Tagines, Prunes and Dunes; Morocco! ESSAOURIA

Essaouria (21st - 22nd April)

We arrived into Essaouria from Casablanca to very heavy rain and cloudy skies, however the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day to wander the beautiful Medina and port. We could see the bright blue skies from the open roof of our traditional Moroccan Riad, and enjoyed being welcomed with a traditional Moroccan mint tea!  (We only stayed in Casablanca for one night, and are happy we did this – there was not much to see in this city).

 

 

Riad Sidi Magdoul - Essaouria

Sweet and refreshing Moroccan mint tea

 

 

The Medina has beautiful streets with window decorations, coloured front doors and shops filled with fresh food, souvenirs and clothing. It would be extremely easy to get lost in the many narrow streets throughout the medina!

 

Beautiful seaside blue wooden doors and windows

 

 

An old building in the old medina

 

 

A typical Moroccan restaurant down a quiet street

 

 

The beautiful sunshine brightly coming through and reflecting off the building

 

 

A local selling mint to people in the street (for mint tea maybe?)

 

 

Spices ready for sale!

 

 

A local butcher

 

 

Beautifully presented olives and preserved lemons

 

Blushing olives garnished with tangy preserved lemons

 

The narrow, winding streets in the old medina

 

 

An orange juice stall, decorated with hanging orange peels

 

 

When exiting the Medina, the view of the sea against the buildings looked beautiful and you could spend hours here watching people and the day go by.

 
 

 
 

The fish market area of the port was lively and full of fishermen selling their catch of the day.

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Catching Zzzzzzz's instead of fish?

 

While in Essaouria, we tried a very traditional tagine from a restaurant in the backstreets of the medina.  The tagine was cooked on a single burner atop a gas cylinder. 

 

 

 

 

We wandered along the sea side in the beautiful warm weather we had on our last day, it was 22 degrees and bright blue skies! The sand stretches for miles and there were people playing frisbee, soccer and relaxing on the beach.

 

 

A Soccer pitch mapped out in the sand

 

A local man transporting his kids in his trailer

 

 

 

Essaouria was a lovely seaside city that we enjoyed staying in for a couple of days.  With the beautiful warm weather, you can see why tourists would flock to the city for the long sandy beach and quaint medina.