Morocco calling! A photo essay. Part 2
By Leanne Kitchen
Itching to get to Morocco? You’re not alone. According to the Trading Economics website, the Kingdom is expecting as many as 12 million tourist arrivals in 2024. Last year I was one of them, lured by the promise of ancient medinas, gorgeous architecture and gallons of mint tea, and with snippets of Paula Wolfert’s iconic food prose rattling around my head.
In a trip that isn’t really long enough (but really, whenever is it!), my precise destination was UNESCO heritage-listed Fez (فاس) (also spelled Fes from the French name, Fès), and a few surrounding towns. Plus Rabat, the country’s capital and briefly, Casablanca.
I’m determined to return as I never made it to Marrakech, Tangier or, bummer, the port town of Essaouira. In the meantime, I’ve fashioned a slideshow of my Moroccan highlights, with some random thoughts. I’m sharing them here, so you can get the overall vibe and maybe start planning your own North African adventures. Here’s part two. Enjoy!
Meknes 1. We had planned to stay in this wonderful old imperial city for a few nights but day-tripped instead (it’s only 35 minutes by train from Fes). We’d been tipped off that many of its compelling sights (such as the spectacular Bab Mansur al-‘Alj) were swathed in scaffolding and being restored. Even so, we found it to be alluring and with an overall lower-key vibe than Fes. “It’s nothing special” some German tourists had warned us, which ended up suiting us to a tee – in Meknes we discovered a version of Morocco that was simply going about its everyday business, with tourists absorbed into the general activity. Enclosed by 25 km of ancient walls and entered via that gorgeously imposing Bab Mansur, Meknes boasts over 80 listed monuments, including mosques, medresas and hammams. So there’s plenty to see in its atmospheric nooks, crannies and alleyways, but really it was its ‘everyday-ness’ that made it such a great place to visit, IMO.
Meknes 2. When you’re travelling, finding decent food can be hit and miss but we totally lucked in with Restaurant Baraka (5 Db Moulay Abdallah Ahd Suezzara) in Meknes. Family run and totally charming, their home cooking is wonderful and the lovely host showed off his traditional wood-working room out the back. He’s quite the artisan.Baraka’s was some of the best food we had in Morocco (we overall had patchy experiences). Also in a foodie vein, we enjoyed jostling with the crowds at Twarkh Market, near Rue Rahal Meskini, where locals stock up on fresh supplies including fish, and Marche Central, with its array of produce, household items and flowers. Other highlights? The completely breath-taking Dar Jamai Music Museum, housed in a 19th century palace, haggling for beautiful damascene ware (an artisanal technique for decorating metal objects that’s only practised in Meknes), and exploring the old medina and kasbah.
Rabat 1. I actually said on SM while I was there that no, Rabat wasn’t boring, because I don’t really believe anywhere is innately boring – even places with that reputation. On reflection, I’d say Rabat’s a bit ‘quiet’ so, if you’re after clamour and excitement, you won’t necessarily find those there. But I did love walking along the corniche and viewing the expanse of the Atlantic, wandering around the commercial downtown area with its mix of colonial-era buildings, kicking around the medina which is positively soothing after Fes’s madness, plus shopping along Rue Souk and Rue de Consuls, two of old Rabat’s main shopping streets. Absent is any hard sell, which makes the experience relatively relaxed. Even if you’re not a shopper, Moroccan souks and markets are cultural experiences that shouldn’t be missed; and look, if you couldn’t fall for something amongst the Fassi pottery, hand-made hide lamps, slippers, carpets, jewellery and other baubles, you’ve got more self control than I ever will.
Rabat 2. We did eat some mighty fine food in Rabat, including the ever-present charcoal-grilled sardines (gosh, they’re good), and the breads, cookies and pastries (such as the famed pastilla) that make up a hefty percentage of the street food offerings. I LOVED eating seffa medfuona, a dish of steamed, broken vermicelli piled over saffron-cooked chicken and finished with almonds, cinnamon and liberal sprinklings of icing sugar at Dar Naji (Av Jazarit Al Arabe). With lovely interiors and views toward the 17th century Andalusian wall that skirts the southern part of the medina, it's a great dining option. Other highlights? Defo the Oudayas Kasbah, once a fishing village and today a peaceful, white washed residential corner that’s the oldest part of the city. Having the stunning Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art largely to ourselves was amazing. Drinking wine (OMG wine! Alcohol can be hard to come by in parts of the country) and eating salad Nicoise with French expats at the iconic Ty Potes (11 Rue Ghafsa) was a treat. And finding MaliMalo (45 Av. Mokhtar Gazoulit), a fabulous design store with lovely owners and really clever, beautiful stuff, was an absolute treat too. I’m still dreaming about their solid walnut arm chairs, upholstered in African rafia. Damn.
Casablanca 1. ‘Casablanca is a hole!’ ‘There’s nothing in Casablanca!’ ‘Casablanca? Don’t bother!’ If I had a dirham for every time I heard statements like these, I’d be significantly richer than I am. But I thought the city was fabulous. Why? For a start, it doesn’t exist for tourism, as so much of Morocco seems to these days. It just does its own thing and I liked that. And the colonial-era downtown, complete with dusty old bars that look like they stepped out of, well, Casablanca (the movie), is nothing short of stunning. Pulling up a stool and enjoying a beer with the local drinkers felt almost naughty after time in more conservative parts of the country, where this is definitely not a thing. We loved the Marché Central, where there’s a number of fish sellers. You can buy your spanking-fresh fish or seafood, take it to one of the adjoining casual restaurants, then have it cooked how you like. See? Fabulous.
Casablanca 2. With its stark contrasts (from backstreet decrepitude, beggars and crumbling buildings, to renovated 1930s villas set in lush gardens in wealthier parts of town) Casablanca is the kind of intriguing place that invites further investigations. I really hope I get back there one day. If you go, you’ll undoubtedly end up visiting the sparkling Hassan II Mosque. The largest in Africa, it’s the 7th biggest in the world, with a 210 metre (that’s 60 stories!) minaret and capacity for 25,000 worshipers inside and another 80,000 out. Finished in 1993, it cost some 585 million euros and involved 10,000 artisans who worked on the finer details. It’s completely astonishing in scale and non-muslims are allowed in on guided tours outside of prayer times. At the other end of the spectrum, the scruffy old medina, largely untouched by the French, has an authentically gritty feel that makes for a diverting amble.
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