It is popular to book a room in a riad in Morocco. This style of courtyard house has 5-8 rooms, and I think many have a rooftop terrace. Both of our riads did. Steps leading up you room can be beautiful with tiles and quite uneven, so we were quite careful every time we went up and down.
Upon entering, we were offered the traditional Moroccan Mint Tea. At first we refused, because after a long day of travel, we just wanted to rest in our room. Turns out that it is impolite to refuse, so they brought the tea anyway. We were glad.
What a charming city Chefchaouen is, set in the Rif Mountains. it was founded in 1471 by the Berbers, an indigenous people of northern Africa. The two official languages of Morocco are Arabic and Berber. French is also spoken, so we used a lot of merci.
We spent most of our time in the medina – the old part of the city which is car-free. One can wander the medina and only get a little lost before suddenly finding yourself in a familiar corner. Why is the city blue? No one is completely sure, but the two leading theories are that the Jewish refugees who came in 1930 painted it. The other theory is that it keeps away mosquitos. In either case, it is a truly beautiful place.
On our last sabbatical, we spent a week in Istanbul. We wanted to visit somewhere very different than the other places we visited in Europe. This video made me want to go to Morocco. Mr. Glamper did an amazing amount of research and planned where to go and how to transfer between points.
Getting to our first destination, Chefchaouen, took us most of one day. Leaving our apartment in Zürich at 5:20 a.m. to catch the first bus of the day, we made it to the airport for an early morning flight to Madrid. Here we ate lunch. Knowing that we should probably not eat salads in Morocco (washed with tap water) we enjoyed our last crunchy greens for the week.
After several hours, we took a flight to Tangier, at the northern tip of Morocco. Here is a view from the airplane.
The airport in Tangier is quite small and has no ATMs. The Moroccan currency is the Dirham, and it is not possible to get any outside of the country. We were at the mercy of the money changers at the booths who take a nice cut in the transaction. We needed cash to pay the taxi driver who would take us to the bus station.
We used our credit card a few times during our week, but most small restaurants and businesses take cash.
Our driver in a Petite Taxi took us quickly to the CTM station. When we paid him the $5 fare with a $10 bill, he had to walk all around the station asking people to help break the 100 Dirham bill. Converting from Dirhams to dollars was an easy moving of the decimal one place.
We were early for the bus, so we sat in the station with locals and tourists alike. The bus left on time and two hours later we were in Chefchaouen. Google Maps led us to our hotel on foot, hiking up and up and up the hill for 25 minutes to the old town.
After dinner at a cafe recommended by our hosts, we were ready for a good sleep.
We were now in Mr. Glamper’s 28th country, my 30th, and our fifth continent.
Glamping in Switzerland 