Andrew’s and my African adventure began when we touched down in foggy Casablanca (in Morocco) on Tuesday 13th January after the long flight from Los Angeles, via Miami and Madrid. After a very relaxed clearance through customs and immigration we collected a rental car and began the 300 km drive north-east through Rabat (the capital of Morocco) and then east through Meknès and on to our destination, the ancient city of Fez. The road was excellent, and in fact much of it was a toll expressway, and the fog cleared as we proceeded east. Although Di’s back was not great, we didn’t need to stop too often, and our main stop was at a small hill-top town called Moulay Idriss, which is something of a centre of pilgrimage among Moroccan Muslims because of the huge mosque there – they say that five pilgrimages to Moulay Idriss is the equivalent of one haj to Mecca for Moroccans who cannot afford to make the real haj to Mecca.
We parked the car on the edge of Moulay Idriss, because the town itself is impossible for cars, as the ‘streets’ comprise narrow winding laneways that turn into flights of steps. There is a bit of a sense that visitors are intruding into the locals’ personal space in Moulay Idriss, even though people are friendly enough. It is impossible to find one’s way through the town without a guide – it is also impossible to make any progress without being hounded by a local person who wants to be your guide, so despite misgivings from Di (she wanted to walk alone, and certainly have to pay some local person) we followed the lead of a local man who spoke some English. He was excellent, and took up through a winding labyrinth of streets and laneways up the hill to a vantage point from where the mosque and the town could be seen. The town is divided into two parts, Berber and Arab, and most of our time was spent in the poorer but prettier Berber section, even though our ‘guide’ was Arab. Another great benefit of having a guide is that the locals stop hassling you to take them as a guide, and I think Di accepted in the end that having him was a good thing, even though she thought I paid him too much for his services.
We were very lucky at Moulay Idriss because during the time we were there the fog, which had returned as we drove up into the hills cleared for the hour or so that we were there. However, it set in again almost to the minute that we left, so our plans to stop at Volubilis, a huge and well preserved city of Roman ruins just a few kilometres away were abandoned, and we drove on a back road directly to Fez, arriving there a little after dusk. Our hotel was on a hill overlooking the old town, and we caught a quick glimpse from our rooms as darkness fell over the city.
The hotel did not open its restaurants until 7:30pm to 8:00pm, and as we had not eaten since the morning flight, we decided to drive into the Nouvelle Ville (the newer section of town planned by the French during colonial times) and find somewhere small to eat. Parking is very tight in that area of town, and many areas are controlled by semi-official protection “guardians”, which made Di a bit anxious about parking there. We took a while to find somewhere that we all liked (ironically, by which time it was about 8pm!), but we loved the meal we had – Moroccan style soup followed by a main course also in Moroccan style, Di and Andrew having grilled chicken kebabs on rice while I had a thin puff pastry filled ‘cake’ of grilled chicken and finely minced vegetables, the whole thing being dusted in sweet icing sugar and cinnamon.
We were certainly ready for sleep when we returned to the hotel, and we all slept pretty well; indeed we could have done with more.
Andy (age 12) writes:
Tuesday the 13th of January: I had a connecting flight from Madrid to Casablanca in Morocco. We got a rental car to Moulay Idriss, which is quite a small town with tiny narrow streets that curve wildly in different directions. From here we continued our drive to Fez where we stayed in a very nice hotel. That night for dinner, we wandered around the town looking for an authentic meal from a restaurant for dinner. I eventually had Moroccan soup with kebabs and rice. It was pretty nice, but I prefer the Red Rock Noodle Bar or chocolate fondues more! We stayed overnight in our hotel before having a buffet breakfast the following morning there.
