A quick update

Just a quick update on what we've been doing for the past few days. So the day after we watched all the wedding videos we went to visit the roman ruins of Volubilis and the hilltop town of Moulay Idriss near to Meknes. The roman ruins were amazing with columns and arches set against a beautiful landscape. The small town of Moulay Idriss is named after a great grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and is one of Morocco's most important pilgrimage sites. They say that 5 visits to Moulay Idriss is equivalent to 1 trip to Mecca.

The next day we left hot showers behind and caught the train to Rabat, the capital city of Morocco. Our accomodation in Rabat was pretty basic and right next to a busy market so we got very little sleep the 2 days we were there. During Ramadan the markets and streets become alive at night once everyone has broken their fast. Rabat is on the coast so a bit cooler than the places we had visited so far and in actual fact it rained most of the time we were there. The 2nd day of rain we were so desperate for a cup of tea that we contemplated buying a kettle but couldn't find one. There weren't many tourists in the city and we enjoyed walking around the streets without being hassled.

Then onto Casablanca where we are at present. Casa is the biggest city in Morocco but it is the first time in our whole time here that we have really struggled to find food. Most of the restaurants are closed for Ramadan or are only selling drinks and the big market was pretty empty when we went there yesterday. Casablanca has a certain romanticism attached to its name but in reality it is a big dirty city where you don't have to wander far from the city centre to find massive slums. We visited the Hassan II Mosque this morning which is the 3rd biggest Mosque in the world, costing around US $800 million and magnificent in all its marble clad splendour but right next to a slum where people are living in some of the poorest conditions we've yet seen.

We are looking forward to moving onto Marrakech tomorrow and have our fingers crossed for hot showers.