Second day in Morocco- Casablanca to Rabat to Fes

The one problem with doing this kind of blog is that you're constantly weighing whether to do something or write about what you've done. Fortunately, I suppose, the hotel we're staying at now in Fez has pretty much nothing to do and it's not in an area where you can walk someplace. We have the guide and driver, but I like to go walk around in the early morning to get my bearings and see things differently than what happens when we have destinations in mind. So at least now I get to catch up. 

After Friday's touring, we ate dinner and then did our usually searching on TV in a foreign hotel for something in English aside from BBC News or CNN International. Last year in Greece there was a sports channel that had wall-to-wall coverage of snooker. On this night we found reruns of the remake of Hawaii Five-0. I hadn't watched much of the original, and the remake was about the son of the original McGarrett. It was kind of entertaining, with a wide cast of characters, all of whom seemed to be in a state of crisis, written and/or directed by someone who either has no idea how to deal with women or who think women should act just like the men- stoic and unsmiling and completely flat in tone. It was weird. We eventually went to sleep and I managed to not have nightmares about what was happening to all these poor people.

Saturday morning I took a walk along the strand, which looked typical. Restaurants, watersports rentals, surfing lessons and such. Not a ton of housing or hotels, though as we left Casablanca, we could see that many of the former industrial sites that lined the shore had been torn down and I'm guessing at least some of those sites will become something like that.

We had breakfast, which went somewhat more smoothly than the previous day, where our order took a long time to arrive and then the check was completely wrong, at which point the manager (I think) apologized and said they were comping it. Today was easier. We packed up and headed off on our trip to Fes, via Rabat. Rabat is not necessarily the most interesting place for visitors, but the king lives there and we were able to look at the palace from a respectful distance, which here means about 100 yards.

The grounds were pretty and pristine, with some great topiary action.

We then went to a nice little archaeology museum that had some cool Bronze Age and neolithic stuff. It also had examples of primitive tools used for making jewelry, which made me think about how all of the museums we've visited do not have any kind of gift shop. If we were seeing things like the jewelry in the exhibition case at an American or European museum, you could buy a replica in the shop or shoppe. It's a lost money-making opportunity, so I think I should say something to someone about it. I could say it's not in the Moroccan character, but there are plenty of people selling things everywhere else. We then visited the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V, grandfather of the current king. It's not what you'd call modest.

After that, we drove to Fes, which took a bit more than two hours by highway through some pretty mountains and some agricultural lands. I asked the guide if the trees I saw were olive trees and was rewarded with a detailed overview of the Morocco olive industry. There are apparently several types of olive trees, but I don't remember anything else after that. I will say, I gave him a signal at some point when he was telling us about Moroccan history that it was enough. He sheepishly nodded and stopped. I told him that it was all interesting and that I wanted to know it but that too much at once made it hard to remember. He's been better since, and he's incredibly knowledgeable and very sweet. Our driver is cool- he speaks English very well and he's a baseball and NBA fan.

We arrived at our hotel, which is called Palais Faraj. It's clearly built as a palace of some sort and converted into a hotel with detailed and beautiful mosaics on the walls and floors. It's a funny mix, because the room is a small suite with a comfortable bed and a nice view, but it's very dark and it was difficult to find even one available electrical outlet. I brought a travel power strip, so that was enough. The darkness? Not sure what to do with that except enjoy it. More about the hotel tomorrow.

We spent much of the evening in the bar, waiting for our food to arrive and listening to a couple of musicians. A theme we've seen throughout is a general lack of organization and follow-through, which particularly manifests itself with food service. There are lots of people working, but none of them seem to be doing much of anything. It should not take 20 minutes for an order of hummus and pita chips to arrive, and some of the hot food arrives lukewarm, presumably because it's been waiting to be picked up by someone. We'll see if this continues in subsequent destinations. We had some food and drinks and went to bed. Tomorrow we tour the market!