…and an excellent cup of coffee.

This is not supposed to happen, it was raining when we woke up and was cold too. So we stayed in bed.

Eventually we got up and had a leisurely breakfast by which time it had stopped raining but looked likely to start again at any time. We set off to visit the Museum of the Confluences which charts some of the history of the Jews in Morocco and their beneficial relationship with the local Muslim population. One of the good things about where we are staying is that most of the places we hope to visit are within walking distance so off we went.

Of course we managed to get ourselves lost a few times even though the museum is only about fifty yards from the Secret Garden which we had visited and walked past on a number of occasions. After several attempts we resorted to Google Maps which took us straight there.

Arriving there we bought tickets for the museum and an additional small chaarge to visit Dar al Bacha which is their coffee shop.

One side attraction of this museum is that they have a branch of Dar al Bacha, apparently a very famous coffee house with only one other branch in Singapore and we were very keen to find a decent cup of coffee. What we didn’t know is that everyone else visiting the museum had the same idea nor that you could book ahead. So we went on the wait list and waited. And waited. But were finally ushered in by one of the very smartly liveried staff to our table in very attractive surroundings.

Our waiter brought us the menu plus a book with the tasting notes for the vast array of coffees they offer, I choose a Kenyan Mountain coffee and Mrs Sixwheeler one called Yellow Leopard and, of course, we ordered some cake. When this arrived it was laid out on the table; each of us had a tall coffee pot of our chosen coffee and there was whipped cream and a shaker of vanilla, it all looked very elegant and was really, really good coffee and the cake was just what was needed.

There was no rush here and we could see why it had taken so long to get in with one party leaving their table to go outside for several cigarette breaks. It was an enjoyable experience with great coffee and wondeful service but I’ll probably not be rushing off to Singapore to see if it’s as good there.

Then we went to explore the museum which was very well presented with all the descriptions in Arabic, French and English which is a nice touch. The buildings and mosaics are wonderful and I can’t do anything better than just show you a selection of them…

It had been a cold and damp sort of day but the weather is expected to be better by tomorrow, which is our last day.

6 April 2002