High point: Amazing jazz band at Ricks Caf\u00e9, in Casablanca<\/p>\n
Low point: Was he dead?<\/p>\n
Breakfast at Riad Verus can only be described as a treat; this guy really has done an amazing job with this old building. It was only after breakfast that I took a walk up the four flights of stairs to the roof, and discovered that it doesn\u2019t actually have a roof, well not one in the traditional sense anyway.<\/p>\n
Being a Sunday didn\u2019t mean that the Souk in Fes would be any quieter, the hustle of the market was in full flow, people going in all directions, with the odd donkey carrying supplies, and the never ending number of cats roaming around.<\/p>\n
<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\nAs we passed a man selling an assortment of hats, one clearly stood out, a Fez, or as I\u2019d describe it a \u2018Tommy Copper hat\u2019. \u00a0With its purchase the predictable but funny TC gags had to be thrown in. For good measure we decided to film them, the great man\u2019s probably turning in his grave.<\/p>\nThe assortment of what is sold, it truly amazing, and the aroma of spice is never far away, nor are the butchers shops with their produce, some dead, others alive, and as James and Amy witnessed some about to meet their fate. I think they both looked away when the knife was drawn to the bird\u2019s neck, chickens!<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a pity we were not here shopping as some of the furniture, fabrics and glass is truly amazing, and with the size of the fire engine, I\u2019m sure we could get it back home, but off we go, on the road to Casablanca.<\/p>\nThe route to Casablanca was a mix of roads, we started on a narrow road with big potholes, you couldn\u2019t judge how deep as they were full of water, so pot luck with the comfort of the ride. \u00a0Amy was driving\u00a0 and was egged on to play chicken with the oncoming traffic, I can understand backing down against an oncoming lorry, but against a Dacia Sandero (yes they do exist, and aren\u2019t just on top gear) is a poor show.<\/p>\nOnce off the diversion the route was very much a Sunday drive in the British countryside with one green field after another, were we really in Africa?\u00a0 Possibly not, on the outskirts of Casablanca, we were greeted by grey skies, rain, and one huge concrete tenement block after another, littered with satellite dishes, perhaps we had taken a wrong turning and gone to Russia?<\/p>\nIt was then we realized that we didn\u2019t have a detailed map of Casablanca and didn\u2019t know where our hostel was, so it was down to the mix of bad French and sign language. \u00a0Steve even tried to hail a taxi, to no avail, in the end we took refuge at the local train station and awaited our contact from the hostel to collect us, 20 minutes later we were saved. \u00a0It could have been sooner, but neither Steve nor I noticed that he had been stood next to us for a while.<\/p>\nAs we were in Casablanca, and only have a few hours this evening (before another early start) a visit to Ricks Caf\u00e9 is a must, that and the Grand Mosque. As we drove to Ricks, there was a commotion on the road, as I looked out there clearly had been a collision, a man was laid out on the road, I hope he is ok, but the odds didn\u2019t look good.<\/p>\nThe mosque is shut in the evenings, so we could only view it from the outside, a spectacularly imposing building, pity we couldn\u2019t go in, apparently it\u2019s the largest mosque in the world that non Muslims can visit.<\/p>\nRicks Caf\u00e9, a beautiful art deco style building from the outside, is just as it is in the movie Casablanca. It was almost like walking onto a movie set, the jazz band that was playing was amazing, but the saxophonist who was hugely talented did look like he was about to keel over at any point.<\/p>\nSurly not two in one day\u2026<\/p>\nMehul<\/p>\n[flickr album=72157626433051600 num=30 size=Square]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"High point: Amazing jazz band at Ricks Caf\u00e9, in Casablanca Low point: Was he dead? Breakfast at Riad Verus can only be described as a treat; this guy really has done an amazing job with this old building. It was only after breakfast that I took a walk up the four flights of stairs to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates","category-stage-9-valencia-to-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5606"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5894,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions\/5894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
As we passed a man selling an assortment of hats, one clearly stood out, a Fez, or as I\u2019d describe it a \u2018Tommy Copper hat\u2019. \u00a0With its purchase the predictable but funny TC gags had to be thrown in. For good measure we decided to film them, the great man\u2019s probably turning in his grave.<\/p>\n
The assortment of what is sold, it truly amazing, and the aroma of spice is never far away, nor are the butchers shops with their produce, some dead, others alive, and as James and Amy witnessed some about to meet their fate. I think they both looked away when the knife was drawn to the bird\u2019s neck, chickens!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a pity we were not here shopping as some of the furniture, fabrics and glass is truly amazing, and with the size of the fire engine, I\u2019m sure we could get it back home, but off we go, on the road to Casablanca.<\/p>\n
The route to Casablanca was a mix of roads, we started on a narrow road with big potholes, you couldn\u2019t judge how deep as they were full of water, so pot luck with the comfort of the ride. \u00a0Amy was driving\u00a0 and was egged on to play chicken with the oncoming traffic, I can understand backing down against an oncoming lorry, but against a Dacia Sandero (yes they do exist, and aren\u2019t just on top gear) is a poor show.<\/p>\n
Once off the diversion the route was very much a Sunday drive in the British countryside with one green field after another, were we really in Africa?\u00a0 Possibly not, on the outskirts of Casablanca, we were greeted by grey skies, rain, and one huge concrete tenement block after another, littered with satellite dishes, perhaps we had taken a wrong turning and gone to Russia?<\/p>\n
It was then we realized that we didn\u2019t have a detailed map of Casablanca and didn\u2019t know where our hostel was, so it was down to the mix of bad French and sign language. \u00a0Steve even tried to hail a taxi, to no avail, in the end we took refuge at the local train station and awaited our contact from the hostel to collect us, 20 minutes later we were saved. \u00a0It could have been sooner, but neither Steve nor I noticed that he had been stood next to us for a while.<\/p>\n
As we were in Casablanca, and only have a few hours this evening (before another early start) a visit to Ricks Caf\u00e9 is a must, that and the Grand Mosque. As we drove to Ricks, there was a commotion on the road, as I looked out there clearly had been a collision, a man was laid out on the road, I hope he is ok, but the odds didn\u2019t look good.<\/p>\n
The mosque is shut in the evenings, so we could only view it from the outside, a spectacularly imposing building, pity we couldn\u2019t go in, apparently it\u2019s the largest mosque in the world that non Muslims can visit.<\/p>\n
Ricks Caf\u00e9, a beautiful art deco style building from the outside, is just as it is in the movie Casablanca. It was almost like walking onto a movie set, the jazz band that was playing was amazing, but the saxophonist who was hugely talented did look like he was about to keel over at any point.<\/p>\n
Surly not two in one day\u2026<\/p>\n
Mehul<\/p>\n
[flickr album=72157626433051600 num=30 size=Square]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
High point: Amazing jazz band at Ricks Caf\u00e9, in Casablanca Low point: Was he dead? Breakfast at Riad Verus can only be described as a treat; this guy really has done an amazing job with this old building. It was only after breakfast that I took a walk up the four flights of stairs to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates","category-stage-9-valencia-to-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5606"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5894,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions\/5894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}