Wednesday 10 October - So long Morocco

We won't be at all sad to see the last of Morocco, and Fez in particular. I think it is safe to say we won't be back to either, ever. Nor will we willingly eat another tajine. There have been good things, and lovely sights, but not enough to balance the ledger.

Our last full day started horrifically, with a man climbing up the frame of our window from the terrace on the floor below and putting his head inside, about to climb in. We were only vaguely awake. I yelled at him, then jumped naked out of bed and bashed the hand that was gripping the window frame. Thankfully he had to let go and jumped down. Very scary.

A few minute later he was lying on his back on the terrace below, masturbating openly. Hardly the sight we wanted to get up to. We closed up the windows and curtains, and tried to settle ourselves down a bit. I couldn't get through to our manager on his phone, but sent an email to our host.

Thankfully we had a full day planned, and getting ourselves out of the room and away to Meknes kept us occupied. We started with a petit taxi ride to the train station (ripped off as usual, but we couldn't be bothered arguing). The train to Meknes was easy and cheap, even though we treated ourselves to first class. At the Meknes station we negotiated a price with an old Mercedes grand taxi to take us to the Roman ruins of Volubilis, then the pretty Berber/Arab town of Moulay Idriss, then to the Mansour Gate of Meknes. Despite a few minutes arguing we knew we were being ripped off again.

Fez Railway Station

The countryside here is very fertile. Olive trees and cropping everywhere. Some of the olives are very old; presumably there have been olives here for millenia.

Volubilis was interesting. It was about as far south into Western Africa as the Romans got, and was built over perhaps four phases. The building ruins were not amazing, but the number, variety and quality of the mosaics were. There must have been dozens, of which most were remarkably complete, and with lovely themes and scenes. Well worth the trip.

Pleasant path up to Volubilis

Looking across the centre of Volubilis

The triumphal arch

And down the main street

A fishing mosaic

Next was a drive up to a lookout point to view Moulay Idriss from above. It is a pretty little town set on two knobs, the slightly higher one more Berber, and the other more Arab. Our driver stopped us at a 'recommended' restaurant, where I checked the menu and we agreed to stop. Bad mistake - the worst tajines of the trip so far. Normally for the price of a tajine you also get what is known as 'Moroccan salad' - a selection of small plates filled with olives, pickles, sweetish condiments and so on. Not here. The tajines were the standard choice, chicken, meat or vege, with raisins as an option but not prunes. There's always remarkably little choice. We chose a chicken and a beef with raisins. Unlike many other places there was no Moroccan salad starter. Service was appallingly slow - 45 minutes from our arrival to the tajines appearing. When they did, they were the worst we've had in Morocco. The veges were only potato, some sort of bland melon and a few slices of carrot - no eggplant, courgette, tomato or anything with flavour. My addition of raisins proved to be exactly 3 raisins! A poor, tasteless meal, served by uninterested staff. Another ripoff.

Moulay Idriss

Berber streets in Moulay Idriss

On going down to the village, I realised we'd need a little extra cash, but we first took off for the top of the town for the views, the major sight to see here. On the way we were adopted uninvited by a local, as happens, who led us up through narrow alleyways, with walls painted a soft berber blue. Not amazing views but interesting all the same. At the top he demanded 240 dirham, nearly 20 hours of the standard wage here! We laughed. Back down he kept badgering us, reducing all the time until at the bottom I handed him 50 dirham, yet another ripoff.

The central square was full of nice little eating places where we no doubt could have got  a decent tasty meal for less than half the price. A quick visit to an ATM and we were set for the end of the trip. An uneventful trip back to Meknes, despite the driver doing his best to make it eventful with some very dubious passing moves. He wasn't happy when I only paid him what we'd agreed, and not all the extra 50 dirham we'd agreed if it was a good trip. The lunch stop and the return driving were too awful.

Moulay Idriss market

Moulay Idriss Market

Meknes was a disappointment. We'd had two special places we specifically wanted to see, the mausoleum of the ruler, and the Museum of Moroccan Art in an old building, but both were under restoration. The alternative museum should have been open, but it too never opened its doors. What we did see was the prison area where they kept 65,000, mainly Christian, prisoners as slaves, working them during the day and chaining them up at night in a huge vaulted underground hall. The price however was a ripoff (the final and 4th ripoff of the day), as there was nothing there except a totally empty cavern. We went wandering around Meknes for a bit, but, after the day we'd had, we couldn't face going deep into the medina to look at one place we were assured was open. Instead we jumped in a petit taxi back to the train station, hopped on the first train and made our way back to our room.

A Meknes streetscene

Bab Mansour Gate

Bab Mansour gate

Cara Prison

Apparently the police had been round, talked to our manager and the neighbours. Profuse apologies all round, and the offending man had been spirited away by his family.