Nov 20 - Rabat and Asilah

Today we start our official tour.  It is raining today but not in buckets so maybe the day will turn out okay.  Our tour will be covering Rabat as our first stop being the Kasbah de Oudayas. From the front of the Kasbah we had good views down the street and the town beyond. 

It was a whirlwind tour by an amazing gate...

and through a few streets (many painted white and bright blue).

One stretch had a mural of Indian Women marching down the lane.  No idea what it was about.

We stopped at a couple of viewpoints that looked out over the ocean...

and the nearby walls and buildings.

  

There was also a beautiful garden but we had started late and it was raining so there really wasn’t any chance to explore it. 

We saw lots of cats here, as we have all over Rabat.

On the way to the next stop the rains let up.  The stop was the unfinished Hassan Tower, the incomplete minaret that was to accompany the world’s largest mosque.  Neither were completed.  The tower was commissioned in 1195 and at 140 feet it is about half of the intended height.   

Facing the unfinished mosque was the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, considered the Father of Modern Morocco.  

There were guards posted in the four corners of the mausoleum and at the four entrances

and there were also two mounted guards at the entrance to the complex.

On the walk back to the bus we had some more interesting views of the tower and the gardens around the outer walls at its base.

We opted to not visit some nearby gardens as the rains had started again in earnest.  We also opted not to visit the town of Sale because of time and rain.

We saw a lot of banana green houses during our drive.  

We drove to a small seaside village for lunch.  By then the sun was shining and we were able to set out on a patio to enjoy the now nice day.  However, it was very slow getting served so we were running late again.

Our next stop was the town of Asilah.  The town’s origins date back to the Romans but there was also some imposing Portuguese fortifications and interesting sights around every corner.

Fortunately the sun was still shining so we walked along the waterfront and through some of the streets of the town.  Most of the buildings in the old section were painted blue and white, which made for a very picturesque sight. 

The town is something of an artist's colony and there were a lot of murals on the walls.

 

We didn’t really have enough time in Asilah as we never did quite catch up on our time.  We arrived in Tangier after dark and had only a short walk to our new Riad.  After getting settled in we, along with Tara and Joanne, walked down the hill to a nice local restaurant for dinner.  We had the harira, a traditional Moroccan soup that is just a bit reminiscent of Chinese hot and sour soup but with chickpeas. 

Then it was back to the hotel to get settled in for the night.