Visit Date: May 8, 2015
The last place to stay is the capital city Rabat. Urban atmosphere.
To Rabat, the capital city and the political center
Departing from the Volubilis site, we will once again return to the city of Meknes, which we visited two days ago. It takes about 2 hours to the capital Rabat. It is indeed the capital city and the road is more magnificent than any other area in Morocco.
And there were a lot of policemen and soldiers in the city. Is it because it is the capital city, or is it because of the influence of the tightened security related to IS?
Then we went to Rabat city.
Disappointing! Archaeological Museum
はじめに我々は市内にある「考古学博物館」を目指しました。道路は広く、路上駐車スペースも多くありそうでしたので、駐車には困らなさそうでした。ただ、肝心の博物館らしきものが見当たりません。クルマでうろうろしていたら、左折禁止のところを左折してしまったらしく、警察官に止められてしまうも、よくわからない理由で見逃してもらえました。ちょうど考古学博物館があるあたりは、王宮が近いので非常に警察や軍人が多かったです。
In the end, I was not sure, so I parked on the street near the museum indicated by the guidebook and Google Maps, and decided to look for it on foot.
And finally, I found it. I could see why it wasn’t easy to find. It was because it was a small building with two more floors, not on the main street.
入場料はいくらか忘れてしまいましたが、そこそこ取られた気がします。にも関わらず見どころはほとんどないという非常に残念な博物館…。直前に訪れたヴォルビリス遺跡があまりにも素晴らしかったので、とってもがっかりしました。訪れる観光客も殆どいない感じでした。それも納得できます。
Mausoleum of King Muhammad V and Tower of Hassan
再びクルマに乗り、次は河口付近にある「ムハンマド5世の霊廟」へ向かいました。ここは広場前に路駐することができましたが、非常に込み入っており駐車は苦労すると思われます。我々は運がよくたまたま霊廟前についた時、ちょうど出るクルマに遭遇し、そのスペースに難なく入れることができました。ここも係員がいて出発時にお金を支払うタイプの路駐。
Are the cavalry guarding the entrance to the square where the mausoleum is located, or is it for tourists?
We were able to enter the square of this mausoleum, but apparently we were not allowed inside the mausoleum. Is it because the time of day was bad, or because it was Friday. So I could only watch from outside.
ところでムハンマド5世ってどんな人？そういえば、モロッコの空の玄関口であるカサブランカの空港も「ムハンマド5世空港」という名前がついているくらい。[highlight]このムハンマド5世、フランスからモロッコ独立を勝ち取った時の国王[/highlight]だったんですね。それで現代のモロッコでは英雄とされているというわけです。
そして、同じ霊廟のある敷地にあるもう一つのシンボルが「ハッサンの塔」。しかし、ここは工事中のようで、四方を網（フェンス？）で囲まれていて、塔の外見すら見ることができませんでした。ちょっとついてなかったかも。
To Medina, check in to your last hotel.
Rabat, the capital city, doesn’t have much to offer. There are only the area with the mausoleum and the Medina. Our last lodging of this trip was in the Medina of Rabat. Moving from the area with the mausoleum. When we approached to the side of Medina, it was crowded with citizens who live in the capital. Taxis, buses, etc., the hustle and bustle of the Muslim world that we often see was in the air. I thought the capital city was very lively.
We arrived at the Medina wall from the southeast of the Medina, went around clockwise along the wall, parked our car around the north side of the Medina wall, and walked to the hotel we had reserved in the Medina.
The hotel was a relatively new riad-type hotel in the Medina, a little north of the city. It was not a typical type like Marrakech or Fez, but an ordinary hotel rearranged in riad style. The room was the same as a normal hotel.
After checking in and relaxing a bit at the hotel, we took a walk around the medina. It was the type I’ve often seen, but there were few tourists and it had a shopping street atmosphere for locals.
Then we left the medina and strolled around the square along the Bouregreg River, which flows east of Rabat.
A corner with a large space and easy to spend. It seems to be a place for citizens to relax. I saw a lot of tourists.
It was crowded with many people. The ship anchored here seems to be a restaurant.
The next stop was the Kasbah of Udaiya, northeast of the medina and the nearby city center.
It seems that there was something like a museum inside, but I gave up going because it seemed to be just before closing.
And on the back side of this Kasbah, there was a town colored in white and blue for some reason. I don’t go this time, but it is atmosphere like popular tourist spot Shaouen in Morocco.
So that’s about it for sightseeing in Rabat. To be honest, there was not much to see.
Disappointing dinner.
Well, the purpose of our walk around the city was to find a restaurant for dinner. To tell the truth, I was getting tired of Moroccan food such as tagine and couscous, so I intended to look for another restaurant like the day before, something French, in short, something other than Moroccan food. However, we couldn’t find the place we wanted.
In the end, we found a place where we could drink wine and beer, but the atmosphere was not good, the building smelled like a bubble, and the food itself was not so bad, but not particularly tasty either. The food itself wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t particularly tasty either. And after all, the staff at the restaurant didn’t seem very motivated, so it was a very disappointing choice.
The wine wasn’t bad….
We didn’t take lunch that day, just ate some snacks in the car, so we took dinner a little early. I think we finished eating before dusk. Then we went to the hotel in Medina on foot. The next day, we finally went back to Japan.
Transfer to Casablanca, transfer to airport, return rental car safely and fly home.
After dinner, we packed up for our flight home the next day, took a shower and went to bed early. Waking up was comfortable. Although Rabat was disappointing in many ways, the atmosphere of the hotel was very nice. Breakfast was also very good.
I checked out of the hotel, went back to my car, paid about 20DH to a street watchman who appeared suddenly as usual, and went to Casablanca via the highway. Then I went south from Casablanca for about 30 minutes and came back to the Muhammad V airport after about 10 days. There was no trouble about the car and no breakdown, so the return was extremely smooth. I had about a quarter of fuel left in the tank.
Checking in for the plane was smooth. The departure procedure, which I had heard would take a long time, was also smooth. I spent the rest of the time buying souvenirs at the airport and departed from Casablanca without any particular delay. And I came back to Narita on the next day Sunday as scheduled via Istanbul.
これにてイスラエルから始まったモロッコ旅行は幕を閉じました。体調面で何度かピンチになったものの、事故や盗難には一切巻き込まれない極めて順調な旅だったと思います。モロッコ、まだ更に北側のスペイン対岸エリアには行くことができなかったので、別の機会にまた訪れる予定です。（2015イスラエル＆モロッコ旅行完）
