3 am: leave Monrovia, Liberia.
3:30 am: stop in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
9:30 am: arrive in Casablanca, Morocco.
10:30 am: rent car, thank our lucky stars we were upgraded to an air conditioned unit, and after a night of no sleep set out on a 3 hour car ride to Meknès for our first night.
The country is arid and we have arrived in the hot season (hence the low tourist season).
We stayed at the Hotel Maroc, a backpackers riad (a traditional townhouse set around an internal garden). Cheap, clean and right in the heart of the medina (old city)
Nigel, after driving the whole way, crashed the moment we walked in.
I wandered around and found a little sitting area on the second level that reminded me of a Vermeer painting.
This is the internal garden filled with orange trees in our riad looking right at our bedroom window.
The rooftops in all the buildings have a sitting area and often a sleeping area.
There are covered areas and open, bright areas where the laundry is dried and plants are grown.
Looking down from the roof, a man fixes the cobblestone walkway.
For dinner we found a gem just around the corner. Restaurant Oumnia is an informal eating place inside a family home. There is a set 3-course dinner menu (which always has a vegetarian option).
Sitting in the restaurant waiting for the 1st course.
The place was somewhat empty as we were exhausted and eating about 5:30pm as opposed to the Moroccan norm of 9pm.
Dinner starts with a vegetable soup and khoobz, Moroccan style pita bread (cooked in wood-fired ovens until crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside). We ordered hot tangines for our main, famous Morrocan stews cooked in conical earthenware pots. They are often served with hot fluffy couscous.
Dessert is usually several Moroccan pastries with the famous mint tea (stuff your glass full of fresh mint leaves, pour brewed green tea over, and add a lot of sugar. Yum. Nigel is addicted already.
3 am: leave Monrovia, Liberia.
3:30 am: stop in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
9:30 am: arrive in Casablanca, Morocco.
10:30 am: rent car, thank our lucky stars we were upgraded to an air conditioned unit, and after a night of no sleep set out on a 3 hour car ride to Meknès for our first night.
The country is arid and we have arrived in the hot season (hence the low tourist season).
We stayed at the Hotel Maroc, a backpackers riad (a traditional townhouse set around an internal garden). Cheap, clean and right in the heart of the medina (old city)
Nigel, after driving the whole way, crashed the moment we walked in.
I wandered around and found a little sitting area on the second level that reminded me of a Vermeer painting.
This is the internal garden filled with orange trees in our riad looking right at our bedroom window.
The rooftops in all the buildings have a sitting area and often a sleeping area.
There are covered areas and open, bright areas where the laundry is dried and plants are grown.
Looking down from the roof, a man fixes the cobblestone walkway.
For dinner we found a gem just around the corner. Restaurant Oumnia is an informal eating place inside a family home. There is a set 3-course dinner menu (which always has a vegetarian option).
Sitting in the restaurant waiting for the 1st course.
The place was somewhat empty as we were exhausted and eating about 5:30pm as opposed to the Moroccan norm of 9pm.
Dinner starts with a vegetable soup and khoobz, Moroccan style pita bread (cooked in wood-fired ovens until crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside). We ordered hot tangines for our main, famous Morrocan stews cooked in conical earthenware pots. They are often served with hot fluffy couscous.
Dessert is usually several Moroccan pastries with the famous mint tea (stuff your glass full of fresh mint leaves, pour brewed green tea over, and add a lot of sugar. Yum. Nigel is addicted already.
2 comments:
sounds delicious...can I get a shot of rum & some ice cubes in mine? Oops, they don't do that there do they?
There are more venues that you would think who sell alcohol. Not many though, give it is a Muslim country. Mint tea seems to be the beverage of choice.
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