Bobby Birss Rant: My life in Rabat - day 1( dodgy dirham dealing Dave)

Started with a lay in ...a dog free lay in on the comfy bed.

Breakfast in the hotel was nice. Some lovely home cooked bread and pancakes followed by coffee and orange juice....then off to see the city.

Quiet.

Just as I like it. The boss wandered south through the medina....struggling to find a shop of any name.

Then we smelt it. The street selling wares of the sea......and other fine foods. Turn left onto Mohammed V......what happened to the first four?

We started to find retail experiences....but sadly no beaureau de chance to convert our fine fine Brexit leaving pounds. Sheena spoke to many people asking where she could find money so that she could buy their fine wares and was greeted by shakes of the head. One stall holder couldn't even look at her as she mentioned Sterling)

Finally, a man pointed up ahead and said man near the bank. Confused....we strode purposefully ahead.

Dodgy dirham dealing Dave sought us out like bees to honey.

There we were and he was peeling wads of dirham out of his pocket with his friendly minder at hand. £100....should be about 1150 dirham...Dave peeled off 1100 and counted them out. We thought a deal was about to be done. He counted them out again...and beautifully paled one into his other hand...what! A change in exchange rate....we questioned the deal ....this time he beautifully palmed 200 into his other hand...down to 900 in less than a minute. Sadly for Dave and his minder, the deal folded....much like his wad of notes.

We walked on. What else could possibly happen?

This place looks quite nice. Must be important...man police and soldiers out front......then we heard it. The bullhorn.....at the front of a mass of protesters heading for the parliament building where we were standing in front of...we headed for a side street....where serendipitously....we found the only open currency exchange shop in Rabat. Result. Never fear Cinderella, you shall have some lunch. We found somewhere nice to sit and ordered Diet Coke. 20 minutes later, the waitress said she didn't have any...by that stage the desire for orange juice and a cheese omelette kicked in.

We moved on. Past the parliament building where the dregs of any protest were still thrashing about. We found the train station and booked tickets to Casablanca on Monday and the wield Little blue town in the north on Wednesday. This will involve a train journey and a bus journey to get there....and back.

Went on and found nice church.

Headed east towards tomb of Mohammed V.

Stopped for a mint tea ( no sugar) looking towards Sale. Bit like Buda and Pest with a different river. Had asked for cola light....again no cola light.

Made the mistake of finding a nice Souk with non hassling locals so felt OK. Wife bought a light cover for downstairs bathroom.

Bought a pair of slippers.

Many nice side streets

Headed back to the Riad, thought we try to buy some cola lite. Turned away from many small corner shops. Thought we had found some in a fridge in a shop......the man we think said that he couldn't sell any to us???

Wife went for a lay down, I went back out for a walk.

Didn't find a Hammam for us to go to.

Didn't find a restaurant near the hotel that was open.

Found the beach. Having walked through loads of cemeteries, crossed a busy road, walked through a boulevard of thousands of mopeds and bikes to get to Rabat plage....autocorrect changed it to plague....which might be more applicable. A dirty rock strewn place that my tootsies won't be treading in.

I did however, find a carrefour and thus 4 bottles of cola light for my princess.

Came back to find her watching bake off.

Went to roof.