Morocco 2026

So after waking up every morning to another bright sunshiny day, today the weather app was correct. Rain. All day. All night. What are we going to do now?

Luckily, we are staying in a lovely apartment and there is room and comfort for all four of us. So we get up, shower, join the Driedgers in the living room where those early-risers have already accomplished much. Breakfast is granola and yogurt and bread with peanut butter and Nutella. That little Nespresso machine in the kitchen only puts out little espressos, but Dave has figured out a way to turn that little puddle of caffeine into a full-size coffee, complete with an impressive pour of Baileys to top it off.

Yep, the app still shows rain for today and tomorrow, but there appears to be a break from 11:00 to 1:00. Well, let’s watch a movie. Our big LG TV with IPTV has just under a million movies available, so I pick “The Forgiven”, starring Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain. The setting for the movie is Morocco, and the Driedgers watched it just before the trip, but they’re okay watching it again. It’s a pretty good way to make lemonade out of lemons — and for the next 2 hours we see a lot of things that are now familiar to us.

And just like that it’s lunchtime. Sandwiches all around. I was a bit too enthusiastic at the beer store the other day, and unless I start putting in a little more effort, we may not finish that ‘twenty-four’ by the time we leave here at the end of the week. I tried to set an example at lunch but the others were not interested.

By the time the table was cleared so had the sky! This was our chance to go out. We decided to take the 20-minute walk to the cable car station, from where we could take a ride up to the top of the mountain that is just north of the city. At the top of that mountain is the Kasbah of Agadir Oufella, a fortress which is one of the most iconic landmarks in Agadir. On the side of the mountain, visible from the beach and lit up brightly at night, is the Arabic inscription — “God, Motherland, King”.

It was cool outside, but now the sun was shining. We bought our tickets and managed to get a car for just the four of us. Nice ride up. Great views of the city, the beach, the marina, the ocean, and the parking lots and green space below.

The rain held off for our entire visit, but there were threatening clouds coming in from the Atlantic. We rode the cable car down and walked back to our apartment. Made it just in time. More rain. At around 5:15 we headed back out, this time to go bowling before going out for dinner. Just in case, each of us wore or brought with us a raincoat. We had read that the bowling alley would open at 4:30, but when we got there the sign informed us that because of Ramadan it would open at 8:30 and stay open until 2:00am. Now what! Well, let’s have an early dinner.

We walked all the way down along the beach, Naomi walking on the sand right next to the sea; the rest of us on the waterfront promenade. The ‘Fusion Kitchen’ restaurant was recommended to us by our Airbnb host. The walk there was about 30 minutes. When we got there we were informed that they were serving only a ‘set Moroccon-style dinner’, not cheap, and not really what we were hungry for. So we stood outside on the umbrella-covered patios and discussed what other options we might have. And then it poured. POURED. Sheets of rain. Although we were wearing rain jackets, our feet were soon soaked with puddle water.

We hopped our way around puddles to the McDonalds sign we saw nearby. But the puddles were too deep and we ended up circumventing McDonalds and took shelter in a large, and very busy, Restaurant Le Nil Bleu. The patio was closed in and they had the heaters going next to some of the tables. We ordered soup and sandwiches and a calzone pizza — and a hamburger and fries that never came — as we waited out the rain.

Naomi went out to take a photo of the sunset at 6:38pm, and that’s when the waiters huddled down at tables next to ours and ‘broke fast’ together. It must be hard to run around serving platters of food to the infidels when you are a Muslim waiter and haven’t had a bite since before sunrise. But in this case, watching all the waiters ‘take a break’ to eat their dinner and my table-mates chowing down on theirs, while I sit there waiting for my friggin’ hamburger didn’t evoke a whole lot of empathy in me.

It was a quick walk back to our apartment. The air was cold but the rain had stopped. Before today, we really hadn’t had a “RAIN DAY” on the entire trip. Today was something different. We were happy to have a warm place waiting for us.

By more of the same, I don’t mean rain. But rather more of Agadir and some of the same chores. Dave and I determined this morning after breakfast that we needed to make the trek to the grocery store again to replenish some supplies. We donned our backpacks and headed out, Dave in shorts and a shirt and I, bundled up. The sun was shining and it was warm so Dave was happy and I was just as happy because the air was cool. Although the map said it was less than 2 kms to the store, we had covered over 6.5 kms by the time we returned. I really can’t imagine that we walked up and down the aisles that much. Dave shopped for all the fixings for chilli for supper and I shopped for stuff to make a Thai stir fry later on in the week. With that, and the other things we picked up, we had both of our backpacks stuffed full.

When we got back to the apartment one of the many stray cats joined Dave in the elevator up to our place and then slipped in as he opened the door. Did I mention that Morocco is filled with street cats. The Muslim religion insists on kindness to all animals so it seems like most of them are taken care of and fed. I often see plates of food set out for them on the sidewalks. We, however, despite searching in our collective knowledge, could not determine any teachings by Jesus about cats, so we did not invite our feline guest to stay.

In the afternoon Rudy and I headed out to the ocean boardwalk for ice cream and a look at the ocean. For some strange reason there were loads of people out. Rudy remembered reading that it is halfway through Ramadan and therefore time to celebrate. Whatever the reason, it was busy. Lots of surfers were out catching waves as well.

By the time we returned Dave was starting to cook supper and my book was calling me.

Our plan after Dave’s home cooked chilli was to go bowling. Why bowling, you ask? Well there are a couple of reasons. Did I mention that not much is happening in Ramadan? Well, that and the fact that Dave and Rudy wanted to act in solidarity with their Tuesday bowling buddies back in Steinbach. However this was not meant to be. We had already tried the evening before and found, due to shortened Ramadan hours, it was not open. Today we had adjusted our times but when we arrived to this neon twinkling arcade where we might ride a dinosaur as well as throw a few bowling balls, we were told we could not start for another 10 minutes. No problem. We sat down. I photographed Dave flexing his bowling muscles. And we waited. Soon the proprietor informed us that they were having problems with electricity. (That could explain why the sign on the outside of the building proclaimed Bo, instead of Bowling). How long, we wondered? An hour, maybe two, was the answer. But after a while the owner proclaimed that perhaps we could try again tomorrow. What to do now. We walked down the strip and Dave and Rudy had a scoop of ice cream in an almost completely empty establishment. Somewhat discouraged, we returned to the apartment.

Well, we’ve booked our next stay: 4 nights in Essaouira, a town that just might be our favourite place in Morocco. It’s just up the coast, about 3 hours. After our inDrive ride here, the poor souls who were squished into the back seat were keen to try another mode of transportation. So we decided to take a bus. The downside is that we need to also have transportation TO the bus station, and also FROM the bus station to our Airbnb in Essaouira. So how far is the bus station here in Agadir? To find out would be this morning’s activity. And what a great opportunity for us to experience local transit!

So after breakfast we headed out. We crossed the street and tried to align ourselves to where Google Maps showed our bus stop. No sign, no bus shelter, no bench. But after a bus slowed down in front of us and then promptly took off, I determined that we probably need to WAVE the bus down.

Both Dave and I were using Google Maps to help us choose the right bus. No direct bus, so we’d also need to transfer to a second bus. So when we finally jumped on a bus that stopped, it was a matter of watching our progress on the phone so we’d know when to get off.

Although the buses diverged from the path Google was suggesting, in the end we got off at a stop that was directly next to the bus depot. But was it? Google said we were right next to it, but the real world didn’t jive with that. After running around for a few minutes, Naomi thought she spotted a bus parking lot back behind the buildings along the street. And that’s how we found the bus station.

I followed some backpackers from Germany to a ticket booth. They recommended the CTM bus line which they had used before. I bought 4 tickets, leaving Sunday at 11:30am. And that was that. We have tickets and we know where the bus station is. What next?

MaryLou had expressed interest in visiting an art gallery, and it turned out there was one on our route back to our apartment. So now that we are ‘experts’ at using the transit system here, we bussed to the art gallery. The Agadir Art Museum has an interesting combination of contemporary art pieces and heritage craft (jewellery and textiles). Our visit there turned out to be a highlight. Well worth the stop.

We decided to walk home from the gallery. Along the way we saw major new construction projects, including a HUGE new theatre. We also passed an impressive large tennis complex. And a truck full of oranges, and date palms along the roadside.

Back at the apartment it was time for lunch. Leftovers from yesterday. Delicious. And then I had a nap. All that exercise…

It was almost bowling time when we organized ourselves and went out for supper. We walked across the road to the beach and had supper at one of the many restaurants that line the promenade. And then it was time to go BOWLING! After a couple of false starts, today looked to be our lucky day. The bowling alley was open, two of the four lanes were open, and the guy at the ticket counter already recognized us as “from Canada”, and was happy to take our money. This was going to be GREAT!

Well, not so fast. We started on lane 1. The order was Dave, Rudy, Naomi, MaryLou. Dave rolled his first ball down the lane. Then the machine that resets the pins came down — and STAYED down! The scoreboard said “an error is detected”. We signalled the manager. Just wait a minute. More customers come in and he gets all busy taking their money — and I think he’s forgotten about us! The man who is bowling in lane 2 yells at the manager, to switch us over to Lane 3 which is empty. More delays. Finally our names come up on Lane 4 scoreboard. We continue the game. Until MaryLou rolls a ball down the lane and the pin-resetter-thing stays down. We ask for help. None coming. Dave and I take a walk to the other end of the lane, and check the machine that isn’t resetting the pins. Hmmm… Don’t know how to fix it. But seeing us snooping in the back of the alley gets the manager guy’s notice. He comes running over, and switches us over to Lane 3. Okay. MaryLou gets a couple of ‘do-overs’. We manage a few more frames before Lane 3 shuts down. This is RIDICULOUS! I take the receipt and walk over to the ticket counter. I want a refund and we’ll get outta here. But no, here comes the supervisor, the guy who ‘likes Canadians’, and he insists we will bowl some more. There remains one working lane, and there are other groups who have bought tickets and are waiting to bowl. But now WE are going to bowl on Lane 2, and possibly finish our game. Which we do. Looks like Naomi, who was VERY hesitant and unenthusiastic about going bowling, really found her game!

After all that activity, it was time for an ice cream. We went back to the same restaurant where we’ve had little cups of ice cream the last few nights. It was a fine way to end our evening.

MaryLou has titled her blog for today, Rest and Relaxation. I was tempted to call mine, Nothing to do in Agadir, but it seemed too harsh and also pretty lazy of me. So, instead of laying around I made up some delicious breakfast sandwiches (eggs, cheese, ham, and toast) and then headed out the door to the beach.

The beach is massive. The tide was going out and I measured how far it is  from the boardwalk to the water’s edge (250 paces). (When I got back to the apartment Rudy calculated that it was about as long as 2 football fields.) But, never mind the depth, the beach goes on forever.

I made my way to the water’s edge. And that is all I need to do to rid myself of the idea that there is nothing to do. First of all, the water is mesmerizing. The patterns and shapes of waves are similar all over the world but each beach or coastline is different. Here sand goes out gradually and the water gently crawls up the sand. Initially there were not many rocks or shells but the few that were lazily pushed up the beach. But 2 hours later I had filled my pockets with treasures and taken pictures of people and horizons and patterns of sand, rocks, and water.

I think that collecting things is a universal pastime. Some people collect stories, others collect experiences or objects. There is something so satisfying about picking up items along the beach. Once I returned to the apartment I took a picture of the items. They seemed less than magical lying on the tile floor. But the whole experience cannot be dimmed.

After such a strenuous morning it was time for lunch. Dave and MaryLou had located a French bakery and brought home baguettes and pastries and Rudy made me an avocado, tomato, and cheese sandwich. Next activity was a movie. We watched an Oscar nominated movie, Train Dreams. Definitely worth the time. A strange slow movie with beautiful music and scenery set in the woods of Washington. It followed the life of a man from around 1900 to 1965.

I was in charge of cooking supper tonight so that was the next order of the day. I cooked a Thai chicken stir fry and we enjoyed a supper at home again tonight.

Yesterday Dave and MaryLou went looking for a bakery. We were out of bread, and we would need some for today’s breakfast and lunch. Today is our last full day here in Agadir. Tomorrow we take the bus to Essaouira, but we need bread for lunch sandwiches today and breakfast tomorrow. There are no bakeries near our place and the big supermarket is a LONG walk from here. But yesterday Dave and MaryLou found a marvellous bakery about 10 minutes from our place and came home with delicious pastries.

This morning Dave and I drank the last of our Nespresso coffees. Then Naomi used the 4 eggs we had left in the fridge to make very nice breakfast sandwiches for the four of us. But we really needed more coffee. It was looking like a nice sunny day out there so we decided to go for a walk to that bakery. And what a find! Too bad we didn’t discover it when we first arrived at the beginning of the week.

We picked out some croissaints and cookies, enough for a ‘snack’ today and breakfast tomorrow. Then we went to the restaurant next to the bakery where we’d spotted people sitting and drinking coffee. The coffee looked good, but the menu had an ‘Express’ feature which included coffee, pastry, and orange juice for nearly the same price as just a coffee! A Mennonite knows a good deal when he sees one 😉  We probably sat at our table for an hour or more, eating our ‘second breakfast’ and enjoying the conversation.

After our walk back to the apartment Naomi decided it was time for another ‘beach walk’ while the rest of us made ourselves busy in the apartment. Here’s a few of her photos:

Dave and I made ourselves busy doing the crossword puzzle, looking up Paul Simon YouTube videos, watching curling on TV, reading the news, and talking about the good old days. I got a very cool video of my grandson Max performing a song and dance number for the ‘musical theatre class’ in the Southeast Manitoba Festival, which made my day, big-time.

At around 4:00pm Naomi got back from her walk just as Dave was making G&Ts from the last of our gin. We drank them down and munched on some of the nice cookies from the bakery. Then we dispersed to the various corners of our apartment for a while to have some ‘quiet time’. A little after 6:30pm the sun set and evening began. Here in Morocco that means that folks will be breaking their fast. Most will do that in their home, but many will be making their way to the restaurants, too.

We are in the latter group. It’s a beautiful evening — maybe the best one yet. We walked back to the area where we had breakfast this morning. Not just to the ‘area’ — we walked back to the SAME restaurant we were at this morning. We got seated inside — nice chairs, nice ambience. The waiter took our order after we’d had a few minutes to study the menu. I ordered a beer, knowing full well that the restaurant didn’t serve alcohol. The waiter smiled and apologized. Next? Dave ordered a beer. Same.

The menu offerings LOOKED delicious. This morning’s breakfast deal WAS delicious. The dishes set before us were a disappointment. Naomi’s seafood gratin was piping hot. Not so the rest of the dishes. Oh well, we had a nice visit and a lovely walk back to the apartment.

Dave and I sat in the living room watching some curling, waiting for the Jets game which began at midnight. We watched the first period and then headed off to bed. Vancouver was up one nothing. The Jets would have to fight back without the two of us to cheer them on. Goodnight.

Well, I was not sure what to title the blog for this day but when I mentioned, Shit Show, as a possibility, my roomies burst out laughing and nodded their heads vigorously. So I guess that’s a consensus. Today we made our way from Agadir to Essaouira. We had purchased our bus tickets days in advance so, in theory, that meant that we had secured seats 9 through 12. Upon trying to put our baggage in the hold of the bus we found that we also needed to pay for suitcase storage. Dave hustled over to the ticket booth and got 4 baggage tags for the steep price of 75 cents per item. (WestJet needs to take a page from the CTM bus lines pricing structure.) Upon entering the bus we found that our seats were already occupied. Mine and Rudy’s seats were filled with a man, a large pail, and numerous sacks and bags. Dave and MaryLou’s seats had a coupla 30- to 40-year-old somewhat rough-looking men. A long discussion ensued and finally the two men in Dave and MaryLou’s seats vacated and kicked out some others from the seats ahead of them. All of this took quite some time. Our man would not move and kept showing us his ticket that indicated he was in seat 11. How could this be? Our ticket also said seat 11. Meanwhile others were trying to get on the bus. A whole gang of Scandinavians were pushing up against us. We told them in English that they would have to back out of the bus in order to facilitate the reshuffle. They replied in some Northern European language that they had no idea what we were talking about and if we could just sit down, they would like to board. Needless to say, things were at an impasse. Finally the bus driver came in and we showed him our tickets. He asked to see the ticket of the other man. The seat-stealing man was only partially telling the truth. He had been in seat 11 on the first part of his journey, but on this part of the journey his seat was number 29. He was not too happy and gathered up his bags and pails and finally moved to his seat in the back of the bus. The majority of bus riders were men of a similar age and there was much laughing and harassing about the whole kerfuffle. Now we could settle in for the 3-hour journey.

Oh no, I guess we couldn’t. The seats were closer together than the seats on a WestJet plane and poor Rudy could not fit his legs in. Even I was struggling with claustrophobia. Well, there was nothing to do but endure it. And endure it we did. We hadn’t gone very far when one of the men behind us hauled out his cell phone and proceeded to have a very LOUD phone call for a very LONG time. Well soon it was time to stop to let off a few people and a few packages. It seemed to be taking a bit longer than necessary. I disembarked to stretch my legs and found a crowd of men around the luggage compartment. Bags were being hauled out and thrown back in and voices were raised. It was clear that something was amiss. This went on for a long time. I later learned from MaryLou, who had witnessed the kerfuffle from her side of the bus, that a fight had broken out. A man had grabbed the bus driver by the lapels and jostled him, and yelled in his face. At one point he shoved him. On my side of the bus, a smaller compartment was opened and a number of boxes were taken out. The missing ones? Not sure, but the scuffle seemed to be over and the journey finally could continue on.

We loaded up our luggage onto our backs and headed off to our Airbnb. Dave said it wasn’t too far to walk, which was true, but we were tired and headachy and our packs weighed a ton, so by the time we arrived at our apartment, we were DONE!

Our accommodation here in Essaoura was cheap. Dave had gotten a deal, and now that we saw it, we knew why. I won’t belabour the point, but it was not great. Rudy and I got the single beds this round and they were “hobbit beds”. I thought I could probably manage it, but I wasn’t sure about Rudy. It was cold in the apartment and there was no heat. We were also very hungry because we had not eaten since breakfast.

We soon vacated the apartment and headed to the Medina for some crepes; we’d been talking about those Essaoura crepes all day. They were delicious but it was cold and windy and we huddled at a table on the street and sipped coffee and mint tea to try to keep warm. There was some talk of going for another Hammam massage in the next day or two. The Driedgers had really enjoyed them when we were here with our tour group a little over a week ago. I hadn’t gone for one then, but was looking forward to having one now. Dave led us through the narrow winding streets of the Medina, and ultimately found the place where they’d gone before. MaryLou got the phone number and planned to call them tomorrow to book the appointments. 

Then we headed back to our apartment. We had just turned into the driveway when the next crappy thing happened. Dave was going to go around the block to the little Superette to get a bottle of water and some toilet paper. MaryLou, Rudy, and I were about to go up to our third-floor apartment, when there was a thud. I turned around and saw Dave lying on the pavement where a car had backed into him and knocked him down! The driver and passenger got out of the car. MaryLou rushed to Dave’s side. He was stunned but conscious. Rudy grabbed him by the arm and helped him to his feet. He was a little unsteady. The driver said he was sorry. MaryLou took a photo of the car’s license plate and got the name and particulars of the driver. Dave was now trying to ‘walk it off’. There was a dent in the car’s trunk. Dave’s hand had bleeding knuckles, but otherwise he seemed okay. His hip was sore and likely bruised — he’ll be stiff for a while — but otherwise he seemed okay. Rudy went to the Superette to get the toilet paper and water while MaryLou and I took Dave up to the room and put some ointment and bandaids on his fingers.

Once we were all back in the apartment and had settled down a bit, I took the situation in hand. We were cold and had an entire evening to wile away, so I brought out the “Oh So Clever” game and taught the other 3 how to play. Now I can’t say that they were too enthusiastic but it was an activity and soon we will be able to crawl into our beds, pile on the blankets and try to get a good night’s rest.

So that’s that! After a cold night in not very comfortable conditions, this morning it was time to analyze the situation and see if we could figure out a solution. I had looked at some better lodging options in Essaouira, and found some available places. But I really was ‘done’ with Essaouira and ready to move on. Dave had booked a pretty nice place back in Casablanca for the days after Naomi and I would be on our way home. And a nice(r) place in Casablanca sounded like a good option to me. So instead of taking a 6-hour bus ride to Casablanca on our second-LAST day in Morocco, why not leave Essaouira TODAY, and have 3 nights and 3 days to ENJOY Casablanca before we head home!

I looked at some options on the Airbnb app — and Dave showed me which area of the city he had booked. Dave managed to add 3 nights to the beginning of his original booking. I found a couple of options in the same neighbourhood and quickly booked the next 3 nights in one of them. When the bookings were done, the four of us went out for a walk. We needed to book our bus tickets to Casablanca, and Dave was quite sure there was a good breakfast place right close to the CTM bus ticket office. And Dave was right. So while the women got a table at the restaurant, Dave and I went next door and bought bus tickets, leaving for Casablanca at 11:45am. And then we joined the women for a VERY delicious breakfast.

We so enjoyed our breakfast that before we knew it, it was 10:30. We had better hurry back to our apartment and back our bags and get back here to the bus station! Which we did.

Although the bus we rode was the same company, the same ‘quality’, the same kind of bus we’d been on yesterday, it turned out that there was VERY LITTLE in common between the two journeys. Today’s ride was just over 6 hours. A couple of SHORT stops along the way (we never got out of our seats at any of the stops today). The bus was not even half full, and the passengers sat quietly in their seats. The driver drove the bus SAFELY, never taking chances to overtake vehicles when the road ahead wasn’t visibly clear. Today’s ride was enjoyable. And the scenery was most interesting:

We got into Casablanca and I was following the route the bus was going on Google Maps. The bus made a stop at a CTM ticket office and many of the people on the bus got off there rather than at the big bus depot about 10 minutes ahead. I looked at the map and saw that if we got off at this point we’d be virtually the same distance from our apartment as if we’d go all the way to the bus depot. So we hurriedly grabbed our bags and got off the bus. We were getting ready to walk to our place, or hail a taxi to take us, when a kind young man who worked at this bus station asked us where we were from and where we wanted to go. In no time he’d asked a ‘friend of his’ to drive his car to our side of the road so we could load our baggage into the car and he would take us to our apartment! Which we did, and which the driver did. So that was pretty slick. Saved us the extra time to get to the end of the ride plus hailing a taxi to take us a few miles BACK.

We checked in with the security at the entrance, filled in our names and passport numbers on his forms, and off we went to our respective apartments. We got in and were quite happy with our room. I took a quick shower and then we went to knock on the Driedgers door. From there the four of us walked the short 5-minute walk to a nearby Thai restaurant. Excellent! Very nice food and a lovely place. It had been a long time since we’d had breakfast, our last meal, and so a shower, change of clothes, and a plate of delicious food went a long way to make us feel so much better than how we’d felt last night or even this morning.

Woke up after a very good sleep in what may be the most comfortable bed we’ve had on this trip. Google Maps told me that a nearby coffee shop would be open at 7:30am, but when we met the Driedgers to go for breakfast at 8:00 it turned out that Google was wrong. No restaurant was open for breakfast at 8:00. It’s Ramadan and these people take it seriously. If no one can eat between sunrise and sunset, there’s no point in opening up your restaurant during daylight hours. We wandered around for a few minutes and finally opted to go to a nearby small grocery store and pick up stuff to take back to our hotel for breakfast. The last baguette, some cheese and yogurt and fruit, and a small box of Nespresso coffee pods. Thank goodness that we’d salvaged our peanut butter and Nutella from our apartment in Agadir! The four of us had a nice little breakfast in the Driedgers’ hotel room.

After breakfast Naomi went for a long walk. She was hoping to find a few souvenirs in the Casablanca Medina, which is about a mile from our hotel. I stayed back in the room and read all the news and watched all the late night talk shows. Around noon I was starting to get hungry so I texted Naomi — she was already on her way back. When she came in the door she looked defeated. Shopping had been a bust. All she had found in the Medina was stinky food and soccer jerseys. Frustrated and disappointed. We went out to pick up some sandwich fixings. Along the way we stopped in at a bakery and found some delicious baked goods. Google said there was a liquor store just a little farther up the road, but when we got there it was all closed up — again, because of Ramadan. Good thing I’d hauled a dozen cans of beer that I bought in Agadir with me in my backpack!

Happy hour was at 3:00 back at the Driedger’s apartment, one floor below us. Chips, cheese, and beer. We arranged that we’d meet again at 7:00 and go out for dinner together.

When I got back to the room I lay down on the couch and settled in to watch a 60 Minutes report on my computer. Didn’t get much out of it because I fell asleep almost right away. I had a nice nap, and when I woke up it was almost time to go out for supper.

The Driedgers were waiting for us downstairs in the lobby. Cool and a light rain. We headed down the road, checking a few restaurants, some of which were closed, or empty, or serving only the ‘special Moroccan Ramadan’ meal. Even the “Gourmet Burger” place was serving the Ramadan dinner, and no burgers. We ended up in a Korean restaurant where the server offered to let us order from the ‘after 8:00’ menu even though it was 7:30. And the food there hit the spot.

After dinner we decided to stop in at a nearby cafe which looked like a good place to have dessert. When we entered we noticed a table full of board games near the front. So while Naomi picked a game and set it up on our table, MaryLou and I went to the pastry shelf and picked out a couple of lovely chocolatey desserts to go with our coffees. Naomi did her best to teach her unenthusiastic companions how to play “Set”. When the game was finished, so were we.

We walked back to the apartment and arranged to meet at the Driedgers again tomorrow morning at 8:30 for breakfast. Back in our room, Naomi read the news while I wrote the blog post for today. Since I’d had a little nap in the afternoon, I thought I might stay up to watch the Jets hockey game, which starts at 12:30am. So I’m not sure if I watched the game and I’m not sure who won the game. Guess you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out. See you then.

Today was a day I was looking forward to. MaryLou had done the research, and even walked to our Hamman place yesterday to confirm that we were booked in. I was excited but also a little nervous. The information I had received from those who had had the Hammam and massage on our tour was that that there were no parts of your body that were not scrubbed and washed. Yikes, this would be different from anything I had experienced. Our tour leader, Malika had raved about hammam and talked about how she and her mother and aunts would go regularly and implied it was a communal women’s experience. (I had to pass on this experience during our G-tour because I was sick.)

We had our regular breakfast time at Dave and MaryLou’s apartment and I spent the next couple of hours reading the fifth Moroccan novel that I have read during these last two weeks. The first 2 weeks of the tour I received the glossed-over tourist view of the country and now I have been reading of some of the hardships and injustices of this place.

(Here are the books I have read. I highly recommend them all.)

Just before noon we walked to Yanis Prestige Spa for our experience. Only one person at the establishment spoke English. My non-English speaking Hammam woman us settled into our rooms. In one alcove there was a lounging couch and a bathrobe and slippers. The woman gave me a paper thong (think pandemic face mask) and from what I could determine from the woman I was to shower and get ready for my hammam. The scrub room had a huge marble slab in the centre. The walls and floors were marble and the lighting was low. There was a shower and so I rinsed off, put my robe on, and awkwardly awaited the attendant. When she arrived, the washing experience began. I lay on the heated marble slab and she proceeded to soap me with the special Moroccan black soap (it looks like black grease). Next came the scrub. With a very rough brush she scrubbed down every inch of my body, front and back, while rinsing the upper layer of my skin away. It certainly was invigorating and my skin felt refreshed and alive. She washed my hair and then oiled my body. After this she left the room for me to completely shower off and await further instructions regarding my massage. Once I was in my robe and lounging on the couch there was a knock at the door. The attendant brought me a tray. There was a tiny tagine with fresh walnuts, almonds, and dates, a cup of tea, and a bottle of water. I settled in to enjoy the treats. Soon there was another knock. I could bring my treats to the massage room to finish before I had my massage. Like a Moroccan princess I followed the attendant down the hallway to my massage room and proceeded to finish off the treats. Next came the massage. It was a 45 minutes complete body massage and I almost fell asleep on the table. The whole experience was incredible. (Perhaps when I do my bathroom renovation in the basement at home on Valour Rd. I should add a heated marble hammam table along with a date and nut bar. 😉

We walked back through the Arabic League Park. The sun was shining and it was warm. This is not to be taken for granted here. Most often we are slightly chilled. We arrived back at the apartments to find that Dave and Rudy had completed their adventures for the day. They had taken the tram and the bus back to our original hotel that we stayed at when we arrived in Casablanca. The breakfast place that we had so enjoyed was shuttered and forlorn (thanks to Ramadan) and so they made their way back. They stopped at the Boulangerie and Patisserie and picked up all sorts of delicious lunch food. After eating we separated. Rudy and I took the long walk to the Medina and Souk (market) for one last attempt for me to buy some souvenirs. But it was not to be. This market does not have any of the Moroccan handicrafts so we returned home to read.

At 8pm we met Dave and Marylou for supper. We have finally figured out that after 8 is when restaurants are done with Iftar (the breaking of the fast after sundown and the communal time together). We had scouted out a burger joint the day before and were not disappointed with what there was to choose from. (many many burgers and fancy fries, and loads of salads) I had a burger with cheese and truffles and loads of other delicious things and my fries are slathered in creamy truffle sauce, with cheese broiled over the whole bit. Dave even had poutine which the server was proud to say it is just as good as Canadian poutine.

We dragged our full bellies home and, because of the late dinner, it is almost time for bed.

After another very fine sleep, we were a little slow getting out of bed this morning. We knew we had a leisurely morning ahead, so we took advantage of it. No rush. We’d done a load of laundry yesterday morning which was hanging on a fold-away rack in our kitchen. We took our time folding the clean clothes and packing them into our suitcases. Some of those clothes were now wrapped around bags of Naomi’s souvenirs and other ‘treasures’ in order to protect them from ‘shipping damage’.

We showered and dressed before going down one floor to join the Driedgers for breakfast. We also brought them leftovers and stuff from our fridge.

After another breakfast of coffee and chocolate croissants and yogurt, we went back to our room to finish packing. By 11:00am we were ready to leave the room so the cleaning person could get it ready for the next guests. We took our suitcases and backpacks down to the Driedgers’ apartment where we hung out until it was time for us to leave. We had one last relaxing visit with them. It had been a very fun trip; the G-tour we shared with 10 other travellers, but also the 2 weeks post-tour after the guided tour ended. The Driedgers were staying for another 5 days here in Casablanca, but all of us were looking forward to going home. We said our goodbyes and went downstairs with all our luggage to meet the Uber that Naomi booked.

The Uber was a large luxurious black Mercedes — MAN, after all the miles we covered in a crowded van and not super comfortable buses, we finally ride in style on our last day!

The ride was about 30 minutes to our airport hotel. We checked in, only to find that my booking had been ‘cancelled’. But the receptionist says, “No problem! Just book it again, online, and you’ll get it for a better price.” How about that!

Our room is on the 3rd floor and it’s a very suitable room. Nothing fancy, but it’s just what we need. And, good news, the restaurant is open, and so is the bar! The afternoon sun is shining into the big windows in the bar and making it nice and warm. There are comfortable chairs and couches and even a selection of left-behind books. Naomi reads her kindle and I finish the crossword puzzle I started this morning while we each enjoy a cold beer.

We ended up sitting in the bar until around 6:00. Then we moved to a table in the dining hall where we thought we would order dinner from the menu before retiring for the evening. But our attentive waiters who had looked after us so well all afternoon seemed to have disappeared. We finally flagged one over and asked if we could order dinner. Ah, sorry ma’m, we are only serving the Ramadan buffet. And how much is the buffet? Three-hundred MAD per person. That’s almost ninety bucks for the two of us, and no glass of wine! We thought it over, and neither of us was really interested in eating a big buffet meal tonight. But what were our options? Not much around here. I guess we could take the hotel shuttle bus to the airport and see what we could find to eat there. But wait; Google Maps show a restaurant that’s about a 20-minute walk from here. Okay, it’s a “garage” restaurant, but the reviews said it was pretty good. So that’s what we did.

It wasn’t dark when we started our walk, but it got dark shortly after we arrived at the service station ‘restaurant’. The restaurant was quite nice — it was big, and featured cool furnishings and a chandelier — and there were a lot of people eating there. In fact, the highway in front of the garage was jammed full of cars, parked there while their owners (and often their families) had dinner. Here too, the menu featured three different dinners, all of them ‘Ramadan’ meals. But the waiter explained that the women working the barbecues outside could make us a few ‘regular’ options. We ordered chicken skewers and orange juice. When our plates arrived we were surprised how ‘complete’ the deal was. Three barbecued chicken kebabs, french fries, coleslaw, and steamed carrots and green beans. Perfect! Tasty and under $35. And a nice walk to get there and back.

Back at the hotel we set our alarm for tomorrow morning and I queued up an episode of “The Pitt” on my computer. Then it was time to write this post before turning out the lights and calling it a night.