Wednesday, February 7.  Introductory meeting.  Then we drove around.  The King’s office palace isn’t a residence.  He lives elsewhere when he is in Rabat.  There is some controversy in that he has many palaces and none are open to the public.  Some believe the palaces should be opened for a fee to collect revenue.  (BTW, in Tangier we drove past the Saudi King’s resort, which he visits for about a month each year.  Estimated revenue for Morocco: $460 million.)

There is a Roman ruin here which was a supply depot to prepare for incursions further south.  Next to it is an ancient mosque and necropolis.  Storks dominate the place.  Noisy storks.  I have video below that I hope works.  Ben gave a description of Moroccan society, starting with funerals and then being pulled towards marriage and divorce by the group’s curiosity.  Now that the entire group is here he is going into much more detail.

Next was the tomb of Mohammad V, who was King during WWII.  Much revered.  Excellent building. Mounted guards.  It’s located immediately adjoining a huge 800 year-old unfinished mosque.  The ruler building it died and no descendants choose to complete the work.

Stopped for lunch.  I skipped it.  Walked into the medina again.  A shop that makes beautiful pillows.  A pizza joint that smells just as a pizza joint should.  Cow skulls at a meat shop.  Quiet, well behaved beggars.  Shoes.  Musical instruments.  One fly-by-night hawker was selling purses that apparently fell off a truck because there was a crowd of women anxiously looking through the selection.  The seller seemed to be in a big hurry.

Museum of Money with a large art gallery inside.  Abstract art, which I’ve never been a fan of.  Lots of ancient coins.  They had one room with videos detailing how they make money, both coins and paper. Nearly everything was in Arabic and French.  Very little English.

The Casbah.  Ho hum.  Had tea and two little pastries.  Glad I skipped lunch.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the liquor store, located downstairs and labeled “Cave”.  Bought some wine.

Our official “Welcome” dinner was in a fantastic setting, complete with music.  High ceilings, beautiful artwork, bright(!) red bathroom.  Someone in the room had a birthday so the staff rolled out the dancing celebration.  Some of the group joined in.  Uninhibited is the word.  Food was great.  I didn’t get a picture of the main course, composed of peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes stuff with meat.  Everyone had a great time.

Tomorrow we leave the coast and head east to Fez (or Fes).  Ben says we’ll see the real Morocco.  It’s true that what I’ve seen so far seems a little more “Europe” than I expected.  Time will tell.