A Ramble through Rabat
I stayed in a lovely hotel, The Sofitel, just outside of Rabat. Historically I would never have ventured further than the pool, but this time I decided to head in to Rabat and explore.
Within minutes I wished I hadn’t.
My taxi ride was hideous, the worst of my life in fact. My taxi was a death trap, They don’t do seat belts, the traffic is horrendous. It was noisy and awful and quite frankly I wish I’d stayed by the pool. I somehow survived and decided I may as well plough on with my plans.
My impression of Rabat, besides advising you should never get in a taxi there, was that it is very busy and hectic, yet also very clean. The architecture is beautiful and there were a lot of nice doors. Hannah likes a good door so I took lots of photos of them.
I may quite like doors, but as a general rule I don’t really like people. Not personally, I mean just big crowds of people. Hannah’s not afraid to tell people to jog on when needed, but I am too nice and end up siphoned off in to every shop being sold hats, sunglasses and faded postcards. It’s a talent of mine. So the Medina was an interesting and very stressful place for me, but I managed to see it and get a sense of it without actually buying anything. Quite the achievement.
After exploring the Medina, I took a stroll through the old town, which was actually very beautiful and I particularly liked the white washed walls. I also saw the impressive Mausoleum of Mohammed V and the Hassan Tower which is actually an unfinished mosque – there’s even a wall with lots of holes where the floor boards were meant to go. There were also lots of gardens everywhere so I took some photos of those.
As another general rule, I really don’t like the heat. Hannah’s a little sun baby but I have normally drenched through a T-shirt and am unable to breathe after about 3 minutes. So the temperature wasn’t ideal for a long walk – again though I sweatily persisted and headed to the coast to get a bit of a breeze as I struggled on to the Royal Palace.
To conclude my stroll, I also visited the Chellah, which is a walled garden on the site of an ancient citadel featuring Roman ruins & royal tombstones. The Romans really did get about a bit, and I found myself feeling sorry for the poor soldiers who ended up in cold Britain rather than here in the sunshine; it must have been real pot luck.
Now I may have moaned quite a lot in this post, and I haven’t even mentioned the fact that this trip resulted in a nice bout of COVID for me. But in actual fact I enjoyed my little jaunt round Rabat. 10 years ago I’d never have done it – this time I moaned to myself for most of it but am glad I did it. I discovered that Rabat is hot, it’s busy, its people are so welcoming, there are lots of nice doors, don’t get in a taxi, don’t go for a walk without sun cream on and don’t get too close to people and catch COVID.
Oh and the food was great. I took photos of it from every angle.
