9/20 - Drive to Rabat, Start Main Trip

This morning, our driver took us to Rabat. We took a toll road, which was flat and smooth and allowed me to read, but was otherwise pretty uneventful. Mohamed's English is limited, but like many Moroccans, he is fluent in French as well as Moroccan Arabic. One of our fellow travelers, Linda (from Sheboygan, Wisconsin!) had been a French teacher, so she was able to translate for him and we got some tour-guide-like commentary. After lunch, on the way to the hotel, there was an official small group of police and cars coming through and we learned that the king was flying into the airport and we had seen his escort going to pick him up.

Our hotel is on the river that divides Rabat from Sale and from the outside has the look of faded splendor.  Many large homes in Morocco appear to pay little attention to exterior presentation after the initial construction. Paint wears and is not replaced, public landscaping of homes is minimal if it even exists. This hotel looks like the outdoor railings could use some paint. Our room, however, is comfortable and spacious with a lovely patio overlooking the river.

Boats tied up along our hotel. The white railing could use some love.

A flotilla of kayaks came along with lots of hooting and hollering.

In the early evening, Driss got the combined group together and we met the 4 new travelers in our group -- two are from the Bay Area and two from Bethesda. We hopped on our fancy big bus -- looks brand new, and has enough seating so that we can skip every other row and recline the seats amazingly far back. It would NOT be friendly to do this if someone were sitting behind you - I encouraged the person in front of me to recline and my knees promptly complained. For our longer overland transfers, this will be great.

We headed across the river to explore a bit on our way to our dinner-on-a-dhow. It had been made over some time back after being used in India and was quite charming except for the loud atonal music playing in the front while we dined in the back. Aside from not liking the musical style, my biggest problem with this was the difficulty hearing conversations at dinner, but we managed to perservere and dinner was otherwise enjoyable.

The band/DJ was in the front (left) and it was still loud
in our dining room on the top back (right)

Fancy night lights says this was not targeted at us oldsters.

Before boarding, we walked along a public embarcadero with a lot of native Rabatans. There were food sellers with sunflower seeds, popcorn, and escargot. There was a section of small flashy electric cars where toddlers were trying out their driving skills, and lots of people looking like they were just out for a pleasant evening.

Except for Tangier, which is heavily influenced by Europeans, this is the first large Moroccan city we are spending any time in. I was curious about female attire. Despite our Berber woman's assertion a couple days ago that things are lightening up in terms of permissible wear, we really hadn't seen much of anything but djallabas and headscarves. Here in Rabat, that started to change -- there was much more variability in clothing, though it appeared that the older generation is sticking to traditional standards. Younger women looked more western, although some combined current fashion (like leggings or skinny jeans) with  a headscarf. One pair of teen girls was a total contrast -- one was in jeans and a blouse, the other in a black robe and scarf, although her face was not covered.

In general, people are not eager to have their pictures taken and I have been turned down several times by folks whose images I would have loved to capture.