Date: 19th September 2019
Travelled: 14 kms to Meknès by taxi
Visited: Meknès
Stayed: Camping Zerhoune Bellevue €9.50. The usual services. N34.01530, W05.56250
Budget: xx days @ €xx per day
We enjoyed a good nights sleep in our campsite last night. A cool breeze was gently sweeping up the valley so we left the windows open, with the alarm on. Like a pirate, Pam sleeps with one eye open in any case.
There’s lots of movement before 9 as the French make a run for wherever. They really are a rude bunch, but after several years of travelling through France we know that’s just how they are. By the time the owner has organised our taxi we are ready to depart for Meknès.
Meknes, Fès-Meknès ⴼⴰⵙ-ⵎⴽⵏⴰⵙ فاس-مكناس, Morocco
Map of Meknès
Our driver drops us at Bab el-Mansour, the grandest gate in the imperial city.
The Royal Garden. 
The highlight of your visit to Meknès is a visit to the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail. However it’s closed, no explanation.
Told you they were 8 m high ! It’s a 1500 m walk to the Graneries and there is a box with two Policeman every 100 m. 
White stork waiting to feed on any tourist who collapses in the sun.
The graneries are immense chambers, but not worth more than this photo. 
The stables are nothing more than a ruin, but the symmetry is perfect, hence some interesting photos.
The Royal Golf Course. All the gates are closed, but we find one open. The Policeman tell us your welcome to walk around. 
The great thing about the Royal Glof Course is it’s hard to go out of bounds.
Finally back at Bab el-Mansour (the gate), we cross the road into the Medina. These photos church it up a little. When we first entered the Medina I was reminded of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but it’s mostly just tat, lots of knock off clothing and shoes. The further in we go the narrower and more claustrophobic it becomes. Anyway we wander about generally lost for 30 minutes before deciding to try and find our way out.
Out of the Medina our thoughts turn to lunch. Our guide book recommends Restaurant Oumnia. It’s only a few hundred metres away so we set off to find it. Detailed as a family run restaurant serving simple traditional food. Oumnia is not easy to find up a narrow laneway of broken steps. We find ourselves in this house with a central room set aside for guests. As soon as we sit down he offers me a cold beer, I know I have come to the right place for lunch.
He also produces a small bottle of local Róse, but it’s not chilled, so Pam decides on water. So we enjoy a long lunch in the cool. An old man comes out from the kitchen and he tells us he visited Australia once many years ago, staying in Canberra. I apologised, but I’m not sure he got my humour. Lunch was €22.
The afternoon sun is hot, the street that was full of people as we walked down, is now empty, the shop fronts all locked. By the time we walk back up to the gate our taxi arrives to take us back to the Hymer. We do a short detour past the Carrefour for a bag of ice, making our day nicely.
There is no breeze as the afternoon turns to evening, it’s still hot outside so we leave the air-conditioning on and watch an episode of Versailles in comfort, before bed.
Michael and Pam
