and the king keeps the country together.

Oh, and we weren’t allowed to get any closer that’s why we’re distant. We asked if we could get closer and our guide said no they will shoot us!

The government is building this tower which will be the tallest building in north Africa when finished. It has offices, apartments, and restaurants. Looks kinda sci-fi to me!

This is the Mausoleum of king Mohammed V. I guess guards on horseback will keep anyone from stealing the body. His son and brother are in the smaller caskets. The big obelisk is a mosque which our guide told us much about that I’ve promptly forgotten. Just know it’s a big deal!

The opera house.

An expensive private French school that goes on for blocks.

This door knocker is known as the hand of Fatima, or Khomsa. And our guide pointed out it’s the same as the. Jewish Hamsa - though that’s the hand of Miriam. The parallels between Islam and Judaism are kind of amazing.

Scenes from the 12th century Kasbah still in use. The blue was very popular among Moroccan Jews. Also it supposedly keeps the house cool and mosquitoes away.

Oh, and the sign that says non-Muslims forbidden is a mosque. Apparently that’s true of most mosques but there’s some we are allowed to visit.

You might think this is olive oil, but some people are following a YouTube video that claims that yellow colored water will keep cats from peeing on the doorstep. Our guide isn’t buying it!  

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, cats are EVERYWHERE. And people will let them in their houses. For Muslims, dogs are considered unclean. If a dog touches your clothes, you can’t pray in them and must wash them 7 times!

 I am not a good sleeper, and last night was a very hard night. So let’s just say when I was in a very deep sleep, and awakened by the call to prayer, words of prayer, we’re not what came to my lips!

Also, many of the places I’ve traveled, the toilet paper goes into a receptacle, never in the toilet. Not so in Morocco. Much as I appreciate Moroccan plumbing, I trade it in a heartbeat for heat in my hotel/riad!

DAY 4

Last night we had our welcome dinner at this place that just looked like a door along white, dirty walls. We expected a hole in the wall but as you can see, it was a very nice restaurant. Remember the guy who poured tea the first night? Well, I hope the video plays  Because this guy was astonishing.

I know sometimes the videos work and sometimes not so I’m including a photo in case it doesn’t play.

This is a map of our trip. We started in the top right at Rabat., then drove to Fez on the right, and eventually will be heading south into the Sahara desert.

This blob at the top of this tower looks a bit like a bale of hay,but it’s a stork’s nest.  They are so huge that other birds sometimes make their nest in the stork’s nest.

We headed east toward Fez, and the land looks a lot like southern Spain. There are lots and lots of olive trees here, and also apricots, peaches, almonds, and avocados. The avocado trees are a bit controversial now because they take lots of water and Morocco is in their third year of a drought.

We stopped at a gas station to use the bathrooms. They were selling French pastries.

The official languages of Morocco, are Arabic, and Berber. But you hear French everywhere, since the French ruled over Morocco from 1912 to 1956 when they could finally kick them out. In other parts of Morocco, you hear a lot of Spanish, and I forget the dates that they kicked the Spanish out.

Fez is a busy city. Supposedly smaller than Rabat in population but more compact so it feels bigger.

Again we entered an alley with blank dirty walls, then entered our new Riad that looks like a palace inside. 

This is my room. My favorite part is the HEATER that actually works!

We visited a ceramics factory where everything is handmade - from pots to wall mosaics

We walked through the twisting tightly packed paths in the 9th century Medina. It’s a UNESCO world heritage sight. The guide said that we would go in the afternoon when it wasn’t so crowded. Could have fooled us!! Very packed and claustrophobic! We were joined by a helper guide who stayed at the back to make sure we didn’t lose anyone. We’d never find them!

This is a renovated hotel that used to be for caravans. It has a stone floor and the camels stayed in the center. Rooms above. These scales weighed the goods they were selling.

This is the main doorway to the biggest mosque in the Medina. There are 14 doors, and 20,000 people can pray in there at once. We all thought we  hadn’t heard the guide correctly, but he repeated it several times

Spice store.

We walked past the fish store, where the owner puts out parts hecut off the fish. You can see that someone in this place really likes that practice.

Morocco is known for its sunsets.

DAY 5

Yesterday when I saw the sign in French, I had no idea what it said, and it was so long. I thought it was important. Then this morning it fell over and I saw that was a side in English. And now I know about the stinky smells!

They took us to see a fabulous view of the city, but instead of sunshine, we had a gray haze, so it’s not so fabulous a photo! If you look in the middle kind of in the right, you can see a gigantic mosque sticking up. This is the view of Fez.

I requested that we visit American Funduk. It translates as American hotel, but really, it is a free veterinary clinic. The doctors work on horses, mules, and donkeys that are work animals that belong to poor people. Some of the animals will stay with them a few months until they are able to get them well and send them back and they do not charge any money, The woman dressed in gray is a veterinarian who is interning there

We visited the Jewish cemetery in Fez

The second gravestone is recent, 1995. It’s not easy to see but there are two small stones on it, as Jews always put a stone on the headstone when they visit. The most famous grave is of a rabbi who the king wanted to collect money from Jews. When he couldn’t because they were poor, the king threw him in a pit with a lion. The rabbi prayed and prayed. When he was still alive in the morning, the king decided that he had great spiritual power and let him go.

We visited the historic synagogue in the mellah, the traditional Jewish quarter which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. No Jews live there now, but Jewish visitors will pray there

Storks and stork nest. They don’t have the stork and baby story here.

We had a lovely dinner with this Moroccan family. Notice the daughter doesn’t cover her hair. At first I assumed girls like that were tourists but many young women don’t cover their hair.

DAY 6

This boy rides around, so we will take a picture of him and give him a few coins.

Today, some people decided to sleep in, do a cooking class and get a massage. But six of us decided to do the optional trip to go see the Roman ruins and we felt very rewarded by this trip. Apparently, a British man visited these ruins and elaborate sketches. This was lucky because the Lisbon earthquake in the 1700s destroyed most of the city. The French much much later discovered the ruins, and used the drawings by the British man to reconstruct the ruins.

These mosaics are the original. Notice the snakes of medusa’s head.

They are all based on Roman mythology. I can see that one did not survive so well.

Arc de Triomphe

After visiting Volubilis- the ruins - which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, we drove to Meknes. 

We stop by another one of the Kings palaces. I forgot to mention yesterday, and Fez we walked by his palace, which is his biggest one., 200 acres with a golf course and even a horse racing track.  We saw the stork on the grounds outside the palace

This must be a very wealthy cat, sleeping on top of a Mercedes!

We ate lunch on an outside terrace, which gave us a good view of the city. Unfortunately, it didn’t give us any heat and it was really cold today.

We walked through a market, and the guy told us it was not very crowded at all today. We were glad he told us that, because we sure wouldn’t have known! There were people there with an ostrich he didn’t see me take the photo because he was getting money from other people who were taking photos!

We visited a museum of musical instruments, that is now housed in what used to be a private home. It’s really hard to understand that this stunning place could ever have been a private home.

This Berber instrument certainly looks like the jewish shofar. So far everything we’ve learned about Muslims and Jews does not seem to apply here in Morocco. Many people, including our hosts last night talked about the three cultures, Muslim, Berber, and Jewish. And they seem to hold the Jews in high regard and say that they all get along. They even told us that the kings main advisor is Jewish.

   DAY 7

Today We took a nine hour bus ride our first Pitstop was a ski resort known as the Moroccan Swiss. But of course, it was actually the French that built it, and had many luxury homes near the ski resort.

As we crossed the middle, atlas mountains, our guide said if we were lucky, we would see some Barbary monkeys. We were lucky!

He also said if we were lucky we might find a nomad family that would let us look into their house. They had big wooden structures, covered with plastic, which were houses and some barns for their sheep, where they kept them when I got too cold. At night they had the sheep in a pen, and they had dogs to guard them. There were seven families in the nomad group, and they each own their own sheep. Our guide asked if we could go in and take pictures she agreed and I’m sure he gave her a very large tip.

Her friend walked over with her two children because she wanted to charge her cell phone. These families had solar panels so they had electricity. In June they will move somewhere else, but they don’t know where just yet. In the old days they would’ve moved everything by donkey but now they rent a truck.

Not easy to see, but these are the snowcapped Atlas mountains

We drove through miles and miles and miles very dry mountains

And we made a short photo op stop at a natural oasis

You probably think that this photo distorts the size of my bed, but it doesn’t. It’s huge!Whole families could probably sleep in here, and my guess is that they do! This hotel is at the edge of the Sahara. We have been instructed not to Sahara Desert, because that would be like saying desert desert. Tomorrow morning we go there and spend two nights and we will not have any Internet, so no more blog for a few days

DAY 8

We went to a fossil museum near the desert. They showed us slabs of rock with fossils, explained how they cut and polished them and turned them into artwork, bowls, or sinks. The Sahara used to be covered by a vast sea, called Pangaea. These fossils were made millions of years ago.

These creatures had a long tail, and eventually they lost the tail moved to the surface and became jellyfish

We walked through a Ksar. It’s a community that houses 40 families each family has three generations living there, so that’s a lot of people but not to worry they now have water, electricity, and Internet!

This had once been a thriving town along the silk road, with many caravans and camels, until the good started being traded by ships.

We left this town, got into 4 x 4 vehicles, and drove into the desert. There were no roads. Fortunately, we had a skillful driver, because we went up and down and almost on the side, going over sand dunes. 

On the way to our camp, we passed a huge military base that is there, because we are close to Algeria and Algeria and Morocco are not friends. The mountains we could easily see what part of Algeria. 

We arrived at our camp, and the tents were much nicer than we expected -the comfort of home, except for no heat, and no Internet

After a short demonstration of how to make chicken tangine, we drove into the desert to visit a Bedouin  family

The husband said his father and grandfather moved all the time as nomads but now they stay in one place and make their money by giving camel rides to foreigners. Every day he rides a donkey, 5 km to get gallons of water. The children, age 10, six and two do not go to school because there are no schools nearby. Neither of the parents went to school and can’t read or write. We were glad we had stopped at a store to buy them some flower, tea and sugar, but we were pretty depressed when we left.Even when I visited floating villages in Cambodia they had a floating school. School in Morocco is now required up to the sixth grade but obviously these kids aren’t going. It made us all very sad.

We went back into the desert to sand dunes to watch the sunset. The more athletic crew ran all the way to the top of a big dune, but my friend Phyllis and I decided that two dunes were enough, and we would still be able to enjoy a lovely sunset. 

DAY 9

Sunrise wasn’t until 8 o’clock

Then we drove into the desert and came across a Berber wedding. We could take photos if we kept our distance. This is the bride’s family. The groom Has his own party separately with his family she is surrounded by young boys because, of course, they want a boy.

Scenes from our 40 minute camel ride the scary parts were getting on and off whenever the camel went downhill we would hold on for dear life. I think we were all glad we did it but don’t feel the need to ever do it again. Yes, it is touristy but these people make their living leading these rides and there aren’t many other ways for them to make a living here so we do support the local economy.

Then we went to a demonstration of Ganaoua music. This area has many Black people some who came as traders but others who came as slaves.

We stopped by a farm that had an irrigation system that was thousands of years old.

DAY 10

Today was another endless bus ride, but we did stop at a Jewish Berber Museum. The photo is of a Jewish bride.

DAY 11

After staying in an authentic riad, With its open patio and limited heat it’s nice to be in a new modern hotel. I love the juxtaposition of the two cultures in the lobby

We are staying in the city of Ouarzazate, which is the Hollywood of Morocco. Many famous films were filmed here, including Lawrence of Arabia, Indiana Jones Gladiator, Ben Hur,and Game of Thrones. We stopped by Atlas film Studios. We didn’t get a tour, but we were able to get some photos from the outside.

We met a local guide who showed us photos of the films that were shot there like Lawrence Arabia, and Game of Thrones. He was very proud to tell us that he was an extra in Game of Thrones. Apparently many people made their living here by being an extra, but now with CGI, they might hire 250 people instead of 2000, so people are not making as much money.

Then we spent the morning with a Berber family, who graciously showed us their home, they’re inside yard where they keep animals, how to make bread, couscous, bricks, and served us lunch

Then we visited a women’s Association. These women are in an extremely male dominated culture. They tried for years to be allowed to create a women’s association, and were denied. Finally, with persistence from O.A.T, They were able to create an association. And O.A.T. donated funds and built them a building, where they can now make cookies, do sewing and sell these things. It means they have some extra income, and that they have become more confident. Now they might take a taxi into town by themselves. It made us feel good to know that some of our money is going to help people like this. 

Some of us got henna, tattoos that we are told will last about a week

DAY 12

Today we took a long drive through the extremely dry Atlas Mountains. There’s been a group cold circulating— so it was punctuated by a cacophony of phlegmmy coughs.

These houses which you see all over Morocco are made of clay bricks.  When people get more $, they build a concrete house.

Many of these clay houses did not survive the earthquake. The government has provided them with these blue tents.

When we reach the other side of the mountains, where they get rains from the Atlantic ocean, there was a dramatic difference in the landscape.

By the way, that lovely road we were on was of course, built by the French! Today we went to visit Bahia palace. It was lovely, but very crowded because Moroccans can get in for free on Friday.

I wish I’d gotten closer, but this is a fun photo of three dogs

This Medina is not as narrow as the one in Fez, but it’s equally as busy and the wider roads means the motorcycles zip in and out. The goal is to stay alive while Visiting. That one building has earthquake damage at the top.

Then we walked into the main Square. It’s impossible to capture how huge this is, how crowded this is, and how many times we were told to watch our wallets and cell phones. We came by a snake charmer, and a guide said he would pay for us to get a photowith a snake around our neck. I said I didn’t want one but suddenly there was a snake around my neck!

The guide suggested several places we could eat tonight, but everyone just wanted to go back to the hotel and collapse!


DAY 13

Today we visited Le Jardin Secret. It had gone into complete disrepair until an Italian man bought it and began renovating it.

To get there, we rode in a Tuktuk over bricked streets. It seems the humans weren’t the only ones  who thought that it was a bouncy, vigorous ride!

Then we had a demonstration of Berber, weaving, and a showing of their rugs. No pressure to buy, Madame. But but today for you, Madame, good price, discount price.

Yesterday we were in the Atlas mountains. That was the epicenter of the earthquake. But five hours away in Marrakesh, there was some serious damage to houses and buildings.

It would be very difficult on this trip, to be a vegetarian. You can see that this is just a little hole in the wall restaurant but there’s still beautiful tile work. The restaurant specializes in roast lamb.

This man told us what we had learned on this trip, that Morocco was the first country to recognize the US independence, although he did tell us that it was our independence from France! I think he was confusing it with his own country’s history.

Tonight

we went on a horse and buggy ride around the city. We were all hesitant to go on this, thinking it was a bit hokey, but we actually really liked it. It got us out of the Medina into a very elegant part of the city. This was the part where Money was obvious. it made it more clear when we hear that people from Europe and came here for the weekend why they would come. And it was cleaner and easier to breathe.

1DAY 14

Catching up from yesterday. First a few random thoughts. I know I mentioned that Arabic and Berber are the official languages in Morocco. It doesn’t really make sense because if you need any document from the government at all for any reason, marriage property, whatever guess what language it’s in? All documents are in French! but French is not an official language. And here’s a question we were never able to get answered. It’s about the Berber language.

First, there are three groups of Berbers. The Berbers in the northwest part of the country, are tall, blonde, and blue eyed. The Berbers in the middle part of the country are shorter darker with dark eyes. This is where the Jewish Berbers live. And the Berbers in the south are black. Apparently none of the three can understand each other’s Berber language. So two of us asked our guide which Berber language is the official language for the signs? And he never really answered. We’re convinced he doesn’t know, but somehow was unable to say that.

And given that diversity if you’re wondering what a Berber is, it just seems to be the original settlers of Morocco before the Arabs invaded and dominated the country. So the main thing they have in common is they were here first, and they aren’t Arabs.

In Marrakesh, we stayed in a lovely riad owned by a French woman. As was typical of these old houses, the central courtyard is open to the elements there is no ceiling, so here is my photo of breakfast with birds.

Today was a free day to explore, and several of us wanted to go see the historic synagogue. It was lovely, and it included a museum that showed the history. The first and second set of Jews came to Morocco, after the destruction of the first temple in  Jerusalem, and then after the second temple was destroyed,but the people who built this synagogue came in the 1500s after they were expelled from Spain.

After that, we walked about 15 minutes to the Jewish cemetery. It’s still being used   Apparently, the last burial was four months ago. We were lucky because got to meet the president of the Jewish community of Marrakesh. There were once about 23,000 Jews living in Marrakesh, and now I believe he said 113! his children were educated abroad and moved to Israel, but he says this is not uncommon, and that when the Arab kids go abroad to study, they often try to work somewhere other than Morocco, looking for a better life. We were all really pleased to meet him and found the whole experience to be very moving.

At the end of the day we met with a young woman who was 33 and was there to talk about women in Islam and Morocco. She felt that women had a lot of rights and were getting more. She has three sisters and all of them have gone to college, and they all have jobs. But she felt they needed to do things to end under age marriage in the countryside. She claimed that our guide had not had an arranged marriage though his sister picked out the woman. They both agreed to get married before they even spoke to each other, but in her mind, it wasn’t arranged because they could both say no it was their choice. Our guide explained that it can be pretty bad if you say no - it can be hard to find another marriage.

Then a lovely man on our trip asked about homosexuality. There a single woman, and a couple, who had gay kids. Anyway, she said it was against the Quran because you know in Sodom and Gemorah it was wrong. You can be gay that’s not wrong, you just can’t act on it. Not and get to heaven. And then he said, do you mean they have to deny themselves the comfort of a relationship? And she said, yes, if they want to get to heaven and be a good Muslim. Later, he. said that was when he quit listening and just thought about his gay son.

We all felt like we had spent a bit too much time in Marrakesh. We had been introduced to the different culture in Rabat and Fez  where it was much cleaner, less crazy, and not so many billions of tourists. I think some of us felt like why can’t we just fly out from Marrakesh? Why do we have to go to Casablanca? We didn’t want to go, but boy were we wrong!!

DAY 15 - last day!

First, we saw lots of green as we entered the breadbasket of Morocco— with rain from

The Atlantic. 

And then we realized we were happy to be in a sunny, modern city. 

These buildings are in a part of Casablanca, called the California Casablanca

We had lunch in an outdoor café, which, of course, included a little visitor. It was warm, there were sea breezes, there was sunshine, we were very happy.

We drove along the ocean and saw some of the biggest waves we’ve ever seen. 

Then we visited the biggest mosque in Morocco, and the third biggest in the world. As you might guess the two biggest are in Saudi Arabia. We were allowed to actually view this mosque, and our guide, who talked to us a lot about Islam continued to talk to us about it, and demonstrate how they pray. And really, they don’t think that women get the raw end of the deal in Islam. But I don’t think that any of us were convinced. 

30,000 people can pray inside And another 80,000 can pray outside on the patio. There are only that many during Ramadan.

So inspired by the fictional Rick’s Café in the famous movie, Casablanca., An American woman decided to re-create it into an actual restaurant. Apparently, it’s almost impossible to get reservations and get in but we at least took a photo from the outside

We drove around the city, a bit more and saw our first church. It was built by the French, but I couldn’t get a good picture of it. The photo that looks a bit like audio speakers is the opera house, and I’m confused which one of these photos of the courthouse, and which is City Hall. But you get the general idea. And the whole courtyard looks a bit like Trafalgar Square with 9 trillion pigeons!

I’ve stayed in some Radisson that weren’t that great, but this is the most attractive Radisson hotel I’ve ever seen. That one photo is a view of the city from the 14th floor bar. Another is just showing you my unusual bathroom which does not include a toilet, but don’t worry there is one around the corner! So I think all of us are really glad that we did end up going to Casablanca, since we were starting to feel like we had enough of Morocco our third day in Marrakesh, and it might’ve been even taken away a little bit from the earlier part. 

And now it’s time for the worst part of traveling— the actual traveling! Hope you enjoyed the blog. 

 

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