We arrived in Rabat after flying to Casablanca, meeting up with our friend, Sherry, and catching the train. It all worked out pretty seamlessly. We were able to walk from Rabat Ville train station to our AirBnB apartment, met up with our host and then headed straight out for dinner (at about 8 pm). Dar Naji did not disappoint.
Rabat, one of the four imperial cities and the capital of Morocco, was founded in the 12th century as a fortified monastery.
We spent the day exploring on foot along wide boulevards lined with orange trees and with tidy white houses behind walls.
We came across the Royal palace, more by accident than design, and after walking the perimeter walls for quite some distance, found the entrance for tourists where our passports were recorded. It is a huge complex with a large mosque, housing (maybe military?) and, of course, the palace which we had to view from a safe distance.
We occasionally saw ramparts and sections of the old city walls and this lovely mosque – Tachfin mosque.
We stopped in at St.Peter’s cathedral, a 20th century structure in Art Deco design and in the process of being painted, polished and cleaned in preparation for the Pope’s visit this coming weekend!
We had lunch at a lovely (fairly upscale) restaurant – Restaurant les deux palais- with amazing tile work.
After walking more than 13,000 steps, we took a tram ride out past the university just to see some different parts of the city. Returning to the Medina area, we stepped into the narrow alley ways of the Medina Rabat with all its enticing wares.
The green gel mound is aloe vera soap! I bought some to try!
