We arrived in Casablanca on Sunday morning. We were one of
the first to disembark (about 8:45). We then caught a cab—they wanted $50 to go
five blocks. I held my ground at $10 (still too much) and we finally had an
offer—but half way there the elderly driver started to pout about the fare
hoping to get more—he didn’t. We picked up an Avis rental car, bought a road
map and then headed north on the toll road. Our destination was the home of a
LDS family in Rabat. After only a few wrong turns in Rabat, we arrived just in
time (11:30) for the second hour of their two hour block of meetings. Will went
to primary and found a few fun boys his age. Marie and Sarah went to Young
Women’s/Relief Society and Joel and I joined with a dozen other priesthood
holders in a basement room. It was a branch of only expatriates from the US,
Canada, Philippines, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leon and Nigeria.
We spent the rest of the Sabbath
happily eating and visiting with good friends—the Kronmillers (with three cute
young kids) who we knew in Jerusalem and the Kuhns—a young couple who are
finishing up their two years as peace corps volunteers in Morocco, he was my TA
for my Middle East Geography class at BYU and I was his honors thesis advisor.
I had thought we might take part of the afternoon to go see a few sites in
Rabat, but there was not much interest—It was nice to just “hang out”. We spent
a comfortable night spread out at the Kronmiller’s.
Monday morning we headed east on a
nice toll road past groves of cork trees, fields of wheat and lots of beautiful
wild flowers in full bloom. Spring in Morocco is spectacular. Our first stop
was Volubilis—the ruins of one of the Roman Empire’s western most outposts
where wheat and olives were grown to feed the empire. There were some great
mosaics, but Jerash in Jordan is a much better restored Roman city. We stopped
at a small grocery store for some bread, cheese and water and then headed to
Fez. Google maps got us to the general location of our hotel. In the process of
trying to turn around for another try at finding it a nice man on a motorcycle
noted that we were heading away from the tourist areas and offered to help us get
where we were going. We told him the hotel name and he led us there. I got out
to thank him and we started talking. Ends up that he was a guide for Fes and so
I hired him to take us out that afternoon and then the next day. Score. He
first took me to the Avis office to see if the engine light that came on would
necessitate changing cars (no), then he took all of us to a tile/zellij factory
and shop and two panoramic views of the huge old city of Fez. We then had a
delicious traditional Moroccan dinner of tagine, couscous and kebab.
Next morning Ali greeted us at the
pre-arranged time and then introduced us to a new guide (Ali had something come
up) named Hamid. He was a very good guide who walked us through the lower
section of the old city. We walked the winding streets looking at the beautifully
carved wood, painted stucco and geometric mosaics (zellij) that decorated
mosques, mausoleums. madrasahs (schools), fountains and many other things.
After a morning of wandering the streets and markets, we had another delicious
lunch of various Moroccan foods. The restaurant was in a courtyard house that
opens up its cushioned rooms as a lunch time eatery. Sarah and I shared a
patisserie—made with young chicks or pigeons, nuts and onions in a filo dough
crust dusted with cinnamon. Delicious. For desert we all enjoyed sliced oranges
with a dusting of cinnamon. After lunch we visited various co-ops and shops
where we learned about carpet weaving (where we surprisingly bought a lovely
carpet), herbs, spices and ointments (where we didn’t buy anything), and then the
amazing tannery with its colorful vats of dye (where we bought leather slippers
for Joel and Dad)—our salesman here took a playful liking to Sarah and jokingly
offered camels for her hand in marriage! He then presented her with a leather
pouch as we left (which most likely means we paid too much for the slippers). Finally
we visited a weaving establishment where Sarah bought a lovely purple scarf. It
was our most intense shopping day of the whole trip.
We drove our rental car
back to the hotel to drop off our load, rest and take a quite swim before
heading out for an evening stroll. We knocked on the beautiful gates of the
royal palace, walked through the straight streets of the one-time Jewish
quarter (called mellah—salt) and then into the upper portion of the old city
where Will bought a wooden soccer ball and we had a delicious dinner on the
roof top of Café Clock.
One of the more amusing moments of
the day was after dinner as we were walking out of the old city. A taxi driver
approached us and asked if we wanted a ride. I told him no we were walking back
to our hotel. Then he took Sarah’s arm and said “OK, but you stay with me.” He said it with a
smile and so I knew he was joking. I quickly replied, with a smile, “how many
camels?” He responded “two.” I let out a grunt of surprise and then retorted:
“Hamza!” (five in Arabic). He laughed in agreement that Sarah was certainly
worth more than two camels. (side note: I do not condone old men marrying child
brides nor do I think daughters should be auctioned off for cows or camels). It
was a quick fun interchange and then we moved on. He then came running to catch
up with us and asked if we needed a driver for the next day. I told him we were
in a rent-a-car. Then in a nice act of kindness he pointed out a more direct
walking route back to our hotel.
Walking back to our hotel we
stopped at a nice mall between the old and new cities and bought bread, cheese,
oranges and snacks at Carrefour for our next day’s drive to Tangier.
They didn't have his size in yellow so he got tan and dad got brown.
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