MOROCCO Weather Thursday Max 34C Min 18C

Friday

36C

16C

Saturday

35C

13C

Sunday

34C

14C

Casablanca airport to Marrakech You will need to take the turquoise-blue Baydaoui shuttle train (navette) from Mohammed V airport to Casablanca Voyageurs station where you can pick up the main line service to Marrakech. There are five trains a day: generally two morning and two afternoon trains, plus a train in the small hours coming down from Tangiers. First class has air conditioning. Generally, there is a trolley service with light refreshments. A first-class single ticket, Marrakech to CasaVoyageurs/vice versa is 110dh and the journey generally takes 3 hours. Marrakech train station is generally heaving with people and taxitouts. When leaving Marrakech, try to arrive at the station 30 minutes before departure. You can get a ticket-sized print-out of train times (les horaires des trains pour Marrakech) at the guichet. For train services to the Coast. Train Timetables CASA VOYAGEURS TO MARRAKECH Departure Arrival 04h50mn 08h05mn 06h50mn 10h05mn 08h50mn 12h05mn 10h50mn 14h05mn 12h50mn 16h05mn 14h50mn 18h05mn 16h50mn 20h05mn 18h50mn 22h05mn

20h50mn 00h00mn 21h20mn 00h50mn Dar Silsila [24th and 25th 2 nights] Jean-Patrick Bobulski Bab Laksour Tel: +21 2 67352005 Mob: +21 2 67352005 E-mail: contact@darsilsila.com

Taxis at 50m, Koutoubiya Minaret and Jemaa el fna Square at 300m On leaving Marrakech, try to arrive early, you can board the train about 20 mins before departure. 1st calss compartments fill up very quickly. The west [left hand]side of the train gets the sun in the afternoon and is therefore hotter if the a/c is off.

RABAT Hilton Rabat [26th 1 night] Souissi, Rabat 100000 Tel: +212 37 675656 Conf. 331351676 Sheraton Casablanca Hotel Towers [27th 1 night] Souissi, Rabat 100000 Tel: + 212 22439494 Conf. C631402161

Hassan tower and the columns from the mosque Hassan mosque was begun to build at the 12th century by Yacoub El Mansour sultan. It was never finished and partly destroyed in 1755 by the same earthquake that destroyed Lisbon, Portugal. The tower is 44 m but should have been 80 m. The columns are what remains of the mosque. The mosque should have been the largest of the Islamic world : 312 columns and 42 marble pillars. It would have been larger than the Giralda of Sevilla and the Koutoubia of Marrakech. When Sultan Yacoun El Mansour died in 1199, the half finished mosque was abandoned.

Two horse-guards stand permanently at the entrance of both the Memorial and the Hassan tower. As everywhere else in the world where there is this type of horse-guards, tourists

Main entrance into the Casbah des Oudaas If you walk up, not far, just further to the entrance, you will arrive soon to the lane that lead to the 'Caravelle'' restaurant (look at my restaurants tip). This lane runs between high walls. On the left, the city wall of the casbah des Oudaas and on the left, a second city wall that was built later to improve the protection of the Casbah.

Mohamed V memorial At the other end of the place where remain the columns of Hassan mosque, is the memorial that was build to honor king Mohamed V. The inside is amazingly decorated from the soil to the roof. Thousand of artists worked for several years to realize that memorial. Each side of the main entrance of the Mohamed V memorial, are huge, finely carved, brass things (how could I call them ?). Craftsmen and artist of whole Morocco were gathered for several years to build and decorate Mohamed V memorial

The covered market If we go back along Souika road and find again Mohamed V avenue, where we began our wandering, we will find the covered market. The entrance is on the left of the photo. In the early morning, when this photo was taken, it is very calm, but as soon as the covered market is open, it will become very busy and I would have found difficult to take a picture.

Rabat's Medina If you've been to somewhere like Fes already then you may find the Medina here a little more sanitised, more like a run down European market area even. The shops here were much the same as we'd seen elsewhere and since it was raining, there didn't seem that much to attract us any deeper into it, so we stuck to its main thoroughfare, Avenue Mohammed V. Be sure to keep your eyes up, as well as just looking at the shops at body level, because every so often you get a glimpse of the detail on some of these largely decaying, flaking and rundown 2 and 3 storey buildings. If you visit Rabat early on in a Moroccan trip then the medina here would be a much easier introduction. I suspect there aren't that many bargains here, but it's a place to ease yourself into the Moroccan Medina Experience without the total culture shock of Fes and with much fewer hassles. Casbah of the Oudaya Rue des Consuls lead me to Casbah of the Oudaya (Kasbah des Oudaias) located in the best for its old defensive function place of Rabat: at the highest city point, on a cliff, at the mouth of Oued Bou Regreg river to the Atlantic Ocean. The kasbah covers relatively small area and is surrounded by impressive walls which look the best at sunset. But I liked especially: - Kasbah gardens; - museum Oudaya (National Museum of Moroccan Art - impressive collection of local jewelry, koranic manuscripts, musical instrument and royal carpets; views from the kasbah over twin city of Sale across the river, the

Atlantic Ocean and Rabat. WHAT IS KASBAH? The kasbah is a unique kind of medina or Islamic city surrounded by defensive walls. Its function was to give a place to live for a local leader/ruler or dynasty and to defend city. That's why kasbah was often placed on a top of a hill or near the entrance of harbours. Each old city of North Africa has its own kasbah.

Andalucian Gardens The Andalucian Gardens are not as old as they might give the impression of being they belong to the 20th century and were laid out be the French colonial authorities. But despite that historical background, they do have a distinct non-French feeling today, especially with the dominance of Moroccans here. The gardens have another attraction, the Museum of Moroccan Arts. While the indoor exhibition is laid out like most Moroccan museums, there are some nice arrangements with colourful and traditional antique doors in the walls near the entrance to the gardens.

Le Tour Hassan The Hassan Tour was meant to be the largest mineret in the world when construction started in the 12th century, part of a massive mosque complex initiated by Sultan Yacoub al-Mansour. The mineret never reached its intended height of 60 metres, but instead sits there at 44metres as the sultan died part way through construction. While it looks as if it's had the top lopped off by some celestial sword, it's still

big enough to dominate the skyline. The complex as a whole allows for plenty of photo opportunities, standing at one end of an avenue of stone colums, all that is left of the mosque itself. At the other end is the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. Entry to the complex is free.

Bab El Had Bab El Had is on Hassan II Avenue. "Bab" means doorway. "El Had" is the first and in this case the first day of the week, which is Sunday. Then Bab El Had is "Sunday entrance" Bab El Had is oriented towards the west, and, thus is best seen at the end of the afternoon.

Royal Palace After a visit to off the beaten path Chellah I hit my car back towards Rabat and I stopped for a moment (easy parking) to see the Royal Palace, the largest one I saw in Morocco. Well, as always in Morocco, there is a large, empty and suprisingly clean (as for Morocco) square called "Mechouar" in front of the palace. It was and sometimes still is used for military parades and trainings. The Royal Palace surrounded by tall walls was surely closed for visitors but it's a must. There were costumed guards outside who allowed me to get close to the entrance gate but didn't allow me to take pictures there. I paid attention to numerous Islamic decorations of its gates, pyramid shape green roofs and huge area it covers. The Royal Palace was built in the 18th century, extended in the 19th century and modernized in the 20th century. It covers huge area, more than the whole medina of Rabat! Well, its more than the place where the king of Morocco and his family live in royal appartments. There are offices of... prime minister, courts, ministry for religion affairs, royal school and other state institutions there. It's said that over 2,000 people live there.

Rue des Consuls Near the end of Souika Street, you will find on your right the Consuls's street, with higher houses and an iron ceiling high over the shops. The style of the shops is different and though locals come here to buy clothes or artifacts, this is the part that most tourists visit. If, instead of turning right to walk into the rue des Consuls, you walk ahead, you will arrive in a very different place. Before, you get there, look at my ''out of the beaten path'' tip for warning. The ''Rue des Consuls'' is the place in the souk where you can find every kind of local craft, on sale for tourists but also for the Moroccan themselves. This means that it has to be of a better quality than when sale is aimed only towards tourists !

Plateforme du Semaphore At the far end of the Kasbah - just follow the main street to its eventual end - is the Plateforme du Semaphore, a large viewing area with a vista across the bay to Sale. This space seemed popular with courting couples, maybe down here to take advantage of the views and perhaps enjoy a romantic sunset. The bay itself isn't one of the most dramatic spots of scenery that I've seen, but on a sunny day it would be a nice spot to hang out for a while to work out your next spot on the tourist trail. And the views are free... Maybe not on a rainy late afternoon in November though, as you can tell in the pic!

Parc du Triangle de vue The "Parc du Triangle de vue" belongs too to Liautey's project. This Park is along the Andalous's wall, on the other side of Hassan II Boulevard. It is very quiet and fresh, with much shade. Unfortunately, it closes at 6PM whatever the season. Shopping

Marjane: Don't miss supermarkets !

Vilarmar: Sal, a must go for handicraft ! Sal is the twin town to Rabat, on the other side of the Bou Regreg, a few kilometers away. Visit my Sal page. Under "shopping", you will find where to go for handicraft, at a place where you will not be hassled and will have plenty of time to choose by yourself. Restaurant La Caravelle: Go between the walls ! Directions: Outside the south-western walls of the Casbah des Oudaias. On the photo, walk up, pass the main entrance of the Casbah and it's inner wall. The passage will be on your right, between outer and the inner walls, just when the road go down to the Ocean. Price: US$11-20

Estimated cost

Date 24/04/2008 24/04/2008

Description Shuttle train from Airport to Casa-Voyageurs [1st class] Train ticket from CasaV to Marrakech Transfer from station to the riad Dar Silsila Dar Silsila Hilton Rabat Tax @ Hilton Rabat Sheraton Casablanca Tax @ Sheraton

Foreign CCY MAD 100 MAD 125

AED 51 63

25/04/2008 24/04/2008 25/04/2008 26/04/2008 26/04/2008 27/04/2008 27/04/2008

EUR 15 EUR 100 EUR 100 MAD 1750 MAD 1752

87.3 585 585 895 896

3163