Morocco: The Land of Sun and Sand?

 

Three years ago, I was lucky enough to spend New Years in Egypt with friends. This year, I got to do the same thing, with the same friends, but in Morocco! 

Jemaa el-Fnaa square in Marrakech

 

We saw beautiful cities, ate amazing meals, and had unforgettable experiences, but to avoid trying anyone’s patience, I’ll try to highlight just a few of them. (I should note, by the way, that almost everything I’m going to highlight is Old Stuff. Morocco has many perfectly modern cities full of things like grocery stores and gas stations, but who’s interested in gas stations? So get ready to see a post almost entirely dedicated to Old Stuff.)

Nod to New Stuff: Ketchup-flavored Pringles at, yes, a gas station

 

We started in Marrakech, where the streets of the medina (old town) are so narrow that the airport taxi has to drop you off outside, where you wait for a porter to come, throw your bags into a cart, and lead you through labyrinthine passageways (where motorbikes nevertheless manage to navigate) to your riad.

My porter leading me into the medina

Over the course of the trip, we saw more palaces, mosques, and madrasas (Quranic schools) than you can shake a fist at. Each was fascinating and unique, with hand-tiled mosaics, sculpted plaster, and carved cedar-wood ceilings.

Koutoubia Mosque (12th century), Marrakech; the square minaret is typical in Morocco

Jardin Secret (rebuilt 2008), Marrakech

Dar el Bacha (the pasha's house, 1910), Marrakech

Badi Palace (16th century), Marrakech

Bahia Palace (1860s), Marrakech

 

Cherratine Madrasa (17th century), Fes

Al Attarine Madrasa (14th century), Fes

Hassan II Mosque (1993), Casablanca

But the other unique aspect of our trip was that it rained. A lot. One local told us he hadn’t seen rain like this in ten years, and temps were fully ten degrees below normal. I had waterproofs and lots of layers, so no complaints from me, but I do have a lot of pictures of people with puff jackets and umbrellas!

A mule in the rain, Marrakech

My travel companions in the rain, Bahia Palace

Plus, almost every building is built with either the roof or a wall open to let in fresh air. Some of the windows in our riads didn’t have glass, just shutters. This is aesthetically charming and no doubt welcome in the sweltering summers, but it did make things a bit drafty in a cold spell!

Planks laid down on a flooded walkway at the Saadi tombs. Hopefully all the tourists practiced their balance beam footwork in gym class!

 

But a little rain wasn’t going to put a damper on our trip. We enjoyed the souks (markets) of Marrakech and Rabat…

A spice and oil shop in Rabat

More spices!

 

…marveled at the blue city of Chefchaouen…

Why is it blue, you ask? Answers vary. The most likely answer is that it attracts tourists!

Yes, I took a lot of pictures of cats.

Chefchaouen has souks as well!

…visited the workshops of craftsmen in Fes…

Mosaic tile workers

Coppersmiths

The (incredibly malodorous) tannery

Leather dyers

Weavers

 

…celebrated New Year at the Riad Fes…

As we all know from Doctor Who, "Fezes are cool."

…and then got off the beaten trail a bit. At Merzouga, we rode camels into the desert. This was purely for the fun of it, by the way: a 4x4 brought our luggage to the camp and could just have easily have taken us too. But we came to watch the sun set over the dunes of the Sahara. And we were not disappointed!

Camel, unimpressed by the Sahara

Sunset with camels!

Cards on the table, I am not a camper. The Golden Camp, where we stayed, was absolutely a glamping experience: full meal service, hot water, plumbing, electricity, even wifi! The only sign that we were sleeping in a tent and not a riad was the sound of the walls flapping in the night wind.

The only kind of tent I will voluntarily sleep in

The last day of our trip was a real highlight for a film buff like me. In Ouarzazate, we toured Atlas Studios, the largest film studio in Africa, where they filmed, among many others, the Mummy films (the Brendan Fraser ones), Gladiator, and Passion of the Christ.

A rare example of a tourist photo without tourists in it!

Presumably it was not this muddy when they filmed Passion of the Christ here

Then we visited Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has also hosted the filming of everything from Gladiator II to Game of Thrones. Cities like this are probably what most people think of when they think of Morocco, and even though a majority of Moroccans now live in modern cities like Rabat, I was delighted to see such a beautiful site being inhabited and preserved. I was also delighted we had one of our few sunny days to enjoy the red brick colors!

Old city in the foreground, new city in the background

The gates of Ait Ben Haddou

 

For a complete change of scene, we then drove over the High Atlas Mountains, where the snow was up to our shins, and arrived that night back in Marrakech for our flight home in the morning.

The High Atlas Mountains 

Our last riad in Marrakech, and, coincidentally, the last picture I took on the trip.

So, yes, we got our sun and our sand, but we also got pretty much every other weather condition too. But that’s the fun of travel. I mean, everybody sees Morocco in the sunshine. How many people can say they saw it in a rainstorm?

 

No, I'm not posting pictures of me in my rain gear!