The Moroccan Atlantic Cities - Rabat and Essaouira
Posted On Saturday, May 9, 2009 at at 12:01 AM by Alvin
After taking our customary early morning Dim Sum at the 潮樓 at HKIA, we arrived in Rabat 16 hours later just after sunset (via Paris) and our first impression of the Moroccan capital was one of organisation and long avenues. We quickly found a Pension off the central Avenue Mohammed V and caught some sleep (we later found out that almost all sizable towns in Morocco has an avenue called Avenue Mohammed V).After an Omelete Fromage and a Cafe Noir, we felt energised and explored this surprisingly modern city. The old part of the city was located at the northern edge, near the Kashbah des Oudaias, right by the Atlantic Ocean and the city landmark of La Tour Hassan was also nearby.
During lunch, we ordered our first of many Tajines (more later on this yummy topic) in the downtown areas where we ate and mingled with office guys and ladies all dressed in business suits, all seemingly busying themselves on their mobiles, laptops or the financial pages of the local newspapers ! This was a nice first surprise in Morocco.
A day later, we caught a 10 hours local bus to the Atlantic port of Essaouira where business suits and office blocks no longer appeared; in their place were fishermen, atmospheric forts and lovely Riads. Essaouira being an active fishing port, in the morning we saw the fishermen poured and weighed out their catch from the previous night.
We stayed in our first of many Riads, which was a town house located in the old part of Essaouira. A Riad usually contains may be 4 to 8 individually decorated rooms housed around a central courtyard/garden and the salon in a Riad is usually lavishly and elaborately decorated with comfortable sofas and colorful cushions.
It was relaxing to stroll around the port, beaches and squares of this little town for a few days before we moved on to visit the imperial city of Marrakech.
