22nd March

We regretfully left our delightful Maison D’hote and decided to take the motorway to Rabat which was scheduled to take about 3 hours.  We skirted the edge of Casablanca, which sounds so romantic but in the flesh looked very different, although to be fair areas near motorways of any major city are never the most picturesque. 

Completely over the top....?!!

The motorways make for interesting driving as they’re only 2 lanes with crash barriers between the 2 directions of traffic appearing intermittently for just small stretches.  Add to that, people cleaning up rubbish in the verges, buses stopping to off load passengers, people riding in the open backs of trucks, police road blocks and sheep and cattle plus the shepherd grazing at the edge of the road – you realise it’s very different driving to health and safety conscious Europe.

Chris once again did a brilliant job of negotiating the chaotic traffic in the city centre and we ended up parked near out hotel.  We’d been told to look for a large hotel as the landmark for where to park our car, but never saw it so Chris pulled up around the corner.  I then phoned the riad, and within 10 minutes a very charming man appeared who took us to the correct parking, fixed us up with a guide for tomorrow and then led us to the riad.  

Part of the Andalusian garden

The riad itself is lovely with the usual cool courtyard with a central fountain surrounded by the rooms.  We’ve got 2 rooms upstairs which are lovely and close to the roof top pool with its unappealing murky cold water.

We then set off to the Kasbah which is very close by and looked fabulous in our guidebooks.  In reality, it wasn’t quite so nice but I enjoyed the Andalusian garden and especially the tiny kittens playing in it!  We then wandered through the medina stopping off to look in various shops for Moroccan style wall sconces for our still to be designed Moroccan style rood terrace over our garage.  We found some nice ones but baulked at the price (about €20 for two), but having subsequently checked the prices on the web have decided they’re a good deal!

We’re now back at the riad relaxing before dinner here at 8pm.  It has very good reviews on trip adviser so am hoping we’ll be having a nice meal!!