2nd weekend: Hammamgate

Oktober 15, 2017

This weekend was all about discovering Rabat, as we will most probably be out of town the upcoming weekends. Follow me on my picture tour and be inspired to visit this nice place.

We ended the last post with a riddle: what was our plan for Saturday morning that can be described with the words water, waves, boards? Exactly: Surfing! We booked a surfing training for two hours. For me it was my second time as I had one week of surfing last October in Taghazout, Morocco.

Caroline and me after surfing

View from the changing room

After surfing, I walked once again to the Kasbah des Oudayas as I wanted to take another look at the nice white and blue colored houses and alleys.

Kasbah des Oudayas

With all that surfing and walking we deserved some relaxation, so we booked a session for Hammam. For many of us it was the first time to experience the islamic variant of a sauna that starts with relaxation in a hot, steamy room, followed by a full body wash and massage and ending with a period of relaxation in a cool room. But why the title Hammamgate? Well... when arriving in the Hammam, we, the men, got a basket with a bathrobe and were told to take off our clothes. We were asking each other if we should also remove our slip. Being familiar with the German sauna culture, we put on the bathrobe completely naked. Arriving in the shower room, one of the hammam attendants told us to start with a shower. When he discovered that we were completely naked, he looked really surprised and hurried to put back the bathrobe. We were told to go back and put on our underpants. We had a lot of fun although there was also a moment of shame. But besides that I can recommend everybody to experience Hammam.

In the evening, we were joined by the two guys I met a day before at Adnane's house: Theodore a half Dutch, half British guy who works for the Netherlands Government and his friend Antonis who works as project engineer in Katar. Theodore is project manager for Orange Corners Africa and in particular responsible for entrepreneurs and making up a startup ecosystem. He knows all the players in Morocco, so he provided a lot of input to us. As a consequence, we will schedule a meeting with him to get even more information.

In the bar with Theodore and Antonis (credits go to Andrew)

On Sunday we went on with sightseeing. The pictures speak for themselves. Our tour was as follows: big mosque Assounna, Royal Palace, experimental botanical garden, cathedral Saint-Pierre, river Bou-Regreg and finally the Andalusian Gardens within the Kasbah des Oudayas. Enjoy!