Nov 8, 2011 - Magical Meknes

We took our time this morning; had our breakfast, packed our bags; brought them downstairs to be stored in a room (to be picked up later), stepped outside into the sunshine and 13 degrees C. We took a taxi to the starting point of our walking tour at about 10 am. We visited the Granaries built by Moulay (Sultan) Ishmael centuries ago - a very peaceful place. Then we walked alongside the Royal Palace in between two enormous walls. At the end of this road we went through a short tunnel and a gate to the Square. We went into the Koubba el...

Apr 4, 2011 - We head East

Breakfast and then a visit to the Hussan 11 Mosque again. This time we visit inside. Massive complex – supposed to be the largest outside of Mecca. Holds up to 25,000 worshipers. Built in 1993 and only 6 years to complete. A lovely place, a credit to the architects, craftsmen and builders working 24 hours a day in shifts. We board our train – this time first class – a little different from our train from the airport. Set off on time at 11.15. As usual the train traverses the worst part of town. Many smallholdings with a few sheep and goats...

Oct 6, 2010 - Volubilis & Meknes

Our guide Mahomid day 1 organised a taxi driver to take us to Volubilis (Roman ruins ) and on to We left at 9.30 and were back at 7pm. cost for the driver and taxi for the day 800dirham ($100) WE stopped on the way for any photo shots Patricia wanted, that needed more than shooting through the car window. One of the early ones was roadside vegie stalls. the attraction was donkeys. You can see from the photos that we enjoyed a ride. Getting on was trickier, no photos shown of that! The area we went throguh included rich farming areas (mostly...

May 26, 2010 - Moroccan Marriage, Meknes and Mawazzine

Mardi, le 26 mai, 2010 Hi again! Hope all's been going well lately. A quick hello and goodbye to our exchange student, Kenny, who's leaving our family this week (will miss you bud! see you in August!), and a congrats is in order to Chris and Kenny's OM team for what I know was an incredible performance last week at the world competition :) As far as my personal updates, I've had a very exciting past couple of weeks! I apologize for the long delay in posting, and I have a ton to catch you up on, so I'll have to give you a quick soundbyte of...

May 16, 2010 - Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes

Tour group begins siteseeing: Drive along La Corniche, waterfront of Casablanca; Hassan II Mosque, world's 3rd largest mosque, largest mosque in Morocco, completed in 1989, but was inaugurated in 1993. Rabat - Mausoleum of Mohamed V; Unfinished mosque and Hassan Tower; Kasbah Des Oudaias - Andalusian garden, Moor residential area (blue walls) Meknes - Jewish Quarter,Bab Mansour, main square

Apr 4, 2010 - Meknès

@@@@@@@ The train was running late but we didn’t really mind too much because it was such a nice compartment and we had already booked a place to stay in Meknès. We arrived after 9:30pm and it was very dark but the area in front of the train station was well lit. Most of the passengers for Meknès disembarked when we did so there was a real demand for taxis and we were surprised that there weren’t more waiting for fares. We were approached by a ‘grand taxi’ driver who quoted us double the fare, and I wanted to wait for a ‘petit’ taxi and not...

Apr 3, 2010 - Meknes and Anniversaries, part II

Now one thing that is quickly apparent once you depart Casablanca is the absence of places that serve alcohol and even fewer (maybe none) that sell it to take with you. So we didn´t want a lot to drink, just one beer would be great. So we found this place, Le Bar, via the internet and was advertized as a place where even women would be comfortable sitting in and having a drink. It took some searching, but we found it and entered thourgh the heavily tinted door. A beautiful place. We enjoyed a cold beer and watching all the activity on the...

Feb 15, 2010 - Casablanca to Meknes

We started the day with a visit to the Grand Mosque of Hassan II, the world’s biggest mosque. It was really very impressive, but I was more impressed with the quick glimpse of “Rick’s Café” from the taxi window. I would have liked to stop and take a picture but it wasn’t possible. We were back at the hotel by 10.30 to pack our bags and take taxis to the railway station for the three hour journey to Meknes. Three taxis already today, so we have already learned how to do it the Moroccan way. With the guide we are ten people, so that is five...

Jul 26, 2008 - Drive to Meknes

July 26 2008 Sleeping last night was a little gritty. I guess the sand from the dunes finds its way into everything, including our beds. The night was not overly hot, and there was a gently breeze to keep the air circulating. Everyone was up and moving around 6 am, or just after, because we all wanted to watch the sun come up over the dunes. I think everyone was hoping to see the actually sunrise, but we were in a depression and scaling the highest dune nearby would have been a feat. We still climbed to the top of the nearest dune and took...

Jun 30, 2008 - Cassablanca to Meknes

In the morning we visited the grand Hassan II Mosque. This is the largest mosque in the world, but is not very old. It is about the only atrraction to see in Casablanca. We then caught a local train to Rabat, about an hours journey. We spent the afternoon walking around Rabat and then caught another train to Meknes, one of Morocco,s imperial cities.

May 23, 2008 - Fes and around

A friend of a client of Heidi met us in the morning and was an amazing tour guide for the day. Lotfi took us to Volubilis, Roman ruins outside of Fes, the city Meknes, his home city Azrou and Ifrane...a Swiss village with manicured lawns and ice cream parlours...not the Morocco we are used to! We squished in to a grand taxi for the ride back...our giggles entertained the driver the whole way home! Then, for the first time we veered away from our plans...we love Fes so much that we decided to stay another day! And yet again it was another...

Oct 9, 2007 - Meknes

It's another day...after 5 hour bus ride and stop for dinner-Ramadan everyone eats as soon after sunset as possible-very nice Hotel Maroc central to everything, nice people, quiet...next day up and to CTM bus station, took us 2 hours and 3 buses what with language separation and all...nice gal at station helped us get tickets for 11th to Casablanca where we pick up Jake at midnite, and also tickets from Casa to Fes since it will be the end of Ramadan and we guess transport may be difficult since everyone travels home for Eid (At the end of...