To Fez

Going away from Casablanca

Rabat. Driving out of Casablanca: dry, industrial and goes for miles. There are 30 million people in Morocco,  quite a few live here. The air is hazy here, probably due to their oil refinery and oil fired power station.

A truly awful place.  Rabat, a different story.  Well, the king lives there for a start.  A much nicer and more interesting city of 800,000.

Rabat

A look at one of the king's mausoleums. Took ten years to build. Marvellous workmanship. Four soldiers on guard, plus two more at the entrance on horses, stood still in the hot sun. These guys are tough.

The Mausoleum

Onwards to Fez, and yet another opulent hotel.  The Royal Mirage Hotel.

http://www.royalmiragehotels.com/fes/fr/index.php.

Beautiful swimming pool.  After a swim, out on to the street in search of a cheap meal. Two pizzas for about ten dollars.  

We will be here two nights, and tomorrow we visit a Berber village, where they live in caves.

This note is written  a year later: I realise I have left out the bit where we did a tour through the old town, some 2000 years old(?).  This was total culture shock for me, but a memory that will remain with me always.  This was clearly the best experience of the trip.  Our guide led us into the old town through very small and winding passages.  High walls every where, donkeys, stalls, people going about there lives in here.  The area where they do the fabric dying.  Just wonderful!