General observations

We are currently on our way home and have had a lot of time to reflect on our wonderful vacation and to write about it. And we still had time to watch a few movies. Also, I wrote down thoughts as I had them during the trip so I ended up accumulating a lot of them. On the airplane I expanded the few words I had written down into more cohesive thoughts.

Barbara’s observations are listed first, followed by mine in bullet format.

Barbara’s observations

This has been a wonderful trip, one of my favorites. The country is exotic, interesting, and exciting while still being safe. It is the first majority Muslim country we have visited. It is so interesting to hear how they work to keep the extreme elements of Islam out. Birkahs can no longer be sold in Morocco and Imams cannot preach terrorism.

The evidence of a formerly thriving Jewish presence is in every Médina. This large prominent area is the Mellah – the old Jewish quarter. There are refurbished old Jewish synagogues in the Medinas but most are never used and are watched over and taken care of by Muslims. There were restrictions on Jews as to how they could earn a living and they were taxed, unlike the Muslim population. There were Jews who were trusted advisors to the kings. Depending on the ruler, life could be easier or harder for the Jews. Most Jews left when the state of Israel was formed. There was a fear at the time that there could be violence against Jews. During World War II, the king refused to provide the names of Jews to the Germans and also refused to make them wear the Star of David on their clothes. The star of David was on the Moroccan flag until the French had it changed to a 5 point star in the early 1900s.

The weather on this trip has been wonderful. Sweatshirt weather which I love, occasionally warm enough for just a short sleeved shirt. We have had beautiful blue skies and no rain. Our tour group is definitely on the younger side. Most are in their 50s and 60s with a few in their early 70s. This was a very active trip – up early and ending late. We did lots of fast walking on uneven cobblestones in very crowded areas, and climbing lots of high uneven stairs with no railings. Definitely a trip to do while you are in good physical condition.

Each city we visited had a different vibe while also having similarities. The mosques and palaces are beautiful with intricate details but overall appearing simple and symmetrical. Muslims like Jews cannot draw images of people or animals and the designs they use in decoration are just beautiful.

The food is both Moroccan such as tajines and pastilla, and French since the French ruled over Morocco for so many years. Everything is fresh and local. Americans cannot drink the water and have to be very careful about what water uncooked fruit and vegetables are washed with.

We have felt very safe on this trip even when venturing out alone at night in the Medinas. The people have been friendly and honest. The hotels have been great, especially our 5 nights at the Four Seasons. The tour bus is owned by Tauck with plenty of leg room and always clean. Tauck does a first class job. We never had to wait in a line. They have people do that so we get right in when we get to a destination. Lots of surprises and extras. Our tour guide Todd & local guide Adnan were fabulous. Everything was smooth, on time, and first class.

Jim and I both love to travel and are lucky in that way. Jim is more adventurous but we always compromise in a good way. We are already booked on a tour of Egypt for next February. Our fellow travelers have traveled extensively & we have some new ideas for future trips. It’s fun for us to hear about everyone’s travels, adventures, and lives.

Jim’s observations

• Morocco is a surprisingly green country. We saw a lot of green areas and a lot of agriculture. There were crops growing even in the desert.

• There is a large police presence in the cities, supposedly there to make the people feel safe and not because there is a big crime problem. In Rabat they always walked around in groups of three – two soldiers with machine guns and one policeman.

• Even without the police presence we would feel safe in Morocco. There is very little crime and the people seem very nice. We saw none of the desperation or hatred we have seen in people’s eyes in other countries (including our own). The people seem very calm and happy.

• The current king, Mohammed VI, has tried to improve the country, and the people seem to love him and have high regard for the government in general. That’s not a concept easily understood by Americans.

• The two main languages spoken in Morocco are an Arabic dialect and French. Many people also speak English, or at least the ones who interact with tourists do.

• There are women attendants in almost every public washroom, even those in fairly remote areas such as highway rest stops. You need to (or should) give them a 1 dirham coin, which is ten cents, when you use the washroom. Tauck gave everyone a bag of coins at the beginning of the trip.

• The production and sale of olives, including olive oil, is an important industry in Morocco.

• There are orange trees everywhere. Many of the trees lining the streets are chock full of beautiful oranges. Most of those oranges had wrinkled skin.

• We had beautiful weather during the entire trip.

• We had Internet access via WiFi on the bus, which was something new for us. While this seems unusual for a relatively poor country, the service probably came from low earth orbit satellites so is available anywhere in the world. The wifi was usually slower than the cellular network, but it was a nice touch.

• There are way more roundabouts than stop lights. In fact stop lights are rare even for busy intersections, and there are roundabouts even in the intersections that use stop lights. There appears to be some unwritten rule about who goes first, but I couldn’t figure it out. Sometimes the bus stopped for a long time when it appeared it could go, and other times the driver just seemed to close his eyes and enter the intersection (actually our driver was very skillful so I know that wasn’t the case).

• Many women wear head scarves. It appears that the young women don’t and the older women do. Burkas are actually illegal, or at least highly discouraged, in Morocco.

• There were many cafes where the only customers were men. I don’t know if women were forbidden or if they just didn’t want to be there.

• On the roads between cities, and on the edges of cities, there are many herds of sheep along the side of the road. Sometimes a shepherd is with them and sometimes not.

• There are a lot of McDonalds in Morocco.

• There are many strategically placed minarets, which are towers used for the call to prayer, in the cities. They all have been upgraded with loudspeakers so the calls to prayer are impossible to miss.

• Polygamy used to be very common but is now highly discouraged, partly by tax laws and partly by requiring the first wife to approve taking on a second wife.

• Morocco is a very old country, and the concept of “modern” is very different than that in the United States. For example, I consider the beautiful palace built in the 1890s to be modern.

• There was an earthquake centered around Lisbon in 1755 (creatively referred to in Morocco as “the Lisbon earthquake of 1755” ) that caused a lot of damage to Morocco. This earthquake played a part in the history of many of the sites that we saw.

• Most major streets seem to be called Mohammed something or other. They are named after Moroccan kings, not the prophet.

• There are many small steps in Moroccan buildings that seem to have no purpose other than to trip you up. Staircases tend to have many uneven steps that seem to be designed for the same purpose.

• There were no Chinese tourists there. This is unusual and is due to the coronavirus. However it was “ski week” in France, which is when kids get off from school and families (at least wealthy families) tend to go on vacation, so there were a lot of French people there.

• We spent a lot of time in Medinas, which are the very old walled section of the cities. The Medinas all have their own personalities but are similar in many respects.

• There were thirty people on our tour. They were all very nice and we got to know all of them, some more than others.

• It is a real pain needing to brush your teeth with bottled water. We also feel guilty throwing away a few plastic water bottles each day, but there is no recycling in Morocco.

• We always overpack even though we know that we always overpack. We somehow need to learn to pack lighter and leave room and weight for new purchases.