John and Sheila's Travels - a journey across Morocco in 2022

Through Morocco, from Gibraltar to Western Sahara by boat, train and bus

September-October 2022

We started this journey in Gibraltar to 'join it up' with our 1986 drive from London to Spain and Portugal. We crossed by ferry to Ceuta in Spanish north Africa then travelled by train through the Moroccan highlights and bus down to the Western Sahara.

Gibraltar

Tues 27 Sept. We were up at 3am and at Heathrow terminal 3 by 4.30 expecting long queues, but we were the first ones at the BA bag drop and a nice man showed us how to use the automatic bag check-in machine, which worked fine because our bags were indeed waiting for us when we arrived in Gibraltar. As we arrived at security in T3 they opened up a new line and we were first through that, so we were sitting in a lounge having a nice bacon and egg breakfast by 5am. Even the departure gate was right next door to the lounge so it couldn't have been easier, the flight left right on time and arrived at Gibraltar 15 minutes early so it was about the smoothest start to a holiday we've experienced. We got a taxi to our apartment block in Engineer Lane in the heart of the old town, and chanced to meet the lady owner of the apartment we'd booked, who looked after our bags till the apartment was free, so by midday we were strolling round the main shopping street where Sheila took advantage of the Chanel duty free products (and how!). We walked to Casemates Square which was full of rather touristy restaurants and back along Irish Town, an historic old part of the town, where we stopped at Gallo Nero for a very nice lunch. The place was more of a friendly locals' restaurant where everyone seemed to know each other and we had excellent swordfish steak and crayfish pasta with wine and beer. This induced a certain soporific lethargy and we went back to the apartment for a rest.

When we went out and walked about that evening, we were surprised to find that all the streets that had been teeming with people at lunchtime were now deserted, possibly because all the day trippers had returned to their resorts in Malaga etc. We went to Casemates Square again where most of the restaurants were still open but only one had any customers - the Little Rock Cafe was packed and we had a delicious tempura prawn salad and a paté with sangria and Guinness to round off a busy day.

Spain, Ceuta

Weds 28th. Another day, another continent! We walked down to the square and got a taxi to the frontier (£7), where we were the only foot passengers crossing into Spain, and got another taxi from another taxi rank to the port at Algeciras (about £32), where we bought tickets on the 'Jet' catamaran to Ceuta (about £60 for two). We bought a tasty baguette and coffee at the café in the ferry terminal then realised the ferry would be leaving soon so we gulped our coffees and took the baguette through security into the departure lounge. There weren't many passengers and the ferry departed on time at 11.00, so just after 12.00 we docked at Ceuta in North Africa, 3½ hours after checking out of our apartment in Gibraltar. Another very smooth start. We got a taxi to the Hotel Puerta de Africa (£5), a standard international hotel with plenty of space and all the normal facilities, right in the centre of town. We had a quick walk around and a late lunch at the Great Wall Chinese restaurant (we fancied a donor kebab but none of the middle-eastern cafes near the hotel did them). While Sheila napped of course, I strolled around the pleasant Plaza de Africa with shady palm trees, then round the historic city walls which date back to the 5th century. In the evening we strolled further along the main street where the shops were opening up after the siesta time, and ended up at Aire tapas café on the promenade over the port, where we had a selection of tasty small dishes, chosen partly by guesswork as there was no English menu, with tinto verano (red wine spritzers), all very good value for about £25.

Thurs 29th. After a good breakfast at the hotel we had another day strolling round Ceuta, along the shopping street to the elaborate 'Dragon House' .....

The Dragon House on the main street in Ceuta, Spain

.... along the promenade by the harbour with views of Gibraltar in the distance ....

Ceuta harbour with Gibraltar in the distance

.... and Hercules holding up the pillars that mark the end of the known world ....

Hercules holding up the pillars in Ceuta, North Africa

.... to the fortifications and along the historic city walls ....

.... and into a pretty Catholic church, and down to the beach for a coffee at a beach café. Our evening stroll led inevitably back to the Aire tapas café (there weren't a lot of other choices), where we played cards until the kitchen opened at 8pm (we're having trouble adjusting to the Spanish lifestyle of long siestas and late dinners) then had another lovely selection of tapas dishes with tinto verano and red wine.

Morocco, Tangier

Fri 30th. After another good breakfast we got a taxi from the rank outside the hotel to the Moroccan frontier. The first part of the crossing was very straightforward until we arrived behind a coach-load of students who had caught out the single Moroccan passport officer and the queue was hardly moving. Eventually several more officers arrived and we got through. The only onward transport option (apart from the students' coach) appeared to be a taxi for the hour's drive to Tangier for 50 euro (about £45). We found that many things in Morocco are priced in euro (conveniently 10 to the Dirham) and it circulates as a second currency. With the help of a local Tangier taxi driver our taxi managed to take us to La Tangerina, a hotel in a beautifully-restored old traditional house at the top of the Kasbah with views out over the sea to Spain. Unfortunately our booking request arrived too late and it was full, but they also had three nice apartments in a block overlooking Grand Socco, the main square on the edge of the medina, so we ended up in a spacious airy flat with a view over the busy interesting square. We unpacked quickly and set out to find a café for a light lunch, but this turned into an exploration of the fascinating market inside the medina, where we bought bread, cheese, olives and cucumber for a picnic back at our apartment.

We sat on our balcony overlooking all the activity in the square as the sun went down, the annoying tuneless penny-whistle player packed up and went home, the fire juggler performed his routine and then the muezzin called prayer time from the mosque. We cheated and got a taxi up the steep hill to the Kasbah (1 euro set fare) and went to the Morocco Club for a wonderful, expensive, up-market meal - crab and Dorado millefeuille, steak tartare, aged beef fillet with Bearnaise sauce, with Belgian beer and Moroccan wine.

Sat 1st Oct. We had a day of walking round the labyrinth of alleyways in the medina and the Kasbah. We started at the highest point, which was a nice breakfast on the roof terrace of La Tangerina, then wandered generally downhill through pretty residential lanes with bright white houses and through bustling souks with little shops selling all sorts of things from household essentials to tourist tat. We arrived at Petit Socco, the square at the 'crossroads' of the medina, and had a coffee at one of the popular cafés to watch the world go by.

Houses in a lane in the Kasbah in Tangier

We followed the main thoroughfare towards the Grand Socco and plunged into the nearby market, working our way through the busy meat section to the noisy, teeming fish market.

After a very brief respite sitting on our balcony over the square, we set off back to the medina and did it all again, trying to take a different path through the maze, and eventually arriving randomly back at Petit Socco. On the way we stopped at a candle shop with all sorts of nice candles in used and discarded (and washed of course) tea glasses, but even Sheila's penchant for candles was put off by the £25-each price.

By now the shutters were coming down and things were slowing down for the Moroccan equivalent of the siesta so we came back to the apartment for a rest. We went back to La Tangerina for dinner on the atmospheric roof terrace as the sun set, and had the set meal with soup, salad, tagine (a meat stew in a pointy pot) and fruit salad, with Casablanca beer and Spanish wine.

Fez (or Fes)

Sun 2nd. La Tangerina arranged a taxi to the train station and at 11 am we set off on the smooth, comfortable, fast TGV train heading for Casablanca. At Kenitra, the first stop, we changed to a 'local' train to Fez which was comfortable enough. We were entertained by one of our fellow passengers who had two birds (cockatoos?) in a cage on the luggage rack, and rather rashly took one of them out to perch on his hand, then had to chase it down the corridor when it flew off.

Birds in the train on the way to Fez, Morocco

Our hotel's taxi driver was there to meet us when we arrived at Fez station and we were greeted with mint tea and cakes when we checked into the Riad Dar el Safadi in the medina (a 'riad' is an old traditional house around a courtyard with trees, as opposed to just a 'dar' which is a traditional house without a courtyard). We had a wonderful view of the medina spread out below the terrace outside our room, but unfortunately the continuous sunshine of Tangier had been replaced by a dusty mist thrown up by the strong winds. We discovered the other disadvantage of a rooftop room was the 49 steps to get up there. We set out into the maze of alleyways heading for the popular Medina Café in Bab Bou Jeloud, the main square at the entrance to the medina. At every twist and turn of the zig-zagging alleyways there was a helpful bystander to point you on the correct route, but halfway there we noticed the Fez Café in the Jardin du Biehn hotel, a nice-looking upmarket restaurant, so we got the penultimate free table and sat in the garden having smoked duck salad, filet of beef with Diane sauce and seabass with pureed broccoli, with kir and red wine.

Mon 3rd. The Dar al Safadi also did a good breakfast, sitting in the 'riad' in the centre of the house surrounded by the ornate pillars and windows of the upper rooms. Then we set out for a walking tour through the souks of the medina, the main reason to visit Fez.

It was fascinating, colourful, hilly, crowded and complicated.

Traffic jam - a donkey in the souk in the Fez medina

We found our way through Place Batha to the western end of Talaa Seghira, one of the two main routes through the medina to the Kairouine Mosque at the other end, which is one of the claimants to be the oldest university in the world, where a nearby carpet shop will let you take photos of the minaret and university buildings from their rooftop for a small tip.

The Kairaouine mosque in the medina in Fez

Then all the way back along Talaa Kebira, the other main street, stopping for a tasty lunch of vache hache (minced meat) with tomato and onion salad and chips at one of the little cafes along the way. We arrived back at the western end of it all four hours later, hot and exhausted, and retired to the hotel for a shower and a rest.

In the evening we did exactly the same as yesterday, a lovely meal at the Fez Café.

Casablanca

Tues 4th. Another smooth journey - taxi to the station and four-hour train ride to Casablanca, all on time. Our fellow passengers were a pleasant group but there was no wild-life with us this time. We got a taxi to the Odyssee boutique hotel which was very pleasant and centrally located. We set out in the evening intending to have look at an up-market restaurant mentioned in the guide book, but on the way we passed the Petit Poucet, a bar described as 'a relic of 1920s France' and 'an authentic slice of long-ago Casablanca life'. It was full of men watching a football match but they were friendly and we had a half-bottle of wine and several beers (only £5 for 33cl, much cheaper than other bars) with bowls of olives and cheese. We never got to the upmarket place.

Weds 5th. We went for the walking tour of central Casablanca, looking at the central market ....

..... with its fascinating fish stalls ....

..... all beautifully arranged .....

..... and on to the buildings with Art Deco facades and the fancy 1920s hotels.

We stopped for a sandwich and tea at a little cafe and zig-zagged our way to Mohammed V Square, surrounded by monumental government buildings. We went back to the row of cafés and bars behind the central market and had a beer at a little French café then wine and tapas for lunch at La Bodega, a nice up-market bar/restaurant. I also walked all the way out to the huge Hassan II Mosque, apparently the third-largest in the world, but it seemed to be surrounded by smaller buildings so all I could see was the minaret. I walked back through the medina which was less bustling and colourful than Fez's. We went back to La Bodega for dinner and had a wonderful meal sitting at a high table in a corner, watching all the activity in the busy, bustling place. We had Mexican salad, filet de boeuf with chips and fish brochettes with a half bottle of Morrocan red wine from Meknes and the biggest glass of kir vin blanc ever! All very tasty.

Marrakesh

Thurs 6th. Instead of a taxi, we walked two blocks from the hotel and got a tram to Casa Voyageur, the main Casablanca train station. The modern tramway, opened about ten years ago, is fast, smooth and efficient and it was a great way to get there. At the station we noticed that there is a sleeper train from Tangier to Marrakech, with 4-berth compartments and taking nine hours - one to remember for next time. We had a sandwich and a coffee in a snack bar in the modern station (more like an airport terminal) then as usual the train was also efficient and on time and we had a very pleasant three-hour journey to Marrakesh, chatting about travelling and the general state of the world with a lovely couple from Colombia. The taxi from the station in Marrakesh was not so easy because they had no idea where our hotel was (even though we had the address) and they tried to overcharge us (par for the course). Eventually one of the drivers googled the hotel, got the phone number and arranged for the nice lady from the hotel to meet us at the edge of the medina which is apparently as far as taxis can go. We walked with her through the streets and the main square, which all seemed a lot more touristy than the other places so far, to the Riad Granvilier, another lovely traditional house around a central courtyard with a tree growing in it and small birds flying around, and we sat and had mint tea as we completed the check-in formalities. Our first-floor room (actually a small suite) had marble columns, archways, high ceilings, wooden doors and a hammam-style traditional bathroom. As sunset approached we walked through the main square which was a seething mass of humanity and animals - snake-charmers, drummers and dancers, monkeys, parakeets and pigeons, clown shows, acrobats and stilt walkers, beauticians doing henna, fingernails and false hair and eyelashes, a 'kung fu fighter' hammering a nail into his face with a brick (we left before he actually did it), cafés, fruit stalls, souvenir sellers, pickpockets and policemen. After absorbing all this for a while we went to the nearby restaurant Al Baraka where there were live musicians, a belly dancer, Moroccan red wine and beer and a rather average meal.

Fri 7th to Weds 12th - sightseeing, eating and drinking in Marrakech. First we had a busy day of arranging things, going to and fro to the Royal Air Maroc office in the new town to change our return flights and the Supratours bus office to book the overnight bus to Laayoune. We fell for a con about today being the only day for a special Berber market and followed a 'helpful bystander' for a long walk to the tanneries at the edge of the medina to see the leather being processed but nothing much was happening in the extremely smelly vats and they demanded a large 'donation' which we declined - during our stay several people tried this scam on us. We went on the walking tour, from Bahia Palace in the south of the medina through endless convoluted souks and passageways to the Mouassine fountain (formerly a social hub of the local community but now a building site with no water flowing) in the north. We learned to walk on the right side to avoid the crazy boy-racers on motorbikes who tore through the crowds barely missing people. A bit further up we stopped at the Terasse des Epices for a salad and tea for lunch.

The carpet souk in the medina in Marrakech

One day we started walking towards the square and found a taxi waiting in the souk - it's hard enough getting motorcycles along the souk so I don't know how a taxi got there, but anyway we got in and he took us to the Jardin Majorelle. The queue to get in was enormous and we should have bought our ticket online to avoid the worst queue, or got up earlier to be there when it opened. After waiting two hours in the queues we thought we'd be in for a huge disappointment but no, the garden was lovely.

It was created in the 1930s by the painter Jacques Majorelle and purchased in 1980 by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner to save it from developers.

It is cool and shady, full of palm trees, cacti, pots, pools and fountains, and although it was full of tourists it felt relaxed and unhurried and we had a very pleasant wander round. When we eventually left we walked across the new town and ended up at Grand Café de la Poste where we had a refreshing French onion soup, Leffe Brune and Earl Gray tea.

I found an Internet café and spent much of one morning typing up this writeup. While Sheila went for some beauty treatments at a parlour on the square I had a coffee at the nearby Café de Paris. The weather had changed that day and it was quite cold with occasional heavy rain showers, which damped down the activity on the square a bit. We walked around the big minaret of the Koutoubia mosque and paid far too much to a man there who was handing out macarons.

Minaret of the Koutoubia mosque in Marrakech

Back in the main square I treated my dusty shoes to a shoe shine.

Shoe shine in the main square in Marrakech

The first evening we went back to the new town and had a superb dinner at the very smart Grand Café de la Poste - best ever French onion soup with Emmenthal, monkfish skewers and a big slab of beef fillet with Béarnaise sauce, and best of all, Leffe dark beers, altogether costing well over £100. The next evening we had another very good Italian-style meal at Café Arabe in the northern medina, a huge Caesar salad, swordfish steak and lasagne with Moroccan red wine and Moroccan beer.

We went to the terrace bar at the Grand Tazi hotel on the edge of the medina. At first it seemed like a mistake as we were led up a dark staircase to a gloomy, empty terrace, but as more people arrived and they put light bulbs into the lamps, it brightened up and we ordered drinks. A procession started in the street below with drums and horns and they led a camel draped in a banner slowly through the crowds. Music started on the terrace and suddenly a belly dancer show appeared, followed by a lady whirling round with what looked like a tray of crockery on her head. We kept trying to order food and they kept saying yes then ignoring us, until we realised they were serving a set meal to everyone at the same time, which turned out to be quite good, so in the end it was a nice evening.

A camel procession towards the main square in Marrakech

Another evening we strolled through the square looking for a new restaurant to try and in a road just off the square we found Salama, a bar-restaurant on three floors, and sat in the top floor terrace admiring the sunset. We chatted to a British couple on the next table and our intended one quick drink turned into a couple of drinks and three tasty dishes from the starters menu, tapas-style.

Sunset behind the Koutoubia minaret in Marrakech

We had a lovely meal on the terrace at La Terasse des Epices - pastille fruits de mer, prawns in a green grain and a tanjia, which is a sort of super-tagine. The waiter brought a tagine pot which he revealed with a flourish but it was empty! Then he served the meal from another dish, but Sheila felt the 'theatre' was better than the food. On our last evening we went back to Café de la Poste for a last splurge meal - tuna tartare, a big salmon steak and another whopping beef fillet with delicious Béarnaise sauce.

Thurs 13th. I noticed almost too late that the brochure from La Terrasse des Epices had a really detailed large-scale map of the souks, so we set off on a walking tour of winding souks and alleyways that we hadn't explored before, ending up at Rahba Kedima market. The sun was out again and everything was busy and colourful and it was a good excuse for some walking (me) and shopping (Sheila).

Along the way, in the middle of the souks, we found a courtyard with a camel and a sheep in it (or is it a goat? Answers on a postcard please!).

A camel and a sheep in a courtyard in Marrakech

Western Sahara, Laayoune (or El Aaiun)

We went back to the Supratours depot at the station again, had a baguette and coffee for dinner and set off at 7pm on the 14½-hour bus journey to Laayoune, otherwise El Aaiûn (sounds the same if you say it out loud). The bus was smooth and comfortable but some of our fellow passengers were a bit of a pain - playing video clips on their phones at full volume, putting their very smelly feet on the chair arms and coughing and sneezing their diseases over us, until gradually things quietened down.

Fri 14th- Sat 15th. We stopped at three 'motorway service' type rest areas along with way with options for something to eat and drink - the first two were clean and had varied menus, the third was a rather grubby dive with little choice. Grudgingly the sun came up about 8am over the featureless desert, with occasional glimpses of the Atlantic ocean's waves breaking onto the desert on our right side. A couple of police checkpoints waved us straight through then the last one on the edge of Laayoune had a good look at our passports and took one of the other passengers away to an office (hut) to be interviewed. They were friendly and courteous though and soon we were on our way and arrived at Laayoune bus station on time at 9:30am. We were the only tourists on the bus and the taxi drivers didn't seem to speak anything except Arabic (and in one case Spanish) so we misunderstood and thought they were trying to charge us 20 euro for the short ride to our hotel when it was actually 20 Dirham, one tenth as much, but it was all resolved amicably and we were soon there. The Residence Vladimiro Ariano was very pleasant and we got a big apartment with hall, kitchen, lounge, bedroom and bathroom, and immediately went to have a very nice breakfast in the café on the ground floor.

While Sheila napped I went for a walk through the big square and down the main street of the town. I was looking for two restaurants we thought we'd try, but one was long gone and the other was a building site. I realised that the taxi from the bus station to the apartment had gone through some dismal back streets that had given us a poor first impression, because the main square, Place du Mechouar, and the centre of town were quite nice, although there are not a lot of tourist attractions or indeed, tourists.

Place du Mechouar in Laayoune, Western Sahara

By 5:30pm we were feeling the effects of the sleepless night on the bus so we set out to find an early dinner. We went through the square which was still deserted except for a friendly policeman, and down the main street to the Al Massira hotel. We had a beer in their rather gloomy bar and played cards, but the restaurant didn't open until 7:30 so we gave up and went for a walk. We found the Sahara Line hotel which has nice but small rooms, but their restaurant was still 'under renovation', and the man there recommended La Madone restaurant further along the road. This was an excellent choice, it is basically a fast-food restaurant but has an extensive, varied menu with seafood, pastas and pizzas, Moroccan-style dishes, shawarmas, etc. We had some delicious créme de poisson soup, big prawns (although Sheila had to peel them herself which took time she wanted to use for eating) and fillet of sole, with plenty of salad and veg including beautifully-carved curly tomatoes, and chips. We retired for an early night and a long lie-in. The next day it was too hot to do much during the day other than watch the chickens and rabbits run about in a 'mini-farmyard' on a nearby roof.

Chickens and rabbits on a rooftop in Laayoune, Western Sahara

So we waited until 5pm and had a walk to the post office at Place Dchira on the other side of town. The Place was dominated by a big McDonald's restaurant but we ignored that and backtracked to La Madone for another excellent créme de poisson soup and a pasta dish, sitting out front watching the parking attendant prowl up and down the street. We then backtracked to Al Massira and played cards in the bar with a beer and half a bottle of wine. We walked into the garden and were amazed to find a thunderstorm in progress and the rain was pouring down - someone assured us that it only rained one day a year in Western Sahara and here it is - how do we manage it? We eventually got a taxi back and the normally empty streets were crowded with cars and walkers, enjoying the exceptional conditions.

Sun 16th. After breakfast I went for a walk round to try to find the Supratours bus station to ask about onward transportation to Dakhla (for next time) but there was no sign of it. We went to our usual restaurant but they weren't doing soup today for some reason so we had a salad and a sandwich then went to the airport.

Casablanca again

Our flight to Casablanca was a nightmare. Firstly we were sitting in the middle of what seemed to be a school football team full of highly excitable girls shouting to each other, waving their phones and moving around the plane until we eventually took off. Then a thunderstorm caused very bad turbulence (which Sheila enjoyed) and prevented us landing in Casablanca so we went on to Rabat where we sat on the tarmac with no explanation for three hours as the adult passenger contingent grew more and more angry, stormed off the plane and back on again and a police car drove up expecting a riot.

Nearly a riot on the flight to Casablanca

Some of the passengers left the plane completely and we moved up to the civilised end, although we could still hear the noise coming from the football contingent at the back. Even we went to complain to the crew in a very restrained English way, and we noticed that after that the announcements, which had been in Arabic and French, also included English for our benefit! Eventually we did get going and found our airport shuttle bus waiting outside the airport door and got to our hotel room about 3am.

Mon 17th. The Relax Hotel, a short way from Casablanca airport, was very nice, with a swimming pool and gardens with palm trees, but we had an early flight and couldn't take advantage of the facilities. As if to make up for yesterday, our Royal Air Maroc flight back to London was smooth, peaceful and well-fed - for the first time for a very long time, we got a full meal and drinks from the trolley service, all included in the ticket price.

And finally ....

Here are our favourite hotels and meals. These are the hotels ......

The apartment overlooking Grand Socco in Tangier.