|
Featured |
|
Discovering
Seven Great Cities of Morocco Getting
Around: It is now close to a month that we have
been visiting Morocco and I am amazed at how easy
it is to get around in a city the size of
Casablanca. We have found the taxi drivers
courteous and knowledgeable, and the prices
affordable. I will comment on this aspect later in
this series because I had the same impression on my
first visit to Casablanca in 2001, when we saw and
photographed many of the city's main attractions in
a very short time.
Much
more to come regarding our latest visit to
Casablanca. Background
info courtesy of the Moroccan Tourist Office Visitors to
Casablanca will enjoy the seacoast area with its
fine dining spots, the famous Hassan II Mosque, the
bustling central market area, the Habous district,
the Royal Palace, the Mohamed V square, and the
residential area of Anfa. Located near the capital
city of Rabat, Casablanca is also the site of
Hassan II University. Discovering
Fez (Fés) This phase
of my education was prompted by a breakfast
conversation that same day with my friend and
colleague Council Irwin, a Travel Agency owner and
President of ATA's Detroit Chapter. Council has
several of these beautiful carpets in his home. He
aroused my curiosity enough that I made it a point
to seek out and interview Omar, who owns a carpet
store with a seemingly endless inventory (see above
photo) . Myself and others will expand on this
fascinating story about Moroccan carpets and other
facets of our visit to Fès later as we
continue our series on the Great Cities of Morocco.
We will also provide interesting background
information from the Morocco National Tourist
Office such as the following. Facts
about Fès:
Located
in the Fès -Boulemane region (altitude:
415m/1300ft, on the Saiss fertile plains, between
the rich Middle Atlas and Rif forests, Fès
is the very pulse and the cultural, intellectual,
and spiritual capital of Morocco. Inherited from
time immemorial when Fès, then an imperial
city, ruled over most of the Maghreb, a multitude
of vestiges and treasures are only waiting to be
discovered by its visitors, notably behind the
walls of its haunting medieval city, the Medina. A
spiritual Tourist Mecca thanks to its famous
Karaouiyne formerly attended by great scholars from
around the world. Fès is also the guardian
of Arabic-Moorish art. The
Fès medina is famous for its merchants, its
artists and talented craftsmen still carrying on
the trade traditions. Its many quarters are
specialized by guilds, and the crafts industry is
the driving force behind the old city. Among the
special crafts Fez is famous for : fine
woodcarving, brass ware, silks, pottery, leather
goods and bookbinding. Andalusian music, Berber
songs and dances are equally
appreciated. The Medina
hides numerous aristocratic mansions and
magnificent palaces that, from the outside, you
cannot even begin to imagine exist., Wandering
around the maze-like narrow streets of Fez you are
taken back into the past, witnessing its social and
cultural treasures and mingling. How many Arab,
Palestinian, Berber, Andalusian or Saharan
civilizations have left their marks in the area
Visiting this amazing city teeming with life and
history, with past and present subtly interwoven
into its very deep recesses, is both mind-boggling
and fascinating. Exploring
Fez, the visitors can experience a journey that
will throw them, beyond biases and prejudices, into
the living memory of a civilization close to the
one of medieval Europe. Through the violent clashes
of centuries and cultures, they might think they
are going back in time. A stay in Fez, on the other
hand, is not complete without a taste of the Fassi
cuisine, one of the most renowned in Morocco and
the world
Discovering
Meknes Imperial
City and Seventeenth Century Capital. Meknes, one
of the most prestigious of the so-called imperial
cities, enjoys a central position vis-à-vis
other regions in Morocco. Situated west of the
Saiss plain between the pre-Riffian elevation of
Zerhoun and the foothills of the Middle-atlas,
Meknes sits on a plateau and served as a virtual
cross roads for traders and settlers throughout
history; This role was to its clement weather,
abundant water supplies, and surrounding fertile
plains. Bab Mansour
El Alj: One of the best known and admired of
Meknes' grand gates. the Gate leads from the
Imperial City and Lalla Aouda esplanade to El-Hdim
Square. The Souk
of Meknès: A
large variety of colorful handicrafts are
displayed. Below: The artistic displays of fresh
produce found at the Souk in Meknès make
these Moroccan Olives especially
enticing. Discovering
Rabat One of the
many pleasant surprises I was to encounter during
our month-long stay in the Kingdom of Morocco, was
the fact that it is easy and relatively inexpensive
to travel from one great historic city to another.
Check the map and see for yourself. This
convenient, low cost, low stress, ease of transport
will certainly please the many tour operators and
travel agents who read our magazine and website.
Other than the direct flight from JFK New York, the
rest of the journey was entirely overland and the
distances were short enough to allow time for rest
stops, meals, impulse shopping and photo
opportunities. The first leg of our official media
tour, hosted by the Morocco National Tourist
Office, was from the imperial city of Fès to
capital city of Rabat, north of Casablanca.
Like most of
Morocco's intercity highways system, the surface on
this stretch was smooth and well maintained. Before
long, signs of Rabat began appearing, and on the
city's outskirts our driver Mohamed Laframe offered
an invitation to stop for afternoon tea at his
family's new apartment. If you haven't experienced
Moroccan mint tea, you are in for a special treat.
The aroma is tantalizing and the drink is a great
picker upper. I always ask for "sans sucre" ...
otherwise I find it a little too sweet. Gleaming
silver tea sets are a popular gift item in many
shops. Our final stop was at the Sofitel Diwan
Hotel Rabat, a 5-star hotel in the heart of the
city, adjacent to most embassies and government
ministry offices. We were greeted by the Sofitel
management, whom we later interviewed on tape.
That evening
we enjoyed a delicious dinner in the hotel's
elegant Brasserie International restaurant, with a
choice of French cuisine and Moroccan favorites
accompanied by a selection of quality wines from
Meknes. I would like to comment on the caliber of
service as provided by our waiter. His friendly
attitude and attention to detail was an example of
the high standards maintained in virtually every
hotel, restaurant or inn we visited in the entire
month period of our stay. The next
morning, well rested and eager to continue our
cultural education and exploration, we began a
visit of this ancient city, stopping first at the
most logical place, the King's Mausoleum, which is
surrounded by a large wall. Near the main entrance,
a pair of color guards on white horses caught our
immediate attention. The "king's men" were dressed
in flame-red tunics and trousers, bright green caps
and highly polished, jet black boots. Two more
guards stood by the steps leading to the mausoleum
and were gracious enough to pose with us. Also
nearby were the traditional Moroccan buskers or
"water sellers" in bright red costumes adorned
(like the song) in "Baubles, Bangles and Beads."
Speaking of baubles and bangles, not once did we
spot any of Moroccans younger generation with
pierced body parts, spiked hair or tattoos. The
only skin adornment appeared on the backs of the
hand, in which ornate designs were applied by
attractive young ladies, several of whom wandered
around the grounds waiting hopefully for tourists
to arrive. On first sight, their artistry resembled
regular needled-applied tattoos, but the good news
is that the fancy looking application is pure
decoration, wearing off and disappearing in a few
days. or two. Traveling in
the Morocco National Tourist Office van, we were
able to see many of the city's most outstanding
tourist attractions quite conveniently with a
series of short visits and photo opportunities. In
the final analysis, I vowed to spend a week or
longer on our next trip and will definitely visit
the government archives and places of
learning. Chafiq Bahra
speaks French, English and Italian, as well as
Morocco's native languages, and is a member of
Morocco's Professional Tour Guide's Association.
Since our meeting, Chafiq has given me a solid
grounding and understanding of the country and its
people, including the basics of Islam. While I've
much more to learn in the months ahead, our readers
will benefit from his fountain of information in
our coming issues. We had the opportunity to visit
the elegant Hotel Mansour Eddahbi (right) where we
were warmly received. Many of the staff remembered
Muguette from her last visit when the Africa Travel
Association brought a large contingent of delegates
here for an Ecotourism Symposium in 1996. Watch for
new items on this web site featuring hotels,
resorts and guest houses in Marrakech as this
series develops. Hotel
Tichka: This morning's
weather reports from Western Europe and North
America's east coast were frightening, but here we
are basking in the sun as we enjoy breakfast on the
spacious patio by the emerald pool (left). We had
the pleasure of staying in this fine member of the
Salam Hotel group on the post ATA Ecotourism
Symposium tour provided by the Morocco National
Tourist Office, and liked it so much we chose to
stay a second time on our own. The architecture and
interior design are exceptional, with high ceilings
and large, ornate metal chandeliers. The interior
walls are a gallery of Moroccan art, and the corner
fireplace makes you want to stay the entire
evening. We discovered the unique history of the
hotel, its designers, and other reasons why our
hosts recommended it to the Africa Travel
Association for our media tour. More to come
.... Imperial
Borj: We
had the pleasure of a chance meeting with a
familiar friend, Marie-Elyse Gbedo, former Tourism
Minister of Benin and a Presidential candidate.
Later that day we met her at this great hotel for
an interview session regarding her visions for West
Africa in the coming decade. This meeting was
timely, since Ms Gbedo was in the city for the
African Professional Women's Association (details
to come Conference. Watch for her comments and a
description of the Imperial Borj hotel later in
this section. The
Amanjena: When
one thinks of luxury living, a standout in
Marrakech is this relatively new resort. bordered
by a lush 18-hole golf course on the city's
outskirts, with the majestic snowcapped Atlas
Mountains forming the background to a picture of
paradise in North Africa. I welcomed the guided
tour of this great resort, from self-contained
suites, to dining area, library, business and
health facilities. I look forward to the day when
we can arrange a function for some of our North
American corporate clients here in Marrakech. More
to come in our description of the Amanjena and the
international chain of upscale hotels and resorts
it represents. La
Mamounia: Muguette Goufrani and I had the
opportunity to visit to La Mamounia twice during
our stay in Marrakech She remembers this hotel as a
meeting place, where herself, friends and family
spent many happy moments during her
career.
The
hotel's name was derived from its beautiful,
spacious and deliciously perfumed gardens - a
unique wedding gift to the Prince Moulay Mamoun
from his father some 200 years ago (more about the
gardens later). In 1922, architects Prost and
Marchisio designed the hotel, combining the popular
Art Deco look with traditional Moroccan designs.
George
Washington slept here? No but many well known
icons of our times, from Ronald and Nancy Reagan,
to Nelson Mandela, Charles de Gaule, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill -
helped make La Mamounia one of the most famous
addresses in North Africa. Churchill referred to it
as,"the most lovely spot in the whole world."
Today, the suite this famous man stayed in 1943
during the Casablanca Conference was renamed in his
honor. One of the world's great hotels, La Mamounia
is located on the walls of the ancient city of
Marrakech with the snowcapped Atlas mountains as a
panoramic backdrop. What a grand movie setting!
Speaking of movies, several well known films used
La Mamounia as a setting, including "Morocco" with
Marlene Dietrich, Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too
Much." Charlton Heston, Omar Sharif, Nicole Kidman,
Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise are a few of the
celebrities who've stayed here.Modern as today's
most elegant world class hotels in terms of
facilities, yet furnished and decorated in the art
deco tradition, with an authentic Moorish
touch.
There's
a golf driving range on site, plus a swimming pool,
tennis and squash courts, beauty and health spa,
fitness center. There are two golf courses nearby,
and you're less than an hour's drive from downhill
skiing in the Atlas Mountains. How's that for
starters. E-mail
Africa
Travel Magazine
with your own travel experiences in Morocco or any
destination in Africa. Discovering
Essaouira Freshness is
the order of the day, every day, here at Chez Sam
and at the long row of outdoor stalls, perched
side-by-side along the dock area. Each stall offers
visitors fresh products from the sea to the table
and each competes vigorously with its neighbor for
our attention, with barkers, menu boards and
tempting displays of fresh catch from the Atlantic.
I enjoyed a generous portion of sole fillet and
fresh salad for less than five dollars U.S. My two
colleagues split a large crab for a similar
tab. Overhead a
flotilla of seagulls was dipping and diving against
a background of crashing whitecaps, rocky outcrops
and rugged remnants of the centuries old Portuguese
fort that marks the city's place in history. Some
call this the "city of winds ... and when we
visited Essaouira earlier this week, a minor storm
was brewing. Gusts swept the beaches clear of
surfers, bathers, wanderers and beachcombers. A few
camel drivers still manned their stalls near the
far end of the crescent shaped beach, and the waves
grew even more fierce as they pounded the shore.
But today,
near the end of December, 2002, it's as balmy as
any spring afternoon, and the buyers and browsers
are out in force, filling the Medina with its
dozens of shops and stalls. We found an excellent
Cyber Cafe right by the entrance and are getting
our dozens of e-mail letters ready to send around
the world. What a great way to stay in touch -
which is why we now carry our own
laptop. Arabian
Nights On New Years Eve: One
of my favorite meeting places in Essaouira is the
new 5-star Hotel Sofitel Mogador,
located on the main promenade facing the famous
beach. That's where we spent one of the most
enjoyable New Year's Eve celebrations in years. It
started with our being invited to a Fashion Show
(left) and continued into the wee hours. For
starters, the hotel's dining room waiters were all
decked out in Aladdin costumes, and the entire
ballroom looked like a scene from Arabian
Nights,complete with belly dancers, a Spanish
guitar serenade and special visual and musical
effects. The entire evening was unforgettable. We
then moved to the hotel's beach side restaurant,
where the music was going full tilt. We displayed
some of our own special items including my regal
West African robe in royal blue trimmed in white.
One of the models wore Muguette's elegant soft
green outfit with contrasting shoulder wrap; both
were gifts from Tourism Minister, Sylla Hadja
Koumba Diakite of Guinea. We expect to receive some
photos of the Moroccan Khaftan fashion segment,
which we missed by a few minutes. Famous
Doors of Hospitality: Another
friendly, convenient place to meet is the Hotel
des Isles, which next to the Medina and offers
a full range of services. We had the opportunity of
meeting the management and will provide more
details later in our recommended hotel and resort
comments, along with word about Essaouira's new
Ryad Mogador and others. I don't know
whether my story on Essaouira will ever be
completed. Since we spent almost two weeks in the
immediate area and met so many interesting people
from all walks of life, there is already enough
material for a series of travel guides. We met
people who are now permanent residents, who came
originally from the USA, Germany, France, Spain,
Italy, the United Kingdom and beyond, all of whom
expressed their love of Morocco in general and
Essaouira in particular. Several of these people
have riads in the Medina area, and others are
located in the surrounding countryside. Great
Drives? The whole of Morocco is ideal for enjoyable
drives. We enjoyed the coastal route from Essaouira
to Agadirand drove the route from Essaouira to
Marrakech twice in a rental car, enjoying every
mile we traveled in this fascinating countryside.
As a firm believers in the magic of serendipity, I
was pleased to meet a very special person who is
now a confirmed "Essaouirian. " One day, we were
searching for computer Internet services and
noticed a sign advertising a local travel agency.
Venturing inside, we enjoyed some quality time with
the owner, George Cook. The timing was perfect,
since Mr. Cook moved his company, fleet of 4-wheel
drive vehicles, computers and all, to the heart of
Essaouira, where he operates Mistral
Travel.
This group tour operation, backed by a travel
professional with decades of experience and key
connections in the British Isles, is a valuable
addition to the resort city. Watch for more
information on Mistral Travel on this site and in
Africa Travel Magazine. Much more to come in this
chapter and series. Discovering
Agadir While the
overland route along Morocco's Atlantic Coast from
Essaouira to Agadir is relatively short in
distance, taking two and a half hours, the scenery
we encountered during the trip by land rover, was
unforgettable. We were in good company, traveling
with Elena Hall, partner in the escorted tour
operation "Blue Men of Morocco" with whom we
participated a week earlier at the ATA Symposium in
Fès. The trip was leisurely, and along the
way we made a one hour detour inland to a rugged,
hilly area that reminded me of Northern Arizona.
The side trip was to a special area where our host,
was looking for "ammonite gauntlet" fossils, since,
according to Elena, this is the only area in
Morocco where such fossils are available. The
seacoast route provided a completely different
vista with miles of pristine, undisturbed beaches,
lighthouses and a variety of unique pastoral
scenes. Upon
arriving in Agadir and discovering the amazing
development taking place all along the beach front
and parts of the downtown area, I wished we had
arranged more time, perhaps a weekend at least.
Much of the development is so new, it looks like
someone just opened a gift
package.
Looking
at the long, wide, crescent-shaped beach, it's not
hard to see why Agadir, with its warm sands, blue
skies and rolling surf, continues to attract
visitors in droves, including special air charters
from Europe. We noticed a number of vehicles had
been driven here from Europe. The beach area is
clean and well maintained. The day we arrived it
was much too cool for beach activity, but it wasn't
hard to visualize what this Atlantic Coastal resort
would be like at peak season. We stopped for a
refreshing drink at a charming restaurant (above)
on the city's main boulevard, being attracted by
the building's design, its signage and its
Moorish-Spanish décor (details later). Later
we enjoyed a great meal at- one of the many
side-by-side beachfront restaurants (part outdoor-
part indoor) and not only was the selection varied,
the price was reasonable compared to the same menu
in the USA. We drove around most of the downtown
area, did some business and were impressed with
Agadir's modern look, friendliness and wide variety
of shops and services. More to come in this
series. Where to
stay in Agadir? Watch for Africa Travel Magazine's
recommendations and those of our readers from the
travel industry. May
we hear from you?
Letter
from a reader Morocco is a
fascinating if you love sensory experiences or
sensory overload!! The experience started as soon
as we boarded the Royal Air Maroc flight, and
continued for the entire trip. I'll never forget
the sights, smells and sounds of the souk at
Marrakech!!! Shopping was great as well. As I said,
I prefer to get a little more into the country
itself, but it was a great 'spa experience'. The
trip was billed as "Sister Scholars at the Spa"!!!
Actually, Morocco was a great value I would go
again for that reason alone. I started writing an
article several months ago and would be happy to
share my thoughts with you further. Pamela
E-mail
Africa
Travel Magazine
with your own travel experiences in
Morocco.
For
Further information, Contact: CANADA:
Moroccan National Tourist Office: Suite 1460, 2001
rue Université, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A
2A6. Tel: +1 514 842 8111/2. Fax: +1 514 842
5316. E-mail
Africa
Travel Magazine
with your own travel experiences in
Morocco.
For
Further information, Contact: |
|
Casablanca:
Two of
my favorite topics are "
