Morocco - Rabat

Our first venture onto the continent of Africa together brought us to Morocco. Why Morocco, I can't exactly remember the specific reason we chose it now, outside of it's a place we've not been giving us a new place and culture to explore and immerse ourselves in and we have enjoyed Moroccan food when we've had the opportunity to eat it elsewhere in the world. As I've mentioned plenty of times before, the only time I’m OK with getting up super early is if it involves travelling. Our flight to Morocco had us up pretty early as our journey connected through Montreal, which always adds a bit of time. Leaving the week before summer break is officially over appeared to be a popular week for travel based on how busy the airport was. Both flights were thankfully pretty uneventful. Neither of us got a good amount of sleep so when we arrived in Casablanca just after 7am (the day after we left) we were both feeling tired. We had heard that the immigration lines could take a few hours and that getting through immigration could take upwards of three hours at times. Thankfully for us we seemed to be the only plane to arrive at 7am and we breezed through immigration with little delay. I was quite impressed with how clean and modern the airport was. While waiting for our suitcase I noticed the airport workers handle each suitcase coming out to make sure they lined up nicely on the conveyor belt and one was even turning them upright on their sides to make more room. Not something you see at most airports around the world but was a nice touch. Overall we were out of the airport in no more than an hour. 

Morocco is still a predominantly cash society and so we knew that we needed to get some cash. One of the ATM providers we researched was right in the arrivals area as was Lilly Coffee so we got our cash and a quick pick me up before finding a taxi to take us to Rabat. From the airport to Rabat is about a 1.5 hours drive. So we didn’t fall for a taxi scam, we read that the best option was a Grand Taxi and to pre-negotiate the price. There wasn’t much negotiating in this case despite Z's best attempts.... the price was fixed and was slightly higher than we had read at 783 Durham but in the end for the length of the drive it was fine. 

Our first impressions of Morocco… the King is predominately displayed everywhere, there are photos of him in all the shops and the airport is named after him. Also predominately displayed everywhere are is the country's flag leading us to believe Moroccans are very proud of their country. Heading to Rabat, the capital of Morocco and where the King lives, we noticed as we got closer and into the city proper, the landscaping was manicured with precision, the roads were cleaner and shinier, and there was green space everywhere. In Rabat, the city feels relaxed, no one hassles you to buy anything as you walk through the Medinas, there are cameras everywhere which is a deterrent for crime, and we felt quite safe even when walking out at night. 

We got to the hotel Rabat Marriott by 10:30am and thankfully our room was ready so we were able to check in right away. We were greeted with Moroccan tea poured in the traditional fashion and in traditional glasses. Our check in agent was a wonderfully friendly guy who took time to converse and explain a few things about Rabat, and provide some positive thoughts on our overall Moroccan itinerary. The hotel is about four years old and still has a nice new feel to it. We had a lovely spacious room on the fourth (top) floor overlooking the pool. Driving in I noticed that there aren’t really any high rises in Rabat, mostly 4 to tops 6 stories. The hotel is next to Arribat Centre, a large shopping centre. Across the street is the AL Medina Stadium, a 18,000 capacity football stadium that opened in 2025 and is home to UTS Rabat. 

We had booked a 5pm walking tour on our first day to get oriented and get a feel for Rabat. We had the balance of the afternoon to chill out by the pool and get acclimatized to the heat. But first we needed some lunch and we decided to keep things simple and stay at the hotel which has a Spanish tapas restaurant poolside so we dined on some Lomos Saltados (actually Peruvian) and some garlic shrimp before lounging, or falling asleep like me, poolside. While the temperature was in the high 20s, it didn’t feel too hot as there was a nice constant breeze. 

While in the city, the cheapest was to get around is by a Petit Taxi and in Rabat these taxis are all blue cars so quite easy to spot them. Our walking tour meeting point was at Bab El Had, a roughly 10 minute drive so in a Petit Taxi we hopped. One of the unique things about these taxis is that they will often take two different fares if someone else is heading in the same direction; we only experienced that once when heading to the train station leaving Rabat. We also learned on that ride when the driver became a bit rude and impatient that there is a minimum fare of 7 Durham and even if there are two different paying customers, both pay the same fare price if ending at the same destination. The fare is not a shared fare.  

Our tour guide was Souf. We learned that he had a tour in the morning that day and that we were the only ones for the evening tour but he decided not to cancel even though it was just the two of us. We met Souf by the Fantaine de Place Bab El Had and started off through the main gate into the Rabat Medina. We wandered through the alleyways as Souf explained different aspects of Moroccan history, culture, and life including about the Berber people and the difference in language between them and the Moroccan people. Souf provided us with a lot of information and kept our private tour very engaging. As we walked through the Medina and market, the shop keepers were not aggressive and did not bother us trying to sell us anything. Unlike other Medinas and markets in Morocco the shops in Rabat display their price tag and Souf explained that here you do not need to barter, the locals pay the same price. The Medina is a maze of alleyways lined with countless shops selling fresh fruits, baked goods to “name brand” handbags, shoes, and clothing. While we may have been tempted to buy stuff, in the end we resisted and just enjoyed the experience. Our tour ended in the Kasbah, which is the city’s fortress overlooking the ocean. The monumental gate of the Kasbah is beautiful and considered one of the most beautiful gates in Moroccan architecture. There are about 2,000 people living within the Kasbah neighbourhood and is open and free for tourists. There are plenty of beautiful views of the city and the Atlantic Ocean from here. You can also see quite a bit of construction happening as the country prepares to welcome the world for World Cup 2030. Our tour ended at Cafe du Udayas where we enjoyed a Moroccan tea with Souf along with some super delicious cookies - the cost for three came to 80 Durham. Because the Kasbah faces the ocean, people come here to watch the magnificent Rabat sunset, and we caught a pretty great one before walking back towards the city centre for supper at Dar Naji on recommendation by Souf. We enjoyed a great meal here dining on Pastila chicken - which is a mix of savoury spiced meat, sweet caramelized onions, and crunchy nuts in a pastry dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon on top and Seffa chicken - which is vermicelli served with a sweet and savoury onion sauce and chicken pieces topped with ground almonds, icing sugar and cinnamon. Very popular throughout Morocco is fresh squeezed juices and so we had to try the orange juice as well - it didn't disappoint. This was a great first day introduction to Morocco.

We enjoyed a lot of incredible foods during this trip. Every dish we tried was full of flavour through great mixtures of different spices. A couple more of our favourites were Moroccan Harira soup - a delicious and hardy vegetable soup and Bissara aux Feves - also a delicious soup made from fava beans. The fish and seafood was a big hit with Z as well considering it was usually freshly caught. Surprising to us was learning that Moroccan had a fairly well established wine industry. One that we really enjoyed was a red wine from the Domaines Amal winery called Amal from the Rabat/Casablanca region. It's a Tempranillo/Shiraz blend, and is light, almost translucent in colour with hint of berry and a soft smooth finish.

The archaeological site Chellah is well worth a visit. We took a self guided audio tour to learn more of its history as we wandered the 7 acres of archeological remains. The site is surrounded by a 1km long Marinid wall and is home to an ancient city and a Marinid necropolis. The ruins are very well preserved and at the southeastern part of the site you find the Garden of the Towers. These gardens provide a nice reprieve from the heat. The Chellah is not only a UNESCO World Heritage Site but has also become a haven for a colony of white storks who have built their nests atop the ruins and minarets. 

Hassan Tower is a 12th century minaret of an unfinished mosque. The grounds have hundreds of unfinished stone columns stubs that the mosque was to be built on. The tower is made of a red
sandstone and stands 44 metres tall. The mosque was supposed to be the largest in the western Muslim world and was commissioned in 1195 by Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur but ceased construction upon his death four years later. The tower sits next to the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V and is an important historical and highly visited complex in Rabat. 

Bremen to Hamburg back to Frankfurt

From Hannover our next stop for a quick stay in Bremen. We were scheduled to leave Hannover in the morning with a direct train to Bremen and would have taken one hour. We arrived at the train station and as we went to board our train, the attendants at first didn't want to let us on. Eventually they let us on and after we sat on the train for a bit, I started to pay more attention to the train announcements which of course were only in German. I finally figured out something was wrong and that our train was going to be delayed but I wasn't sure why or for how long, but what I did understand was that we needed to get off the train. There was quite a bit of confusion on the platform and we found another passenger who spoke English and explained to us that there was a massive train fire en route to Bremen and that our train was cancelled. That threw us for a bit of a loop because we didn't know whether we could wait for the next scheduled train instead and get there a couple hours later than we had anticipated. We also contemplated just changing our itinerary altogether and perhaps find a train directly to Hamburg because we were only spending one night in Bremen anyway, but we were unable to cancel our hotel without a penalty so we decided we'd try to figure out a different, indirect route there instead. We took a quick look at the DB app and found another train leaving in about 15 minutes time and the ticket we had booked to go direct to Bremen would work on it. It would just take us about three hours time total instead and had a connection we'd have to make. We figured this was a better option than wait it out at the Hannover train station for the direct. It was a little spontaneous change of plans, something I'm usually not comfortable with, but in the end worked out quite well. We got to our connection in Buchholz and realized a connecting train would be arriving shortly according to the DB app and that it was on a certain platform, so we hurried up and down the stairs taking us across a different platform which had a train sitting and waiting on it.... we got to the empty platform and waited a few minutes to much closer to when the connecting train was supposed to depart, only to realize the train that was already sitting on the other platform was the train we wanted and to catch it we had to hustle back up and down the stairs across the train track back to the train only to have it depart just as we arrived at the front of the train. Turns out there was a platform change but the platform signage hadn't updated and the DB app wasn't entirely helpful either. This now meant we had about 45 minutes to wait until the next train, so we wandered into the small town for a quick lunch because we didn't want to miss the next train...needless to say our hurried lunch was that necessary after all because just our luck with the oh so reliable German trains, this one was delayed by 20 minutes. The train ride itself was only just under an hour and our hotel in Bremen was just outside the train station so it was very short walk after a day's travel. 

We arrived mid afternoon and got straight to exploring Bremen as we only had the one night. While convenient to the train station, it was about a 20 minute walk to Bremen old town. At this point we were starting to get hungry but it was a bit early for a proper supper and as we were walking along to the old town, we came across Falafel Ya Hala where we stopped in for a tasty pre-supper meal. 

Bremen is a charming, historic town with a rich maritime history. The old town city centre is famously known for its Marktplatz where you will find the Rathaus, the Roland statue, and the Bremen cathedral, St. Petri Dom nearby. You'll also find the famous Bremen Town Musicians statue which is dedicated to the Grimm Brother's fairy-tale animals. Walking around the square we searched for a special manhole cover that if you drop a coin into it, it will "speak" to you. We managed to find it after circling the square a few times and discovered the sound wasa dog barking. We quickly figured out that what this manhole cover does is makes the individual sounds of the town musicians... we didn't want to throw another three coins in it to hear all four, but at another point when we were walking by, others had discovered it and it was making the sound of one of the other animals. We found ourselves wandering the medieval maze of the Schnoor Quarter, Bremen's oldest district made up of cobblestone, car-free lanes lined with 15th and 16th century houses and shops. We got to this part of town early-ish evening but all the shops had already closed for the day and so we just wandered around admiring its quaintness. It started to rain, our only rainy day, as we were going to head back to the restaurant we picked out for dinner and we weren't really prepared for rain, so instead we hopped on one of the city trams which was included in our train pass for the day and took a round trip tour of the city out to the university and back. By the time we got back the rain stopped and we enjoyed a lovely Argentinian supper while taking in whatever football match happened to be playing at the time. The next morning we were catching the train to Hamburg for the final leg of our trip, but first we had a great breakfast at a eclectic restaurant called Greta's. 

The train from Bremen to Hamburg, and honestly I can't remember if this one ran on time or not was about 45 minutes. From the train station to the hotel we had to transfer to the metro and then walk a bit to the hotel. After a couple days in Hamburg we realized that had we exited through a different metro exit, the hotel would have seemed closer. But honestly didn't really matter because we would have been either walking underground or above ground and above was probably better in the end. We really enjoyed our time in Hamburg. We stayed at the Hamburg Marriott hotel which is well located inn the historic heart of the city and was perfect for our time there. We found the city clean and quite walkable but also with a good tram and metro system. We did a walking tour here which gave us a good insight into the city's history, including its time during the WWII, and several different neighbourhoods. Our tour ended in Speicherstadt, a historic warehouse district famous for its neo-Gothic red brick architecture and the canals surrounding these buildings. Now a UNESCO site, this large network of warehouses spans 260,000 square metres and was built betweenn 1883 and the late 1920s on large oak poles on the Elbe River creating the canals between buildings. Located in one of these warehouses is the Minatur Wunderland one of the most popular attractions in Hamburg that you 

have to book your entry ticket well in advance, but we lucked out and snagged a ticket for early evening. It is definitely worth the visit. It's astonishing how well they replicated different parts of the world and included many interactive features. I think my favourites included the Monaco F1, which featured an actual race with different results each race time, and the Hamburg airport with actual planes landing and taking off. We also found a really amazing coffee roaster here and enjoyed an afternoon coffee with apple strudel and a chocolate lava cake. 

Nearby is the Elbphilharmonie, a striking modern philharmonic concert hall featuring a glass wave-like structure built atop an old brick warehouse. 

We also learned our on walking tour that Planten un Blomen, a park about 10 minute walk from our hotel featured an evening water and light show at 10pm accompanied by live classical music. 

While there is so much to explore in Hamburg including Brammibl's donuts where we just had to try the Bienenstich donut (oh my!! SOOOO GOOD!), we also decided to take a day trip out to Lübeck. There is a direct train from Hamburg that takes about 45 minutes. Lübeck is a historic port city on the Baltic coast in northern Germany. The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Centre. You enter the Altstadt through the Holsten Gate which is a famous twin-towered medieval city gate that was historically used to defend the town. Lübeck is also famously known for 

marzipan

because of its historical role as a major trading hub and strict high-quality standards. Niederegger, the most popular local confectioners, is a must stop even if you don't like marzipan - which is the case for both of us. They have a lovely cafe above their store when you can grab some lunch or just have a coffee with a slice of delicious cake. The trouble is figuring out which cake slice you want! We had a great time strolling around the streets and discovering common nautical themed souvenirs found in many of the shops. We happen upon a marching band's performance in the city's main square; only thing was the band wasn't marching, but they played great music and attracted quite a crowd. 

We had an extremely early morning flight. The ongoing debate was do we Uber or take the train to the airport...my vote was always take an Uber... but alas I was convinced that the train was the cheaper option and that early in the morning would be a breeze as it wouldn't be very busy.... or would it be?? By extremely early, I mean that no one in their right mind should be up at this time of the day early! Considering I like to ensure we arrive at the airport in plenty of time, we had to catch the train like at 4am and after a bit of directional confusion, understandable because no one should be up at that time and required to think, we figured out the correct track to catch the train bound for the airport. We were surprised to discover the train packed with people when it arrived at our station. Not only was it packed with people, but these were all very drunk people that had apparently been watching the football game and with the time difference the game had ended shortly before 4am and everyone was now headed home. 

Our early morning flight to Frankfurt gave us a full day to explore. One of our main focuses though was to find a place to watch the football match. We spent the say exploring mostly the old town, and stumbled upon a wedding taking place in the main square. We found a very suitable Germany Christmas ornament to add to our tree this year, noting our time in Germany during World Cup! Our friends decided to come down to Frankfurt and join us for our last day as well, which was a very nice way to finish off our Germany adventure. We found an Irish pub nearby our hotel and managed to snag a reservation on the patio. The pub manager warned us that there would be a large group of Moroccans also watching the game seeing as they were one of the team playing that match. It was a great atmosphere with Morocco winning the match in the end and that was then just the beginning of one of the largest game winning celebrations I've witnessed in my life. The streets were quickly packed with people celebrating as if they had just won the World Cup! Little had we known that Frankfurt has one of the largest Moroccan ex-pat communities in Germany. There were cars jammed in the streets honking their horns in celebration, firecrackers going off, and people everywhere. It was quite the sight to see with the celebration going well into the night. And with that our time in Germany was over and we were headed home the next day. By this time as well, my German was finally coming along enough for me to feel a bit more comfortable. And on that note....

Zu reisen heißt zu leben... Bis zum nächsten Mal! Life is good!!