We had a relatively early breakfast at the B&B at 7:15. We enjoyed some traditional bread-y French things like pain au chocolats, croissants, and some freshly made baguette bread. We were encouraged to leave early as we were warned that schoolchildren clog up the streets on their way to school. It did slow us down a bit as we had to give way at many crosswalks and traffic circles.
The weather deteriorated quite rapidly. The sky got very dark and it began to rain quite hard. We filled up on some petrol before dropping off the car at an unattended Sixt drop off point. Concerned about missing our flight that was leaving in just 80 minutes, we left the key in the car and walked away. Hopefully everything is fine. I had previously submitted all of the required documentation forms online, so we were able to check in at a remote kiosk and get our boarding passes. Unfortunately, Terminal “2” encompasses several terminals, so we had to walk a ways to the other terminal 2 to go through customs.
There, we were greeted by a line of about 4000 people. Fortunately, a worker summoned anyone with an American passport to a separate line. We were able to bypass most of the chaos, and processed through customs fairly quickly. Then we had to get on a train to take us to yet another terminal. It all seems rather inefficient, and each time we entered a new terminal building, it looked a little bit worse.
The air was a bit stagnant when we finally reached security at the L-gates. Our flight to Tangier was now boarding. We joined the tail end of the queue and received our seats next to each other in the very back of the plane. We sat at the gate for a while as a result of some delays due to weather.
We didn’t end up departing until an hour after our scheduled time. The ride was a bit bumpy during climbout, made a bit worse by some nearby chronic coughing, snot snorting, and a screaming baby. Shockingly all of this stopped when we reached altitude. It was a chaotic rush to get off the aircraft. Bricole were close to the last people to deplane so as to not deal with such nonsense. We had a slow crawl through customs and then a very inefficient rental car process.
We were eventually introduced to our car and were on our way. The wind was blowing strongly, which is not the norm. It was a relatively short and easy drive to the Hilton Al Houara Resort in the Forest Diplomatique on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. We checked in and due to Nicole’s Hilton Honors Diamond status, we were upgraded into an “apartment.” It is a rather sizable room with large balcony. Unfortunately the winds didn’t really make it relaxing to sit outside for prolonged periods of time.
In spite of the wind, we decided to walk around the property and down to the beach. Unsurprisingly, there weren’t a lot of people out by the pool or the beach. Nicole had a minor skirmish with her hair, but her face managed to eventually resurface.
We scouted out some restaurants for later and then sat outside partially protected from the wind by some plexiglass for a spell. Dinner is a late affair with restaurants only opening at 730 at the earliest. Being a Hilton, everything is a bit overpriced, so our enthusiasm for a late and overpriced dinner was tepid at best. Most options contained seafood — even the pastas, so the menu items were a bit limiting for Nicole.
She ended up ordering just a cheese platter with some bread. We received a complimentary fish appetizer from the chef. When the waitress came and saw Nicole hadn’t eaten hers at all, she inquired why. When the cheese platter did eventually come out, we suspect it may have been a bit larger than normal.
Nicole was able to easily make a meal out of her cheese plate in the end. Unfortunately, she also happened to select the cheese sandwich option on Air France today after having a rather cheesy croque monsieur the previous evening, so she’s getting a bit cheesed out. After dinner, the wind had calmed a bit, so we leisurely walked around the property a bit more before calling it a night. Though the day began a bit tense, we were able to relax throughout the afternoon and evening, filling the rest of our day with downtime and cheese.
passports & pepto bismol 