Day 5: Azemmour to El Jadida

February 20, 2023

Good to have a short day

“I’m glad this is a short day, I’m feeling my legs,” Patrick says and Rachel agrees. Yesterday was a longer than expected first day. The call to prayer woke Patrick up, though we both slept well. We have yogurt and granola with banana for breakfast, shuttle gear down the stairs to the bikes that were kept overnight in a storage room.

The streets are just starting to get active as we make our way out of the city. The ride is uneventful as we cycle past a huge new looking exposition center, then a forest of eucalyptus trees and a Royal Golf Course. Near El Jadida there is a crosswalk for horses and a big complex of stables.

On the outskirts of El Jadida we start riding along the promenade to the beaches. Patrick checks the tablet for the location of Art Suite Hotel. We end up circling the hotel as it is hidden behind the street with the shops. The hotel is very nice with a large walled-off garden, a huge lobby with stone work everywhere. We have found that showing up at hotels like we used to do does not really get you the best deals anymore. Gone are the days arriving in a town and using the Lonely Planet as the best guide for budget accommodations. Mostly we use a website like booking.com and reserve a room at one of the cheaper places with good reviews.

We find the hotel, hidden behind the shops on the side street.

We clean up, Rachel does a bit of laundry and Patrick finds a place to hang it on the roof. We have learned that the roof is where the house keepers dry the sheets and towels, there is always some room for a couple of our pieces. The weather is humid and we’ll have to see how well things will dry. Then we head out for lunch and sightseeing. Immediately out of the hotel, we see roasting chicken legs and thighs and chawarma roasting. Chawarma or Shawarma means “turning” in Arabic. It is a Levantine meat preparation where thin cuts of lamb, chicken or beef are stacked in a cone-like shape on a vertical rotisserie.

We stop to look at a menu and the “hawker” convinces us to have lunch. We take the chicken chawarma. Rachel thinks this is going to be her favorite “fast food” and no longer craving a hamburger at McDonald’s. We sit at the table with both of us facing the door. This just seems the way of the locals.

The fortress was built in 1506 by the Portuguese to protect their ships heading down the West African Coast. At one point, this was an important trading port.

We continue exploring the Medina. A draw-back here is that the alleys are a little wider than what we saw in Azammour and cars have invaded the space. A photo of a quaint alley just is not the same with a Renealt sitting in it. At the ocean side of the Medina we climb a steep ramp and end up on the rampart walls that used to protect the city from sea invaders. Heavily rusted cannons are still pointed out.

The Portuguese Cisterns is the main thing to see here. Near where we entered the Medina, at the door to the Cisterns a shop keeper speaks with us in English. “Closed” he says of the Cisterns. There was a cave in and they are now under repair. What a shame. We will have to settle for a photo of the photo that hangs in the lobby of our hotel.