Take me to the Kasbah

Today we left the hustle and bustle of Casablanca behind and headed to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Ahkmed, our driver was able to get us there with ease and it was only when he needed to find our riad that he had to call on his special GPS skills.

Rabat has given us our first taste of what we were expecting to find in Morocco. Our riad is located in the old medina (city) and is only accessible by foot or motorbike along narrow pathways. It is a magnificent old building entranced by an ornate door and the entire building surrounds an internal courtyard with Moroccan ornamentation throughout. Our French speaking hostess welcomed us with traditional mint tea.

After tea it was off to the Oudayas Kasbah, a twelve century old fortressed city which contains a tangle of pathways with buildings mostly painted in white and various blue hues, an ancient palace (now someone’s house), a mosque, views over the harbour and Atlantic Ocean from its highest point, women making traditional carpets and gardens.  We also visited the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and Hassan II.

Following our excursion we capped today’s taste of Morocco with traditional fare at a local restaurant. This time however it was Adrian that was hard done by. In Joy’s zeal to ensure that she was provided with a gluten free meal, poor Adrian had to put up with the same six dish entrée without the cous cous that should have accompanied the tagine  main course.