Ah Morocco! Al was going to go to Morocco while I was going to Bonaire scuba diving. I had no desire to go to Morocco. Everybody is happy.

Then we went to China in November of 2019. We were halfway through that mind blowing trip – exotic EVERYTHING, country of contradictions, lovely people – when I looked at Al and said is it too late for me to change my mind and go to Morocco with you? Nope, it wasn’t. I just couldn’t imagine Al going somewhere as exotic as China and me missing it. I only recently learned the acronym FOMO (fear of missing out) and I definitely suffer from that psychological mind game.

We flew through Paris (now I can say I’ve been to France.) Our first night was in Rabat and we met our tour group there and our incomparable tour guide, Safi. Right here I’m putting in an ad for Gate One Tours, Inc. The pace was enjoyable, each guide along the way superb and fun (albeit all men) and anything we needed or concerns we had were met with timely service. It was reasonably priced. We kind of got lucky because at that time Covid was just starting to be a thing, it was really only in China and maybe Italy, there were no cases in Morocco. Nevertheless, some folks had cancelled so a tour of maybe thirty to forty was down to about twenty-twenty five. If you haven’t taken a land tour this means plenty of room to spread out on the bus.

Morocco was quite fascinating. Rich history, part of which that it was outpost in the Holy Roman Empire and one of the places we visited was the ruins of Volubilis. This was one of our favorite stops. It is a partially excavated city that was started in about 3 BC by the Berbers and eventually flourished under Roman rule in 1-2 AD, most of its prosperity coming from the olive trade. The Romans eventually left but it was inhabited for another 700 or so years and then everybody moved to Fez and Meknes during the dynasty of Idris. At its height its population was 20,000. What was so enjoyable for us was: it ain’t Italy. The Unesco World Heritage Site was not crowded at all and we really got the feel of what it must have been like to live on this hilltop. It remained unexcavated for a long long time and thus there are intact mosaic floors everywhere. We enjoyed it immensely especially the not crowded part.

That was just our first stop! The history of Morocco is splattered with people and rulers and dynasties and tribes. What a mess! Interestingly they were one of the few places in that part of the world that was not invaded/ruled by the Ottoman Empire. There must be a reason for that but I forgot. Jews and Muslims all fled the Spanish Inquisition so they have no gripes as they were kindred spirits in their flight. It is a Muslim nation now, however.

On to Meknes where we went to an open market. Ok, I’m pretty green, and the butcher aisle was enlightening and not for the weak of stomach, It’s all out there for ya: cow livers, hearts, tongues, heads, feet, and even, well…you know. The typical National Geographic spice stalls were beautiful as were the aromas emanating from them (much better than the butcher aisle.) The olive stalls oh goodness gracious.

A word about olives. More olives are grown exported from Morocco than anywhere in the world. I would have thought Italy but I would think wrong. I was not particularly enamored with Moroccan food except for the family dinner we were treated to as part of our tour. The rest was, to be fair, like any tour food you might encounter anywhere – fixed menu and breakfast buffet, so the same thing over and over, some of it better than others. With my persnickety tummy I ate a lot of bread and picked at the ever present tandoori chicken. I was saved, however, by olives in abundance for every meal, including breakfast. I practically lived on them by the end of the two weeks.

Meknes also introduced us to our first medina. I will write about that tomorrow.