I (Paul) had a work trip to Morocco - this was my first international trip for work, and it was great to visit a new middle-eastern county since I've lived and traveled in the region before. I was there for four days, with three work days and one free day on a Sunday. My meeting was in Rabat, the capital. The city was much more developed and organized than I expected. I spent the first evening walking around the neighborhood, having dinner, and then preparing for my sessions at the workshop.
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| The Agdal neighborhood next to my hotel. |
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| The semi open-air mall. |
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| Fountains at the mall. |
I used the tram from my hotel to the University each day, which was about a 10 minute trip. The tram was modern, cheap, and very frequent. Would recommend using it to get around the city. On Friday and Saturday I had the workshop both days, but walked around a bit on Friday late afternoon and we also had a tour of some of the sights of Rabat in the early evening on Saturday, so I was able to get a little tourist action in.
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| Presenting at the workshop. |
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| The University campus. |
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| Lunch at the University cafeteria. |
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| There were lots of flowers in bloom around the city. |
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| I used the tram each day to get to my meeting. Very modern and efficient! |
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| With the guard at the mausoleum of Mohammed V. |
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| Shadows in the mausoleum. |
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| Interesting lighting on the columns of the mausoleum. |
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| The Andalusian Gardens. |
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| A gate in the Andalusian Gardens. |
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| We stopped for some mint tea in the old city. |
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| Sunset over the Ocean. |
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| The walls around the old city. |
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| A cool gate on the mosque next to the mausoleum. |
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| The Hassan Tower, which was intended to be the minaret of a planned 12th century mosque. |
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| The mausoleum. |
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| Inside the mausoleum. |
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| View to the Mohammed VI tower, the third tallest skyscraper in Africa. |
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| The horseback guard outside the mausoleum area. |
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| Rabat had some street art sprinkled around the city. |
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| There were also cats all around the city. |
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| The souq in the old city. |
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| A neat restored courtyard. |
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| Cats everywhere! |
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| A huge gate, Bab Oudayas. |
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| The upper part of the old city, Kasbah des Oudayas. |
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| Lots of atmosphere in this area. |
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| A lovely little plaza. |
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| A big plaza overlooking the ocean. |
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| Views of the beach. |
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| Date night? |
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| Nouzhat Hassan Garden, which was very pleasant to walk around. |
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| Cats in the garden. |
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| We drove past the Swedish embassy! |
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| We also drove past Chellah, which contains old Roman ruins. |
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| And we drove past the Moroccan parliament building. |
We had one free day on Sunday, and a group of 14 of us (students and professors) decided to take the train up to Tangier. Morocco has a high speed train line that connects Casablanca, Rabat, and Tangier, and it's only an hour and twenty minutes from Rabat to Tangier. The train is very impressive, and makes it very easy to swiftly get between cities. Tangier was lovely - we had fantastic sunny weather and explored the city for about 8 hours before catching our train back. We used the double-decker tourist bus, which was useful for getting our group out to some of the attractions outside the city center. Tangier is a lovely coastal city, and much more touristy than Rabat.
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| Cat on a car on the walk to the train station. |
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| The impressive Rabat Agdal train station. |
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| Inside the train station. |
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| Yay, high speed rail! |
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| The view of the modern part of Tangier when leaving the train station. |
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| On the tourist bus. |
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| Driving past Tangier's long corniche. |
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| Our first stop was for a walk in the Perdicaris Park in the Rmilat Forest. |
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| The views of the trees and Mediterranean Sea were amazing. |
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| Views for days. |
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| Cap Spartel, near where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet. |
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| It was a beautiful sunny day. |
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| The official sign. |
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| The entrance to the Hercules Caves. |
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| It's famous for an opening that is kind of shaped like Africa. |
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| Some kids that got scolded for playing in the caves. |
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| There's a light show inside the caves. |
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| Swirling eddies at the cave's entrance to the ocean. |
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| Entering the old part of Tangier. |
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| The touristy old town. |
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| There were some atmospheric alleys. |
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| A plaza with fountain in Tangier. |
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| Colorful produce shop. |
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| A spice shop. |
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| Another part of the old town. |
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| It was fun to just wander around. |
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| Cat in the street. |
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| Cats on stools! |
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| The view of the sea and port from the top of the old town. |
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| A fountain in the old town. |
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| It's really a cool place to wander. |
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| The busy main tourist street through the old town. |
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| Back to the Tangier train station. |
We took the train back to Rabat, arriving around 9PM. The next day, Monday, was my last day in Rabat. We had a full meeting day, and I was back at my hotel around 8pm, ready for my 6am flight the next morning.
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| We had a great lunch on the final day. |
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| Early morning flight home. |
Overall, the areas I visited (Rabat and Tangier) were much more organized and developed than I expected. Morocco has a similar GDP per capita as Egypt, but you wouldn't know it. While Rabat isn't high on the tourist radar, it was a very pleasant city and I enjoyed my time there. Tangier has more things to see and do. It's really easy to get around by bus, tram, and taxi. While French and the Moroccan dialect of Arabic are the main languages, I didn't really have any problems getting around in English and my limited Egyptian Arabic. I hope to return one day and visit other parts of this unique country.
