Morocco - Rabat - Day 1

We flew from Milan very early in the morning- I had been awake from 2.30am.  We left the hotel at 4.30am, and caught the plane to Casablanca, arriving at 8.00am.  After getting our luggage, we made the way to the train station and caught the train to Rabat-Ville, where Liang picked us up.  We were starving as we hadn't had breakfast!! 

Liang organised breakfast for us, then as soon as we finished that, out came a beautiful morroccon lunch!  

Jeffrey and Liang's house is beautiful - lovely and cool inside with a gorgeous pool which Anne and I were looking forward to relaxing by!

After lunch Liang took us exploring.  Our first visit was to the local souk (market).  I have to say I was appalled at the poverty, but at the same time impressed with the prices.  I guess when the average weekly wage is only 800 dirham (80 euro) per week, then food cannot be expensive.

Photos from the souk - local sellers showing off the size of their pumpkins...

The street and the souk on both sides...

Spices....

After we left the souk - Liang dropped back the groceries at the house then took us to a few more places..  Driving is erratic - no real rules, and of course lots of modes of transport on the road...

We then visited the Chellah.  This is the first place to be settled along the Bou Regreg river in the 3rd Century BC.  There is a probability that the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians inhabited the banks of this river.  The Romans took over Chellah in 40AD and turned it into Sala Colonia.  Around 250 AD it came under the control of the Berber rulers. Today it is a complex of the ancient and medieval ruins of Morocco. It contains the ruins of Sala Colnia.  Excavations have revealed among others the remains of the Decumanus Maximus, a monumental fountain and a triumpal arc.

It was abandoned in 1154 and was later used by the Almohad dynasty as a necropolis.  In the middle of the 14th century, the Merinid Sultan, Abu I-Hasan constructed features such as a mosque, a Zawiya and a grand main gain.  Today it is also the tomb to Abu I-Hasan.

These would be the remains of shops....

A beautiful Andalucian garden was in the middle of the Chellah...

Like Greece - lots of cats everywhere....

After the Chellah, Liang took us to the pottery.  Absolutely stunning pottery of excellent quality - and so cheap compared to New Zealand.  Shame about the shipping costs ....

The heat was getting to Anne obviously.  She was trying to feed the horse...

Would love one or two of these in my garden....

It was here in one of these shops I was offered 100 camels for Anne.  I declined as I didn't think it was enough for a first offer!

After the shops, we stopped at the Hassan Tower.  Begun in 1195, the tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world along with the mosque.  The mosque was also intended to be the worlds largest.  In 1199, Sultan Yacoub al-Mansour died and construction on the mosque was stopped.  The tower only reached 44m (140 ft), about half of it's intended 86m (260 ft) height.  The rest of the mosque was also left incomplete, with only the beginnings of several walls and 200 columns being constructed.  The tower madeof red sandstone, along with the remains of the mosque and the modern Mausoleum of Mohammed V, forms an important historical and tourist complex in Rabat.

Instead of stairs, the tower is ascended by ramps.  The minaret's ramps would have allowed the Muezzin to ride a horse to the top of the tower to issue the call to prayer.

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Liang....

Anne doing the tourist jump....

Liang having a go too!

Liang then took us to have a look at the beach.  Prime real estate, but nothing there except cemetries and houses of the poor.  The beaches aren't suitable for swimming and litter was everywhere.

He then took us to where all the fishing boats come in - and I loved the colour.  Believe me though it stank of fish badly....

Looking over the river to the Casbah....

Boys playing soccer on the beach....

Old fishing boats....

We had a great day and were very thankful for our wonderful tour guide.  Couldn't have been in better hands.

Back to the house for dinner and catching up with Jeffrey and an early night!!