Morocco - a sensory extravaganza!

Hi all

A long overdue note on our holiday over the Christmas period, which we spent in Morocco. Not exactly a hotbed of Christmas festivities, however a welcome break from the UK's icy winter and an amazing country full of interesting sights, sounds, smells and tastes which delivered a fantastic experience for us.

Marrakesh - Merry Christmas!

Although we would be exploring Morocco as part of a small tour group, Michelle and I added a couple of extra days onto our trip and visited Marrakesh. Marrakesh is towards the south of Morocco and is the easily the most popular destination for tourism. Notwithstanding this, it retains a real charm and an interesting sight or smell lurks around every corner of its winding old city streets.

Arriving in the evening we headed out to orientate ourselves with the city. Soon enough we found the main square - a huge market packed in the evening with makeshift market restaurants touting freshly cooked Moroccan goodies. Off to the side of the square literally thousands of people, mainly Moroccan, gather and watch singers, dancers, old story tellers (some complete with their own live owl), palm readers and the occasional snake charmer. A baptism of fire for us perhaps, but the whole place had great feel to it and we were excited about what lay ahead.

We had a fantastic Christmas day, the highlight being a half day cooking class at La Maison Arabe (http://www.lamaisonarabe.com/uk_content/ateliers-cuisine.php). Along with another young couple, 'Howard' a Moroccan chef who had worked all over the world, took us through how to make a traditional Chicken, lemon and black olive tagine. We also made a char grilled vegetable salsa and a delicious dessert using filo pastry and a rose flavoured custard like mix. The tagine was incredible - the best we had the whole trip (and that's not just because we're biased!?). On a return visit the restaurant where the cooking school is we were reunited with Howard who somehow convinced us to pay double the going rate for a used tagine - but it came highly recommended and is apparently 'top quality'. Hmm. Anyway - it was good buy as we have recreated the meal in said tagine back in London and it was a delicious as ever!

The rest of our time in Marrakesh was spent exploring its markets and sights - including a great self guided walking tour of the city markets (but more on Morocco's markets below). We did also treat ourselves to an upmarket hamman (steam bath and sea salt scrub) followed by an hour full body massage - interspersed with copious quantities of mint tea and lazing around in beautifully scented darkened rooms. What a bugger of a life eh?

Casablanca - I guess the tour had to start somewhere?

We took a train north to Casablanca where we joined our tour group - another Kiwi, 3 Aussies, a US couple, a Canadian and our guide - a Moroccan whose passion was trekking and mountain guiding, but who was very knowledgeable on each of the cities our trip would take us to.

We were underwhelmed by Casablanca - it was a fairly run down place, modern in contrast to Marrakesh and it felt quite rough around the edges. Interestingly, it is quite well known for its art deco influenced architecture - a blend of French colonial design and traditional Moroccan.

The one thing Casablanca is worth visiting for is its massive mosque (the Hassan II Mosque) located right on the sea shore. Built under orders of King Hassan II this mosque can hold 25,000 worshippers inside, with space for a further 80,000 in the surrounding squares and courtyards. Opened in 1993 it has some high tech features - heated floors, a huge retractable roof and a 210m minaret which shines a laser beam towards Mecca in the evenings. King Hassan's dream was to create a place of pilgrimage in Morocco. It is one of the very few Islamic religious buildings open to non-Muslims, one example of Morocco's relatively moderate position in the Islamic world for which it prides itself. The building and the massive hammam (washing) complex underneath it was quite spectacular.

Rabat

Next stop on our tour of the 'imperial cities' was Rabat - the current day seat of Moroccan administration and permanent home of the King (although he has numerous enormous palaces dotted around the country).

Highlights here were:

• The Chellah - now abandoned and overgrown, these ruins mark an ancient Roman city (taken over by storks when the Romans moved on). It was peaceful spot and overlooked the fertile riverbed below (which was in part the reason it was chosen by the Romans). The storks were interesting - especially since we'd last seen storks in Alsace - which seemed a million miles away from Morocco in all respects!? Last stop at the Chellah was a walled pool which attracts woman from far away who come here armed with hard boiled eggs to feed the resident eels - it is said to bring fertility. Michelle seemed to loiter here - but I am trying not to read too much into that....
  
• We also visited Kasbah des Oudaias here - it is the oldest inhabited part of the city and is perched on the cliff overlooking the bay below. It has narrow winding lanes and the buildings are uniformly painted white, with a blue strip about from the group about 2m up the wall - said to help deter mosquitoes. A great spot for a mint tea (although we didn't have time for this!?).

En-route to Fes

Our trip from Rabat to Fes was memorable - thanks mainly to interesting stops at Meknes and Volubilis.

Meknes was an imperial city in the 17th century and was a nice, relatively peaceful place. Our local guide was a wealth of knowledge on the sites we visited -which included an immense ancient grain storage facility (which could stable and contain food for 12,000 horses and had underground water channels to maintain its cool temperature) and an underground prison where huge armies of prisoners and slaves were kept. We also visited a old religious school here - the architecture and design of which was reminiscent of the Alhambra in Spain.

Volubilis appears from nowhere in the countryside. It is the site of an ancient provincial Roman capital - a distant outpost of the Roman Empire. It was one of the highlights of the trip. Here we could see Roman olive presses and the original mosaic floors of stately homes. The colours and quality of the mosaics all these years on was incredible - exotic animals, dolphins, Bacchus and more were clearly visible in these huge pieces of art, originally designed more with a functional purpose in mind. Quite incredible - and relatively untouched with the mosaics etc all exposed to the elements.

Fes - a shopper's paradise

Throughout our trip we had heard that the artisans of Fes were without comparison and we were not disappointed by the markets here - which were the best we saw. I resisted the urge to tell you all about Morocco's markets until now - but the markets of each place we visited were always a real feature (perhaps with the exception of Casablanca).

Morocco's markets are like stepping back in time. With narrow bustling lanes you can soon find yourself completely lost in them (as we did on one or more occasions!). The following will be things we never forget:

• The smell of huge piles of fresh mint and coriander
  
  
• Beautiful sculpted piles of olives or spices - too pretty to touch!
  


• The meat markets - live chickens on a death row of sorts, huge cuts of beef hanging, lamb (with testicles still attached) as male lamb commands a premium, not to mention the odd speciality store (apparent by the fresh camel head hanging by them). Shops selling fresh fish and snails were common.
  
  
  


• Nuts and dried fruit. Huge piles of them wherever you went - the dried figs in particular were devine. Nuts, we discovered, were best purchased in Marrakesh in 'nut alley' a short cut between our Riad and the markets - our salted cashews and pistachios were delicious!


• Old crafts and industry continuing to this day - blacksmiths working red hot iron from fires and tailors sitting behind ancient Singer sewing machines.
  


• Leather - the stink of the pits where workers cure and dye animal skins in a liquid mix of animal urine and bird droppings (among other things?!). The colours here though were incredible - pity the guys pushing leather goods are so pushy.
  
  
• Speaking of pushy - carpets! Dave Dobbyn happened to have visited a carpet store we visited and being a Kiwi who had shown just a little too much interest (while making it clear I was not there to buy) I soon found myself in a one sided negotiation with the seller starting his price for a carpet at €1,500, but talking himself down to €400 by the time I left (I was still not tempted). It was the deal the century - I wouldn't be able to sleep if I passed it up he told me. Strangely enough I slept fine that night.....
  
  


• Donkeys - laden with goods or pulling their owner on a trailer work through the markets' narrow lanes.
  

We also visited a ceramic factory here, were we started our binge of buying the brightly coloured ceramic wood fired plates, bowls and tagines on offer in Fes.

From Fes we also visited Sefrou, a Berber township about 30kms away on the edge of the Middle Atlas mountains. If anywhere felt like going back in time, it was this place. Merchants selling dried herbs to cure any aliment and very little sign of technology anywhere. We happened to be there on market day - so fresh produce was everywhere, as were freshly harvested olives in sacks on heavily laden utes - produce of that year's harvest - Morocco is about the 7th largest producer of olive oil in the world!

New Years Eve was also spent in Fes. We had a great night - following Moroccan tradition of watching a sort of talent show before the night descended into dancing with a group of local women and their younger sons. There wasn't much alcohol floating round - but with a shisha and good dancing and a few sneaky drinks we had a hilarious night.

Full circle - back in Marrakesh

Our trip which had taken us from the north and worked back down the country finished (after a long drive on New Year's day) to Marrakesh. We were like locals here and spent the next couple of days exploring the city more and finishing off any last minute shopping tasks!?

All in all - a magic trip. With obvious similarities to Egypt, what Morocco may lack in terms of ancient ruins etc, it more than makes up for with its beautiful cities, incredible markets (which leave Egypt's for dead!), friendly people and tasty cuisine.