Hotel Majestic Meknes

Meknes is only 200 or so clicks from Midelt, so we think we are in for an easy day. Dave is again at the wheel. Given Mike isn't insured on the official paperwork, we have relieved him of his duties. We commence the drive towards the imperial city of Meknes, by seeing the stong cloud cover over the Middle Atlas mountains, and begin the climb. Soon enough we are in snow country once more. Slowly rising, slowly rising.... The local councils in Morocco (if there is such a thing] efficiently plac...

Up and at em at 6.30 we walked back to the plaza in the attempt to get some petite taxi's to the bus station - after about 15 minutes we succeeded and got there just after 7. The hotel had provided us with a take-away breakfast of a chocolate croissant and some bread and goats cheese... Our 7.15am green bus took off on time and we made a few stops along the way and 2 hrs later we were in Ouezzane where we were to swap buses.... The bus stop was at a market place and it was fascinating! A tagi...

After arriving in Marrakech we headed straight to the train station; grabbed a quick oj and jumped straight on the train to Meknes. Timing! Arrived in Meknes without any contact from Dom and Lisa so we sat in the bustling grass square and decided what to do. After a quick orientation of the rough guide (library edition) after 5 months of Lonley Planet, we decided on a hotel that was close to the train station so headed back in that direction. The Hotel Majestric had a double bed AND hot showe...

I left Ouarzazate the other day after finding a non-union bus company that wasn't on strike. Although it did have a shattered window from protesters throwing stones. It took 5 hours by bus and 7 hours by train to arrive in Meknes up in the north. I didn't even know I was going to come here until I was at the train station and decided last minute. On the way here I was sharing a train car with a mother and her son, Fatima and Saad. The son was trying to practice his English with me. He asked w...

Er Rachidia is pretty much just a transit point for most tourists, which became really apparent for us from the heightened level of unwanted attention we were receiving from the locals here. Having a few hours to kill till our overnight bus to Meknes, we met Mustapha at the bus station cafe, a very interesting man who enjoyed relaying his knowledge of physics theory from his studies many years ago - in addition to chemistry, IT and electrical engineering, all of which pretty much went to wast...

We decided to try taking the local bus to Safi. It was much cheaper than CTM and they gave us the front seats. The only drawback is that it stops everywhere to pick up and set down passengers. CTM is more or less an express, so it may be worth paying double the price to save time. Safi is okay but not as nice as El-Jadid. The medina is rather dirty. Once again, we had seafood for dinner. I had skipped lunch as my stomach was a bit upset. We watched Gaby, a film dubbed into French, in the TV l...

Currently in Meknes sheltering from the rain. Middle of Ramadan so nothing much is open during the day and only seems to come alive in the final hours before sunset.

More later.

Meknes. It was a fabulous place! So different from all the other places we had been to so far. Meknes was much more laid back, relaxed, casual. And the vendors were hassle-free. We stayed at Hotel Majestic in the ville nouvelle. Majestic had lots of atmosphere but, as Udo noted, the beds were like sleeping on your own headstone! The breakfasts were good, the breakfast room was enchanting and the breakfast staff were very friendly. After settling in to the Hotel, we fruitlessly attempted to fi...