With apologies to Mel Stuart, Suzanne Pleshette and the cast of that gawd-awful movie from the 1960’s, but the title seemed appropriate!

Well, we are in another country and on another Continent. Yes, that’s right – we are in Morocco. This is MJ’s 3rd trip and Nick’s 2nd trip to this lovely country. We have pretty well “done” Morocco with our previous trips but there is always something new to see.  This time, Nick wanted to see Chefchaouen, also know as the Blue City, so we flew into Casablanca and spent the night there.

Then it was off to Gare de Casa Voyageurs so that we could arrange our train tickets. The Hotel kindly get a Petit Taxi for us and we just managed to fit – with all our luggage and, we had been assured that it would be run with a meter. Well it was – after we reminded the driver to turn it on. We were watching the meter tick over – it was less scary than watching the traffic from the front passenger seat, and when we arrived at the station, the Meter read 10.10. Was that Euros or Dirhams? Turns out it was Dirhams, so the trip cost us the equivalent of A$1.60, so we didn’t feel bad giving him a 30 MAD (Moroccan Dirhams) tip!

Anyway, into the Station we go, by the way, walking towards to old building when we could hear this whistle going crazy behind us. We stopped, turned around and discovered that we were heading in the wrong direction! Casablanca now has a modern new Passenger Train Station with escalators, western toilets and everything! It even has ticket machines, so it was a matter of minutes to purchase 2 First Class seats on the 10:30am train to Fez.  We even had an allocated carriage and seats but don’t think that we were getting too upper-class – if there was air conditioning, it only worked occasionally! So by the time we reached Fez (4½ hours later), we were hot!  And it was with gratitude that we got into the car that had been sent to take us to our accommodation in Fez.

Our accommodation this time is in the middle of the Old Medina, in a Riad. Now the thing with staying in the Medina is that no motorized vehicles are allowed within the walls – only donkeys or hand-barrows. So with some trepidation, we watched out luggage get loaded into a hand-barrow and then pushed into the Medina with us trotting behind. And generally, we were heading downhill – and as everyone knows, what goes down must go back up, so we were having a few worried moments thinking about our departure. But that’s a few days away so we won’t worry yet!

Our first full day in Fez was our trip to Chefchaouen. Through a contact from MJ’s previous trip to Morocco, we had arranged for a driver to take us to Chaouen and back to Fez as well as a guide for Chefchaouen. Alae, our guide, was brilliant! He told us so much about the history of the north of Morocco, about how it has more of a Spanish influence as opposed to French in the rest of the country. A lots of Moors who were expelled from Spain after the Reconquista, settled in this part of Morocco hence the similarity of architecture between Chefchaouen and Granada. And also over the centuries, it was heavily raided by the Portuguese, but they were only ever interested in the Coast.

We were then taken to a lovely café which, in Alae’s words “makes the best Chicken Bastilla” for lunch! Nick had the recommended Chicken Bastilla and MJ had Seven Vegetable Couscous! We won’t need to eat again for a few days!

The next day, we headed out to explore the Medina and see how long it takes us to get lost! Back in 2013, on our first visit to Morocco, we did a cooking class at a place call “Clock Café” and we were pleased to see that it was still in business, so we just HAD to go there for lunch! We mentioned that we were return customers and next thing, they brought Sirh to see us! Sirh had been our teacher at the cooking class all those years ago and, to do her credit, she sounded believable when she said that she remembered us, but we were happy to accept it at face-value and had a nice catch up. If you are coming to Fez and want either a cooking class or a great meal, we can’t recommend this place enough!

One more day in Fez and we had decided that we were going to have a local Hamman. Having experienced Hammans in Turkey and Spain, Thermes in Europe and Banyas in Russia, we are big fans of the Moroccan Hamman. One of the features they have is a full body scrub with a scourer mitt, which sloughs off so much dead skin, and then a 60 minute full body oil massage.  The only downside, for Nick, was no scalp massage and he had to wear a pair of paper briefs. But afterwards, we felt so clean and our skin was as smooth as a baby’s bottom!

Now it’s time to head to Rabat for a night – yes, more train travel. The train to Rabat & Casablanca is actually going to Marrakech so it is probably the busiest of all the trains. We had found a nice hotel, only about 10 minutes walk from the train station, but the station is in the middle of a major renovation or expansion and whilst you can see them there – there are no working escalators and you have to hump your bags up and down the stairs. So by the time we got to our hotel, it didn’t seem like it was just around the corner from the station!

Luggage is dumped in our room and we headed out to go for a walk, stopping for some lunch on the way. Nick is starting to suffer from food overload! You can’t believe how hard it is to find a simple sandwich for lunch. Most places were offering 7-Veg Couscous, or a Tajine, or Pasta, or Pizza. Finally we found somewhere that offered a “French Taco” which was some chicken in a tortilla but it came with fries and a dressed salad on the side!

Anyway, we had some food in our bellies, and were off in search of a Cache in the Botanic Gardens so MJ could get her Souvenir for Morocco. Found it! And then we just went for a meander. On Saturday morning, we scooted down to the Station to get our train tickets to Casablanca Airport and then went for a bit more of a meander, watching lots of police who were there because there was supposed to be a Pro-Palestine Protest March happening that morning. We found a café where we had a nice coffee and pastry before heading back to the hotel to get picked up for our tour of Rabat.

We hadn’t realized how old Rabat was until we saw the Tour de Hassan, which was started in 1195 and was going to be the largest Mosque in the world, but the dream died 4 years later when Yuqub Al-Mansur died. But the part of the Minaret that was built is still used in conjunction with the small Mosque which is next to the Mohammed V Mausoleum. Now apparently, under Islam there isn’t supposed to be a cemetery next door to a Mosque, but when you are King and it is a Mausoleum, then that’s different! Anyway, we visited the Mausoleum which took 10 years to build and is the final resting place of King Mohammed V and King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah, brother to King Hassan II.

Next, it was off to Chellah, which are walled ruins that were originally settled by the Phoenicians, then controlled by the Romans from 40 A.D. It became a hub for Christianity in the 2nd Century until it was surrendered to the Arab Muslims in the 7th Century. However, you can see plenty of architectural evidence of Roman settlement and the transition to Islam.

Our final stop for the day was a stop at the Kasbah of the Oudaias. The Kasbah dates from the 12th Century and is still well preserved. The name comes from an Arab tribe, the Oudayas, who were hired by Sultan Yaqub al-Mansur to defend the walls of the Kasbah and build more fortifications. But these days, there is a café to have either hot or cold drinks and some lovely local pastries while you enjoy the view across the river to Salé. You can even watch brave souls swimming at “Rabat Beach”!

Now we were heading to Casablanca to catch a 1am flight to Cairo. Thankfully, there is a 2-hour time change, so we landed in Cairo at 8:30am. And again, we are in a country that have visited before but we wanted to see more of what it has to offer. Thankfully, we had stayed in contact with our guide from our last visit, in 2020 and Miso was kind enough to help us arrange drivers, places to go to see and, at the last minute, a stand-in guide.

When we left Egypt in 2020, Nick made the comment that he wanted to come back so he could see the Step Pyramid at Saqqara as it was a fore-runner to the Pyramids at Giza. We had hoped that Miso would be our guide but unfortunately he was still in Turkey (that’s another story), so he arranged for another guide – who turned out to be Miso’s cousin!

And we had hoped to spend lots of time at the Grand Egyptian Museum, aka “The GEM”, but even though it had looked finished when we were here in 2020, it wasn’t and it still isn’t fully open. It has been on a “Trial Opening” for more than a year but no date has been set for the Official Opening due to the situation between Israel and Gaza. Needless to say, we were disappointed, but with Miso’s help, we ended up having a wonderful couple of days in Cairo.

Day 1 – we visited Saqqara to see The Step Pyramid, which was the 1st Pyramid built by Imhotep for Djoser. Then we went to Memphis which used to be the capital of Egypt for about 5,400 years – so only a short time. There we saw some more amazing statues of Ramses II, aka The Great as well as a Triad statue of Khonsu, Pharoah Menes and Sekhmed. Your task, should you choose to accept it is to research who they all were! From Memphis, we were then off to Dahsur so that we could see Pyramids #2 & #3, also called “The Bent or False Pyramid” and “The Red or True Pyramid”.

Day 2 saw us collected and taken to meet our guide who then took us around old Cairo, which is also Coptic Cairo. Here is another a history/religion lesson – the Holy Family fled into Egypt when Jesus was a baby and they remained there for 3 years. When the Holy Family entered into old Cairo, they hid in a cave for 3 months. These days, there is the Church of Abu Serga which is another name for the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, and is one of the oldest a Coptic churches in Egypt. The  Christian Church in Egypt was founded in Alexandria by St Mark, who became Alexandria’s first Bishop in the mid-1st Century A.D.

Then it was on to visit the G.E.M., even a 1-hour tour was better then nothing. However, we still managed to kill almost 3 hours there! We did the tour, then had some lunch – a Feteer, which is described as an Egyptian Pizza (not really) but it was yummy, especially with fresh Mango juice! And then it was back to walk though the Grand Staircase at the GEM, looking at all the statues and reading all the placards!

Day 3, and our last full day in Cairo was another sunny day and this time we were heading to the National Museum of Egyptian Culture (NMEC). This is another new museum that opened fully in 2021 and the big drawcard for this museum is the presence of some 20 Royal Mummies. We saw funerary offering, Canopic jars, Sarcophigi (that sounds better than Sarcophuses) and the actual mummies. From Ramses X, all the way back to Seti I, Hatshepsut, Ramses II. And they also have a display showing the Pre-Dynastic era and a 35,000 year old skeleton, right through the various Periods, to Greco & Roman and finally Muslim control of Egypt.

I would have to say that the NMEC will be a good counterfoil for the GEM, but there is still so much on display at the Egyptian Museum that you worry whether it will become the poor cousin for both tourist and the government.  And if you get a chance, have a look on YouTube for the Royal Parade of Mummies which shows when all the Royal Mummies went in parade to their new residence at the NMEC. Here is a link from YouTube – there are a variety of clips from the televised show (46 minutes) to this news-clip on YouTube :- https://youtu.be/rpSHrM8sCrI?si=eSChu29KUuMNT0J_. Thanks to South China Morning Post for allowing me to share their clip.

After our second visit to Cairo, we can say with authority that Cairo drivers are crazy! They have no understanding of the concept of staying in their own lane, and it is apparently impossible to travel more than 5 metres without blowing the horn! It is either to warn that you’re there, or watch out I’m coming through, or you’ve seen someone on the footpath, or you’re wearing a green shirt… who knows!!