Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakesh

We're finally getting some decent miles under our belt and seeing more of the country.
We've now travelled 2355miles from home.

We were up early on Monday morning as we had to be at the Mauritanian embassy in Rabat to submit our visa application .

After manouevring the bike out the hotel front door we set off amid a torrential downpour.
All the guidebooks recommend dressing reasonably smartly when visiting national embassies, but luckily for us, the Mauritanian official seemed perfectly happy to deal with two sodden dirty bikers.

After a very pleasant day strolling through Rabat, we picked up the Mauritanian visa at 4.30 and reached Casablanca at 5.30pm.

Casablanca was a short stop as we left the next morning heading for Marrakesh.
We deliberately stayed off the motorway and it was a great decision.
The road surface was silky all the way and we crossed wide flat plains occasionally interspersed with smooth constant radius curves through hills.
Berrechid and Settat were two fabulously maintained towns we travelled through where the French influence of wide palm-tree-lined boulevards was obvious.

We're now in Marrakesh and it makes reality of the Moroccan Tourist Board advertising phrase, 'A Feast For The Senses'.

Place Djamma-El-Fna is the central square and from dusk it fills with food stalls and their associated smells and smoke, musicians, street entertainers, story tellers, and snake charmers.

My favourite memory of the last few days came while we were in Settat.
We stopped to chck the map and an old man came over and volunteered directions for Marrakesh.
Then he sent us on our way with a cheerful 'Bonne Route', as we have heard so many times, and with a slight bow, 'Allez avec plaisir'.