April 2010

So after the previous day's long crowded train, and a hot noisy night's sleep, I got to see the interesting imperial granaries of the city of Meknes, built by Moulay Ismael to be his capital city, and well-organised to defend against the inevitable tactics of the Berbers in the mountains who he was fighting – cutting off the water sources.

After a quick minibus to the Casablanca train station we took a nice train to Rabat, Morocco's capital. Wait, are we in first class? Yes we are, and the tickets say second class. Is that a problem?

The bus from Chefchaouen to Casablanca left at an ungodly hour, which I didn't appreciate especially having slept poorly, largely fretting about the tour start. The ride was ok, despite the potholed roads and the bus driver not appearing too clear on which side of the road one supposedly drives on in Morocco. He did at least sort of squish over slightly closer to the median when he was driving on the wrong side and there was oncoming traffic.

Not quite as disgusting/dangerous as casu marzu, the cheese aged by and eaten with live maggots, but certain areas of Germany have Milbenkäse: mite cheese, aged by “cheese mites” – relatives of household dust mites – who eat the cheese rind (they flour the cheeses to stop them eating the whole thing) and whose digestive juices permeate and flavour the cheese. Who's keen?

The ferry from Algeciras to Tangier was fairly fast and pleasant – exciting watching Africa swim into view, though it isn't much to look at out the side of a ferry (who wouldn't put an open deck on a ferry?). The peace lasted until we had changed some money and made it to the gate to the docks, and then the rip-off artists started.