We recalled  our previous experiences with Moroccan food when we awoke at 4 AM. Decades ago, we ate at a Moroccan restaurant in Newark, Delaware, where Nicholas went to college, and were captivated by the food and the decor. Many years later, Nick’s cousin Sarasvati and her husband Paul prepared a tagine for dinner that we enjoyed very much. Now we were eating Moroccan food in Morocco! Moroccan cuisine includes many spices  and seasonings such as cinnamon, paprika, cumin, coriander, honey and turmeric, but rather than adding heat, they add depth of flavor.

A breakfast buffet is always part of our group tours. This one included traditional American breakfast foods such as eggs (but no bacon) and cold cereal, as well as Moroccan foods that we might choose for dinner, including soup. Olives were served at every meal, and there were pastries as well.

After breakfast, the group boarded our bus (many thanks to our driver, Mohammed, who assisted me in getting  off the bus  many times each day). The enclosure of the Royal Palace was open, and once beyond the entry, we saw a complex that includes a mosque, guard barracks, and a royal college. The water fountain was operative, and we learned that because of the drought,  the operation of fountains is rotated. We came upon a cannon, which brought to mind the cannons on the beach in Westport where British soldiers landed but eventually had to retreat.

Then we stopped at the Mohammed V Mausoleum, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This is the final resting place of three members of the royal family. According to Hassan, Morocco was the first country to recognize the USA after our revolutionary war. We learned that  Mohammad V was the last sultan of Morocco, when parts of the country were controlled by France and Spain. He became the country’s first king.Next we went to the Kasbah Oudeya, a citadel originally built in the twelfth century. We wandered through the Kasbah’s  many winding lanes and we saw a communal oven in which bread was being baked. Eventually we reached the Andalusian Gardens, where we saw orange, lemon and banana trees. Andalusia is an area in Southern Spain that is very near to Morocco. Back in high school we learned that the Moors overtook Spain for centuries, but who were the Moors? They were people who went north to Spain  from Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria.

We did all those activities before lunch! We ate at a seaside restaurant, where we enjoyed several kinds of seafood. We relished the return to our hotel to catch up on the rest that we needed. Later, our group had dinner at a Jewish restaurant called La Menora. I noticed many menorahs in the restaurant’s decor, and when I told this to our waiter, he brought me matzoh, being that passover was ongoing. Dinner included a chicken or beef samosa, and lamb with either mushrooms or almonds. Dessert was a pastilla of flaky phyllo pastry with a chocolate sauce.

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