Day 47 – Meknes (Visit city)

Left the electric heating on all night so it took the chill from inside the van for when we woke in the morning. Our toilet cassette decided not to operate properly so Tina had to make a mad dash for the toilet block first thing this morning whilst Brian and I fixed the problem before breakfast.

When I eventually got around to prepare the breakfast the electric across the sight failed. This made it difficult to prepare my shakes. It was agreed that we would all take the local bus into the city and to the souk.

At around 11am we walked the short distance down the hill to the main road in readiness to catch the bus. The fare was 5MAD (35p) for the 14km ride into the city. We were packed in like sardines on this very old minibus with some seated and others standing. It took around 30 minutes for the journey to the bus station which was the end of our journey.

The next few hours we strolled around the market stalls selling all sorts of goods. We finished off in a square where we sat and had coffee. On the return to catch the bus we bought some fruit and nuts and also had some spiced sausage in a bun. The moroccan McDonalds perhaps !!

The journey back to the site was just as eventful with yet a different bus but just as packed as the morning. Once again the journey was around 30 minutes. The driver decided to stop at one point for some cigarettes. Only in Morocco could this happen I guess.

We strolled over to the restaurant at 7pm for the dinner we had all booked. The table was laid but there would only be the six of us there. The starter was Moroccan soup served with bread. Everyone emptied their dish except Tina who stated that she didn’t like it. We had ordered a Chicken Tagine. The main course arrived which was a platter with six portions of cooked chicken but without any evidence of any vegetables. Strange we thought … perhaps they will appear separately but they didn’t appear at all. The meal was finished with an array of small pastries which seemed to be different for each of the sexes. The restaurant had a small calor gas heater but it didn’t have any effect as the doors were open trellace. They tried you have to give them that.

Tomorrow we intend to visit Volubulis where there are the remains of Roman mosaics used in a number of their houses so very many years ago. Looking forward to it….