Unlike Alex, I actually slept quite well myself tonight. He, on the other hand, couldn’t cope with the heat and the smell, despite the open window. He also had a bad headache, diarrhea and had probably pulled his shoulder yesterday while setting up his motorcycle. Although we had booked 2 nights and still wanted to see the beautiful blue town of Chefchoun, we decided to leave this place together today.
We had already booked a hotel yesterday about 60 km from here, near Tangier, the ferry port city. Hoping to get a room for today, we set off after breakfast. Beforehand, we went to the hotel to get some water and tissues for the journey.
Even though we didn’t see any other guests in the hotel, which in retrospect gave us pause for thought, we still had nice company.
Here in Morocco, every journey is an adventure in itself. You really need good concentration. Cars and two-wheelers overtake on the right and left. Even if there is actually no possibility of overtaking. They also just pull back in, regardless of whether you are driving there or not. But somehow it all works. There are a lot of roadworks here to improve the road.
It’s really nice to see. There are torn up roads, potholes of every imaginable size, bumps, you have to be constantly on your guard. It’s all manageable and not too bad. You get used to it. But today we weren’t really fit. Alex was just able to catch his bike before he crashed into the car in front of him. He had suddenly slammed on the brakes due to several potholes. Nothing would have happened to Alex, because we weren’t going fast due to the road and traffic conditions. Nevertheless, we were delighted that the situation ended so well.
Police check, that too, the policeman waves us out. We stop, no, it wasn’t really us. So we drive on. Lucky us, we really didn’t need that today. In Morocco there are police checkpoints every few kilometers. There are fixed places that are manned 24/7. You have to wait at the designated spot until the policeman waves you on. Otherwise you have a little problem ;-0 Sometimes they just wave us motorcyclists through beforehand. Packed motorcycles that are obviously on a journey are usually only stopped out of curiosity. They want to make small talk. They want to know where you’re coming from, where you’re going, how long and so on. Sometimes you experience really crazy things.
We arrived at the hotel that we had deliberately booked near the ferry port around half past eleven. From there, we can either continue along the west coast or head towards Europe. We will have to make the decision in the next few days.
We were lucky and were able to book this night.
Check in was not until 2pm. We didn’t care, we made ourselves comfortable in the hotel lobby. We were given a warm welcome and, of course, a peppermint tea.
After a short wait, we were allowed to move into our room.
We had a porter for the first time in our lives. How cool is that? The cost of our stay here is not expensive in our eyes. We never expected such a beautiful hotel, such a great clean room with a balcony, perfect bathroom and super service.
We showered straight away and went to sleep. Hours later, we thought it was time to eat, even though we weren’t really hungry.
We both now have diarrhea and a headache. Alex’s pulled shoulder still hurts him and I can still feel the effects of the accident.
But I’m optimistic that it will soon be fine again. I was lucky this time.
So neither of us wanted to leave the room and so we decided, also for the first time in our lives, to use room service.
We thought just a sandwich and a panini would be enough to satisfy our hunger. The prices on the menu in the room were the equivalent of around 6.50 euros. The service to the room can’t cost that much, we thought, and ordered.
We had to pay immediately and in cash, the equivalent of 6.50 euros. The nice woman handed me a tray with two plates with a warm, huge panini including chips and a warm, huge sandwich including chips, each with ketchup and mayonnaise.
It tasted delicious, but unfortunately our stomachs couldn’t finish it all.
After that I sat down to write this report and now I’m going to lie down and sleep a bit, which Alex has been doing all day to get fit again.
The room phone rang around half past ten last night. We were already in bed and wondered who wanted something from us.
It was reception, asking if it was possible to take our motorcycles to the garage for safety reasons. Security would be more comfortable with that.
Of course, we dragged ourselves out of bed immediately and used this secure parking space. Only the garage, we had imagined differently, because it was more like a pantry, storage room and ironing room 😉
We’re still not quite fit this morning, but we decided against breakfast in the room and went to the breakfast room.
A typical Moroccan breakfast buffet where nothing seems to be missing.
The Moroccan breakfast is quite sweet, although there are also eggs, tuna and cheese.
I think it’s great. Even though I only managed a mini coffee and a small crepe with honey today.
Alex prefers savory food. It tastes delicious to him too, but he would definitely prefer something more savory.
Today we had to do the laundry. So that we finally don’t stink so much 😉 and feel really fresh again.
In the afternoon we went to the snack bar for something to eat. Unfortunately, my food didn’t really want to stay inside. As I was hurrying to our room, I suddenly bumped into Mosco, the nice motorcyclist from yesterday, in the lobby. I quickly showed him to Alex in the snack bar, apologized and made a second attempt to get to the toilet.
Mosco, an Iranian by birth, living in Sweden, also checked into this hotel. He is taking the 31-hour ferry to Barcelona tomorrow. Then he heads for Sicily and slowly back home. He still has 2 months left for his trip. It reassures me a little that he has also had enough after just 3 days in Morocco. He also can’t quite cope with the heat and the conditions.
The decision has now also been made for us. We’ll be taking the ferry to Genoa on Wednesday next week. Plan B has now taken hold of us and we would like to implement it as soon as possible.
