9/21 -- Jim Visits Rabat Sights

There has been a virus going thru our group. It has been no where near as bad as when we were struck down in Peru, but after fighting off a cold for a few days, I woke feeling it would be prudent to stay in the room for the day -- not debilitated, but unhappy. I joined the group for a lesson on Arabic, then when they headed out, I came back for a nap and was totally revived by noon.

Jim headed off to tour Rabat and suffered through 2 or 3 serious rain showers, our first here in Morocco. We are reaching the end of the dry season, and if the low to non-existent river levels are any indication, this is a welcome event. He took the camera and brought back lots of pictures from the day. Unfortunately, the blog for today's tour is stuck with my photo captions, since writing is not his forte.

Old gate leading into the royal palace

Another interesting gate in Rabat

Roman ruin on left, 14th century mosque and minaret ruin on right

24-hour coverage of the Mohamed V and Hassan II
mausoleum by imams reading the Koran

Jim likes gates

Jewish synagogue in the medina

I was revived enough to go to dinner at a riad (a former home that was converted to commercial purposes, much like our hotel in Chefchouen had been a home). Bur first we had to walk through a busy souk (market) to get there and survive one brief rain squall. The main dining room was lovely, there was a skilled oud player (looks like an overgrown 12-string mandolin) serenading us, and the food was spectacular.

I was actually hoping to hate the food so I could lose a few pounds. I think I am in trouble if the first week here is any indication. In addition to 6 or 8 different cold vegetable plates, we had a beef/apricot/prune tagine, and a dessert pastilla. This is made of several layers of phyllo-like dough, and this particular one had milk and honey in it. It was presented like a multi-layer pizza, which the server scrunched down all around before cutting it up. It was not my favorite -- reminded me of corn flakes in milk, but the rest of the group seemed happier with it. We also had two types of cookies, which I found tastier.

Walking into the medina and a busy souk on our way to dinner.

This talented oud player entertained us
throughout dinner.

Sample of wares in the souk

Dessert: called pastilla, it is layers of phyllo-like dough with
milk and honey.

The tea-pouring style that is probably not
very neat, but definitely showy.

Driss enticed our tea-pourer to dance to the oud for a step or two.

Accompanying the dessert was a lovely tea (not mint and not sweetened, so much more to my liking). Tea pouring is apparently an art form as we were invited to take pictures. Our server had one pot in each hand and poured from shoulder level. There was a painting in the room of someone pouring from overhead, and he did that too. I am guessing it was not totally neat, but it made a good show. After dinner, Driss was inspired/goaded to dance and showed us his moves.