Saturday April 19, 2025

Morning in Fes. But a cloudy one! On the roof terrace the wind is a bit cool during breakfast. And a few drops fall. 

And that’s how it continues when we turn the car west and start towards Rabat. There is an excellent toll road with a maximum speed of 120 km/h (80m/h) and we zoom through the heart of Morocco.

On each side we pass green fields. Apparently it rains sufficiently here for good agriculture. Many good size olive orchards. Also much grass for grazing, some wheat. Also crops I don’t recognize. Could be mustard?

The rain mostly stays away. Just a few light showers, so the driving is very pleasant. 

In less than three hours we arrive in Rabat where we head for Chellah once more - the walled area with excavations of both Roman and Ottoman ruins. We treat ourselves to a lunch overlooking the valley of excavations with an excellent view of several stork nests. They all have young nestlings and the parents are busy taking care of them.

When we descend the stairs to the excavations we are suddenly told by a guard that our big camera is not allowed. His french is too poor to explain why. We look up the rules online and it says that only professional film equipment is not allowed. But the bossy man doesn’t understand it and insists that we leave our biggest lens at the entrance.

I refuse and put it in my backpack, but it leaves us with a bitter taste in our mouth.

Nevertheless we enjoy the site again (we were here once before). Ancient roman ruins always have an attraction for me, and the many plant and flower beds make it a pleasant and restful place.

But tomorrow morning very early we have to get up to bring Didi to the airport, so at the end of the afternoon we go to our inn where Ali welcomes us warmly.

We walk over to our favorite fried chicken restaurant. The main waiter recognizes us and shakes my hand. His brother especially makes moroccan salad for us and we enjoy an abundance of food on the sidewalk.

Then we head back to our riad and we go to sleep early. Have to wake up at 03:30…