6th day, april 21st 2023

Tanger - Casablanca

Last night, a hotel employee kindly accompanied me to find a local restaurant. We wandered through the narrow streets of the Medina until we discovered a charming little place. I was the only tourist there, and the couscous was very good, but it was the starters that really stood out, they were delicious. Finding my way back to the hotel afterwards wasn’t easy, but I managed in the end.

This morning, I was surprised to find my hotel reservation in Rabat had been cancelled without any explanation. No worries, I’m sure I’ll find somewhere once I get there. I had breakfast on the hotel terrace before hauling my bags down three flights of stairs. Then I filled up with petrol and set off for Rabat via the A4 motorway.

Approaching Rabat’s suburbs, a police officer stopped me. He apologised and explained that the royal family is currently staying at the Rabat Palace. Motorbikes are banned in the city centre! Again, he was very polite about the inconvenience and showed me a map of the restricted zone. Naturally, all the interesting sites are right in that area, so I had no choice but to keep going. What a shame!

An hour later, I arrived in Casablanca, “Casa” to the locals. The hotel is in a pedestrian area, but how to get there? We’re not in Switzerland here, so I just rode down the pedestrian street and made it to the Hôtel de Paris (https://hotel-de-paris.hotels-casablanca.net/en/). I booked two nights there.

Parking my bike was tricky, but the hotel managed to contact the owner of a vacant shop opposite. We opened the gate, and I was able to park my bike inside this unused space!

Orange has a store next to the hotel, and since I was getting frequent messages in Arabic, I went there for help. A lovely staff member sorted out the problem and wished me a pleasant stay in Morocco.

Today is the last day of Ramadan, so no food before 8 pm. Casablanca feels very different from Tangier. The traffic is quite chaotic, and honking seems essential. I’ll need to be cautious and I guess I’ll have to get used to it.

Today I covered 349 km in 4 hours and 5 minutes.