Ok, I’ll take back everything I said about Morocco’s Atlantic coast yesterday. 🤣 Rabat is one of the cleanest cities I’ve ever been in!
Drove in this morning with echoes of the Casablanca madness as we neared the city centre. There’s absolute chaos every time we hit a roundabout and now we’ve worked out why. Three or more lanes of traffic go into only two around the island – not great planning.
Had difficulty getting into the parking as there seemed to be no way into it at all. A local man told us to drive across the zebra crossing (in the same way a pedestrian would walk), so that’s what we did! 🤣
We visited the Hassan Mosque and tower first as the 50m tall minaret stands just above where we are parked. It was meant to be taller but never got finished. All that remains of the mosque itself are some partially restored columns but they look really good in the massive open space between that and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V.
The tomb of Mohammed V and his two sons Hassan II and Moulay Abdellah lie here, watched over by costumed royal guards who seem very proud to be doing the job. It’s another very beautiful, ornate place with a balcony to look down on the tombs below.
From there, we walked up to the lovely whitewashed Kasbah des Oudaïas which stands on a headland overlooking the mouth of the river. Had some mint tea (glass full of sugar with some leaves in) in a lovely cafe then carried on to see the attached Andalusian gardens. Everything immaculate!
Across the road to the medina next. Surely that’s got to be scruffy and full of rubbish? Nope, almost as clean except for a million cats. Even down the rougher end they were putting their rubbish in a cardboard box in the middle of the street. How can this place be so different?
