Tranquil Rabat

Rabat is the capital of Morocco and usually described kindly in the guide books who prefer it to Casablanca, its larger neighbor just one hour to the south, yet Rabat remains much less visited, which also means fewer touts and more local color.

We find ourselves comparing Morocco to China, maybe because of the large number of construction and restoration projects we come across -- unlike a lot of developing countries we visit, but like China, Morocco is actually developing. Being used to China, Rabat seems quite spacious and orderly, so we really feel the exoticism of Morocco, which I thought was only for the uninitiated.

My long time cop-out for not being able to make better bread is my lack of access to a high temperature oven. I have fantasized and deduced the existence of a neighborhood oven. We were very excited to actually spotting them in Morocco!

On the train from Tangier to Rabat.


Dinner.


Our hotel was off one of the shopping streets in the medina; thus we were always walking by street vendors...Strawberries are in season.








Pickled fava beans.


Rabat like Tangier is on the Atlantic Coast. Can you spot the surfers?


Just across the Bou Regreg river, the city of Sale is a 10 minute tram ride from our hotel. We explored its walled medina on a cool cloudy morning.




The old Medresa (school).


The the students lived in these "cells".


The rooftops of Sale.


And while in Sale we spot a neighborhood baker and his oven, and this time I ask permission to take a photo. Check out his TV. He's there all day baking, no wonder.


Sale Medina Gate.


And the weather gets more windy, more wet, and more cold, so we take the tram home.


The view from our hotel room window as we wait for the rain to lessen.


The rain lessens a bit and we set out in search of dinner.


And we buy more than three sandwiches from this vendor: deep fried potatoes, deep fried eggplant, and roasted green peppers, topped with tomato salsa.




Rabat is the capital, and thus has magnificent national buildings, not to mention the King's Palace with cannot be photographed.






Plus the Church of the Sacred Heart.






The ruins of the Hassan Tower.


King's Tomb.


Not to mention the Roman Ruins that lie just south of the city inside the old Arab Necropolis.


Temple of Jupiter.


And white storks nest on the Arab Necropolis.




One last plunge into the Medina and Kasbah.








View from Rabat to Sale.




Even more surfers today.




Our hotel room has that Ottoman overhang. Cool.