17.03.2023

... and it turned out to be a very nice day. For a long time I hadn't felt so well and balanced and comfortable. After breakfast we left this rather dull place. Omar had sought out a new route for this day. Our plan was to get to Meknès. Omars friend Hassan "Jimmi" lived here and we would stay with him and his family the coming night. 

More about Hassan and family later on.

We left in good spirits. I noticed that all the insecurity and instability and fear attacks as side effects of my medics had vanished. For a long time, I felt relaxed and safe on my bike again. I could have cried of joy, but I was much to happy for that. 

We had a very nice trip, again through some mountain pass, but much nicer now.

Our first foto stop, with an impressive landscape.

Amazing, isn't it?

Here you see Omar and his Adventure. Both our bikes had some scars by now, from some accidents, and they gathered some dust and dirt. That makes them travel bikes, rather than show bikes.

This  could be a Mars landscape, with Omar as a Marsian.

The monster - Omar's 1250 GS Adventure.

My Black Betty, a 1200 GS.

Omar, hanging loose.

Our first stop was up on a mountain pass, about 2500 m high, at a place where some monkeys lived in the wilderness. Some of them got used to humans. The boss of the gang had me on my pants when he learned that I have peanuts for him.

Making contact with the boss.

This looks like a friendly Handshake, but it is not. "Do not touch them at all!" the guide warned. It is ok for them to take peanuts from your hand, but stroking them would not be appreciated.

The boss doesn't look so friendly after all ...

I really liked the little one.

He was sooo cute. A bit like Monkey in "Pirates of the Caribbean", Barbosa's pet. 

The big boss didn't like it when I played with the baby. So, here we were, two old apes, making contact, becoming acquainted. 

In the end, he liked ´ the peanuts that I gave him, so he hung on to me, literally.

Our next stop was the town of Ifrane. That is a kind of Switzerland of Morocco, with wealth, chalets, nice cafés and bars and restaurants, parks, lakes and the whole chebang. It really felt like being in Switzerland or some other wealthy place.

Only the traffic reminded me of being in Morocco. Traffic here is just mad, wherever you go.

Omar had childhood memories, when he was here with his parents, at this lake.

I imagined Omar like this little boy, in his childhood world.

When you look at this picture of the stork in his nest on the tiled roof, you could think that this is somewhere in Nordfriesland. 

The half-timbered houses are also very reminiscent of areas in Germany, even of our own house.

We really enjoyed ourselves in this special town.

That's the kind of fun I was after.

Then we moved on to Mekmes and to Jimmy and his wonderful family. Jimmi's real name is Hassan, his wife is Nadja and their little daughter is Jasmine. They were the friends of Omar for a long time. Hassan and Omar started their time together in Germany, with nothing in their hands, keen to study and to make it in life. And what a life these two had developed for themselves! I can only take my hat off in awe to such life stories and the people who wrote them. Omar and Hassan are great people and it is an honour to know them.

Hassan sorted out a carpark of a hotel, for us to park outside the city.

A friend owned that hotel, so, we had a special arrangement here.

Hassan picked us up with his Fiat Doplo, just like the one Susanne and I had for many years. Hassan helped us to put all our cases into the Doplo, then he drove us to his hause in the center of Mekmes. Omar confirmed that we would never ever had made it into the city with our bikes. The traffic is just absolutely mad there.

Nadja welcomed us with traditional tea and snacks. Part of the hospitality here is that you get lots and lots of everything. Coming from a poor family, I was taught that good manners mean to eat everything up that is on your table or that is offered to you. This would be a big mistake here. Here you take a little bit of this and that and the rest goes back into the kitchen. 

Same thing in the restaurant: you do not eat up what is served. You just eat a little bit, the rest goes back. For my culture, that is lack of respect for the food. So, really important here to get things right. Culture can be a tricky thing.

Then Hassan gave us a bit of a tour through the old town and some places where he had bought or built a house or restaurant or bar. He also owns some farms where they produce fruit and veggies. 

This man is just a miracle.

Most impressive was a project, an old house attached to the ancient city wall, that he refurbishes now for a few years. 

This is the entry, the main door. 

Now watch what is behind it ...

Everything inside is craftsmanship, hand made, every tile hand layed, all plaster ornaments hand-crafted. It was breathtaking.

I asked Hassan if the plaster stucco had been made according to any old patterns.

"No, my brother and I made it all up ourselves," Hassan replied modestly.

"Are these finished panels that were then glued to the walls and ceilings?"

"No, it's all shaped and chiselled by hand."

This is all plaster, hand-formed.

Look at the details. This is a master piece.

Not only the stukko is craftsmenship, also the tiling is done by hand, little tile for little tile.

These columns of facing bricks are also hand-built, facing brick by facing brick.

All this designed by Hassan and his brother.

This is the roof-top. You can see the old city wall, which is in the process of being refurbished be the the city.

Hassan has designed some small flats up here, directly connected to the city wall.

This is the old city wall, from the other side.

These traditional shapes are on the flat-level I described above, surrounding the atrium.

More tile work

Omar and Hassan

The mason needs about two weeks to build such a wall. He has to calculate exactly how the brick slips have to be laid so that it looks so nice and even. 

This is looking up to the ceiling of one of the passages.

This is another one of Hassans projects. A multi-level, all generation café / bar / restaurant / event-place. A humming place it was ...

 with the youth being on the lower level, playing billiard and games, then the ground floor, a café, then the next floor up ...

...  where a live band was entertaining a huge crowd, and then the roof-top, for couples and people that like to sit together and have a chat.

When we came back, Nadja had prepared the dinner.

This was just the entrée. A huge place with cold snacks of vegetables like beetroot, potatoes, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and some delicious small dishes of Moroccan tradition ... 

... and some sauces in between.

The main corse was this amazing piece of creation. I think you eat that at special occasions like at weddings.

It is a seafood dish, made of a crust of puffy pastry, surrounded by shrimps, and shrimps on top, and topped with little spits of quail eggs, with silver pearls to crown the spits.

Inside was a lovely filling made of Chinese glass noodles and all sorts of variations of fish. 

Man, that was delitious!

 

And, as if all that wouldn't be enough, Nadja had created a dessert of outstanding quality and proportion. this si an almond ice-cream tart with a dripping caramel rim, caramelised almonds, rozen raspberries, and and pearls and gold leaf.  

Here you see the precious decoration a bit better.

And this dessert had a wonderful taste! Man, what a feast.

And for the show and entertainment part, little Jasmine topped it all off with her live performance:

What a happy day that was. For tomorrow, the Blue City was planned, another highlight, we thought. And what a disaster that turned out to be ...