Monday, March 25, 2002 10:52
Weather: Hot & sunny again
Location: Bus, on the way to Essaouira

I missed making a diary entry yesterday: I spent the day hanging out with my new English friends. After a late start in the morning, we walked south, hoping to stop in at the tourist office. Unhappily it was closed.

We continued on, going through a busy sook to the entrance of the Saardian tombs. There seemed to be a couple of tour buses' worth of people inside the tombs, so we waited a few minutes for them to clear. When they did, we had a look into the main chambers, beautifully decorated and, in the shade, about 10 degrees cooler than the outside air. Then we wound our way onwards through the medina, coming out at the end of a wide avenue leading back to the Koutoubia mosque, whose minaret towers over the medina.

At this point, the sun was once again getting very hot, and we decided to forgo further sightseeing for the day, in favour of an afternoon by a swimming pool. We took taxis to a luxury hotel in the Nouvelle Ville, paid 70 Dr. each to use the pool, and had a wonderful afternoon of relaxation, reading and playing cards.

As we did, we discussed our next steps. I was enjoying having company on the trips, and was at a bit of a loose end for how best to wrap up my visit to Morocco. The others had a plan to go out to the coast to see Essaouira and Agadir, two beach towns, and sit in the sun for a couple of days. This seemed like an ideal way for me to end up as well, so I planned the following changes to the itinerary:

Monday - bus to Essaouira
Tuesday - bus back to Marrakesh, connection with overnight train to Tangier
Wednesday - ferry to Algeciras, train to Cordoba
Thursday - train to Madrid

To our shock, clouds moved in around 3pm and the air got much cooler. We packed up some time later, and set off to buy tickets. Robin and Chloe went back to the hotel for a nap, and Bob, Alison and I went hunting for the bus station. We were initially tripped up, going to the CTM office where we'd arrived, but were directed towards the Gare Routiere, where all of the bus companies have offices. It turned out that the CTM only ran one bus per day to Essaouira, so we ended up getting 9:30 am tickets with another company, despite misgivings over the quality of the bus that might be used.

We returned to the hotel and picked up Robin. Alison had not managed to see the square the previous day, so we went around it again. If anything, it was more busy than on the Saturday. However, a few fat rain drops started falling as we completed our tour, so we went back to the hotel to regroup before dinner.

In the evening, we had dinner on a hotel terrace just down the street from us. The food was excellent, and we had a great view over the square and the Koutoubia minaret, lit up by spotlights. I enjoyed a terrine with sausages, which was much spicier than the couscous terrines I had had in Chefchaouen. After a stop in at a patisserie for ice cream, we called it a night. I was too tired to write my diary!
posted by Tom at 10:52 AM | link |