Casablanca and Chefchaouen

Well the business class upgrade of the Dubai – Casablanca leg meant that we were both able to get a bit of sleep, but due to my fabulous head cold, I wasn’t really able to indulge too much in the Bollinger champagne on arrival, and placated my outraged sensibilities (and outraging other sensibilities) by having a half glass cut with orange juice. Freshly squeezed, thanks.

Casablanca from the air wasn’t as sprawling as I’d expected. In fact, the fight path was over farmland right up to the last minute, causing me a few concerns about the existence of said airport! But there it was, a freshly cultivated field ending in a white runway, decorated with black tread marks from thousands of landings.

The airport was exciting mainly because we waited more than half an hour for our designated driver, Abdel, to find us. After a panicked messagebank message to the tour company (well I hope it was them – their answering message was in Arabic, so I just crossed my fingers and waited for the beep) he eventually found us. He’d been waiting at Terminal 1, not Terminal 2. Phew. In any case, we were found, and off on our 6 hour journey to Chefchaouen.

We stopped for a drink and so Abdel could pray, and we had our first involvement with Moroccan Dirhams (and my first Moroccan kitty cat. An hour in the country and there they are – yay! Love Morocco already!) 45 MAD for a Coke Light (confusion reigned when I initially asked for a Diet Coke – whoops!), bottle of water and two coffees ~$6 or so.

Then the fun driving began. 5 1/2 hours of winding roads, overtaking on shoulders with cars/trucks coming the opposite direction, and the rapid onset of darkness. (and chilly temperatures!) Needless to say, we eventually made our way to Chefchaouen, a small town in the north of Morocco, famed for gorgeous blue-washed streets. Our initial impressions were a small town with lots of people, making it difficult for Abdel to navigate the way to the hotel. Nevertheless, we were met by a hotel employee so we could trudge our way up a seeming million or so beautiful blue-painted steps up to Dar Meziana, a lovely little riad off the main drag.

After waiting in the lobby area to regain our breath, we were taken to our room, a gorgeous character room on the top floor (more thousands of steps!!) We have a fabulous view to make up for all this puffing and panting though!

We ate dinner at Casa Hassan, a sister hotel five minutes walk through the medina. The food was great – salad, meat on a stick, creme caramel for dessert. We elected to walk back to Dar Meziana unaccompanied, much to the concern of the Casa Hassan manager, who had been instructed by our driver to send someone back with us to make sure we didn’t get lost! This meant we were able to wander a little more, eyeing off small shops with postcards and lots of blue souvenirs, and more cats getting into the rubbish!

Then bedtime! The mattress is rock-solid, feeling similar to a thick futon mattress, but quite comfortable. Earplugs meant I was easily able to ignore various roosters and the call to prayer heralding dawn, and woke up much more rested!