Rabat City Tour

 In 2020 we had designed our own Moroccan trip and we were to leave from Australia, and then Covid hit! So we decided to try again this year but opted for a Gate One tour. We really enjoyed our Gate One riverboat cruise through Europe last year, and decided to join their Moroccan tour which was very similar to what we had planned. It's a small group tour of 40 people and the tour is lead by a man named Rasheed. He is very informative and he's quite funny and very approachable. We are only two days in but we are already enjoying the tour, and besides Hoss doesn't need to drive. We enter the bus, find a seat and let the professionals lead the way. It's very relaxing! I guess we are getting lazy!

                                              The new opera house.

                     This unique building is almost complete and will be used for offices.

                         This is the entrance to the mausoleum of Mohammad V.

Door knockers often give clues to who lives behind the door. If the knocker has a hand with a ring, the resident will be a Jewish jeweler, a resident with scissors on the knocker will be a tailor.

This is a minaret tower that always accompanies a muslim mosque. The tower is used to send out a mournful song to let worshipers know it is time to pray. The pillars are remains of an unfinished roof.

      King Mohammad V mausoleum. He was a special guy, even streets are named after him.

                                     Jewellery and clothing museum inside the medina.

                                            Lovely gardens outside the jewellery/clothing museum.

 

This plant is said to be toxic. We were told if you sit under the foliage for any length of time you will start hallucinating.

                                                      A bitter orange tree.

                        Moroccan flag...the red is for blood spilled and the  five pointed star represents the five pillars of Islam which are the Muslim creed, prayer, charity to the poor, fasting during the month of Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca. The colour green represents flora.

                     Rabat is the capital city of Morocco.

The Medina in Rabat

Our tour doesn't begin until tomorrow, so we grabbed a cab and headed to the medina, which is a busy, walled old town in Rabat. The center is the Old Market, a souk with alleys of shops selling ceramics, spices, olives, jewellery, clothing and shoes. Hoss found himself a suede shirt/jacket that looked very nice on him. We didn't have enough dirhams(Moroccan dollar) on us, and the shop keeper didn't have a credit card machine, so he quickly found a friend to watch his shop while he walked with us to an ATM. He certainly wasn't going to miss out on a sale! So much fun!

 

                                                    Then Moroccan flag.