News from Fes

... and all this on an Arabic keyboard!
Despite the panic of one of our group losing first her passport and then her boarding pass, all went well at Tullamarine. Our flight from Melbourne to Dubai was affected by clear air turbulence, which meant little service because the stewards had to spend much time sitting, but we travelled well - except I was still unable to sleep despite taking a bomb. By the time we went to bed in Casablanca, I had been up for 48 hours. Our taxi had delivered us to the wrong hotel, so we hauled our luggage several rough and desperate blocks to The Prince de Paris Hotel in the centre of Cas. My word the gin and tonic in the bar before dinner was a life saver.
We walked several blocks to the Medina, the old walled city and its souk. A light lunch at the nearby Hyatt was rather nice and on returning to our hotel, we took advantage of an optional extra - a tour inside the huge mosque - a bus ride with our Cosmos group and tour guide, Graham aka Aziz.
That night I again could not sleep after 3.30 am - I had poetry going round in my mind and I had to get it onto paper ... I did.

On Saturday we drove to Rabat, capital of Morocco where a local guide took us to the palace (one of many), some amazing ruins at the Chellah gardens, the Kasbah of Oudayas (a great surprise of white and blue houses and shops inside the walled fortress of the army).
Photos, photos, photos.

The road to Meknes took us through a cork forestwhere we saw the remains of the recent floods and truffles being sold be the bag at the roadside (apparently not as special as the dard truffles of France, but nice grated on omelettes nonetheless we are told). Meknes is a world heritage site where we entered the medina, the kasbah with its ancient granary and water siphons and aqueduct and again the mosque - experiences that are amazing. I took a photo of the Kings golf course - usually hidden behind a huge wooden gate - top quality fairways and bunkers, 9 holes.

We arrived at Fes at 6.30 and enjoyed a buffet dinner before falling into bed exhausted.
Today we went through beautiful Fes to the medina with a fantastic local guide who, with Graham also being expert (he has lived in Cas 14 years) showed us through the labrynth of the souk and medina expaining, pointing out all the incredible things.
My time is up more later love to all Sue