I was concerned about today's travel because it was to be very long day on the road as we headed to the Sahara. Everyone on the bus was very nice and let me sit in the front -- between my pregnancy and my motion sickness, I had already felt queasy several days earlier on a much shorter and gentler drive.
On the way, we stopped for a bathroom/coffee break in Ifrane, a town that was remarkably reminiscent of Switzerland -- in the wintertime, replete with snow encasing its steeple roofs.
It felt so good to stretch my legs when we stopped for lunch at a hotel. We had very fresh pink trout with lemon, which was a welcome departure from the extravagant and heavy meals prior (only because we were being spoiled by so much good food).
We hopped back on the bus, stopping just once more along the Ziz River to take in the dramatic valley of palm trees.
On the way, we stopped for a bathroom/coffee break in Ifrane, a town that was remarkably reminiscent of Switzerland -- in the wintertime, replete with snow encasing its steeple roofs.
In seeing Ifrane's lion, I thought of Switzerland's Lucerne lion.
As we drove deeper in the Middle Atlas mountain range, we saw monkeys and stopped to snap some photos. They are friendly but aggressive with the bananas. Who can blame them? Bananas are a natural sweet treat!
Upon arriving at Erfoud, which was an oasis fort originally built by the French and is now considered a gateway to the Sahara, we checked into our hotel. Le Palais du Desert Hotel impressed Mohamed immediately because our rooms were paved entirely in fossils ensconced in marble -- even the tissue box was made out of this marble. He had purchased a bowl and a plate made of exactly this prehistoric stuff (imported from Erfoud) many years before in Massachusetts, so he was very familiar with it. Didn't I say that Morocco is basically everything Mohamed loves?!
