In December of 2019 just before travel as we know it changed to Corona, I met my Father, Sister and her husband in Morocco for a vacation. I have posted before on Fes, Chefchouen the blue city, Christmas in the Sahara and a cooking class in Marrakesh.
The last stop on that trip was a few days at the beach town of Essaouira. This place is a medium sized metropolitan city on the Atlantic Ocean. It has a long beach a harbor and a bit of a natural bay that wraps around an island. It has a much more European and boheimian vibe to it than many of the more conservative, old islamic cities that we visited earlier in the trip. There were bars, some of them quite visible some of them underground, there was smells of weed and hash around, and more European food and Europeans around.
We stayed in an airbnb which was a modern two bedroom apartment above a Italian restaurant just one block off the beach. It had this great big glass door opening to a balcony and a view of the beach between a building and some trees. Even though it was December and we had some cold times and cold nights further inland the weather was quite pleasant here.
The rooftop had a terrace which gave even better views of the bay. I think by this time my memory cards on my camera were full so I was not taking any more pictures with my DSLR and I was only taking with my phone which does not produce as good of quality pictures.
Like most Moroccan city's there is a Madina or Kasbah which is the old walled part of the city. This is usually pedestrian only and has many narrow pathways among multi story buildings. After being lost in the one in Fes this one was a bit smaller and easier to navigate with the city on one side and the ocean on 3 other sides as it was out on somewhat of a point.
The madina was the best place to walk around see people, buy scrutineers and eat at cafes.
In one of these little side paths we even found a couple hundred year old pub that was like a little stone cave with arched doors and cold beer. I think we visited thee a few times.
In the middle of the Madina there was this hostel. I had my dad take a picture under the Hungry Nomad sign because at this point he had been a nomad for about 8 years. Covid ended this for him a few months later sadly and he had to settle down for a few years back in the US.
The port has been very strategically important since the middle ages and was protected by this fort. The musles in the area have a blue or purple color to them and this was used for the pigment of royal cloth in England and Europe during that time.
Alongside tourism fishing is one of the major industries in the city still. This is one of the few ports on the Atlantic coast that is usable to small and large ships alike. This means there is a lot of great sea food to eat around also.
In the evening the sunset along the promenade and beach is very lovely. The water was quite chilly I did do some surfing one day though making it the 4th country I have surfed in behind the US, Australia and Ghana.
We rented some bikes and took a ride into the country side little did we know that Mogadishu city was just outside of town, here we were thinking it was a across the continent in another country.
I will finish off this post with a few more pictures from the Madina and old fortified walls.
All photos were shot with a Infinix Smart 3 Plus phone.