Train To Rabat

We left Marrakech today.  Whew!!! It was so hot!  But before the coastal weather of Rabat, we had a 5 hour train ride.  In order to save some money, we decided on second class tickets.  Actually the real difference between first and second class are 1) no assigned seating and 2) 8 seats per compartment instead of 6 seats.  How bad can it be?

We had a little difficulty securing a taxi because all of a sudden our roundabout which usually has a surplus of taxis had a surplus of passengers.  But we eventually got one with one of our neighbors in tow as well.  Although the distance was short, the meter doesn't really work for multiple passengers.  The driver charged me 10 dh and I gave him 20 dh.  Nice me! :-)

So we got to the train and started looking for a seat.  There were no empty compartments, so we picked one with 2 women.  One was an older woman, Moroccan but living in The Netherlands for 30 years.  She chatted with us a little and spent the rest of the time doing Dutch word find puzzles.  The other didn't speak any English, but did speak French.  Of course, the AC wasn't working.  The train was also 25 minutes late starting.  Although late trains seem to be common outside Japan, where trains just follow the schedule and late Shinkansens are reported on TV with text and a beep sort of like tornados in Wisconsin, this was our first late train.  Until today, they were on time.

It remained hot.  We stopped at some other places and more people got on, but nobody came into our compartment until about half way through the trip.  Then people started coming into our room.  One was a guy Elena chatted with.  He was going to Rabat to try to get some paperwork in order for a car he was trying to import from Italy.  Some people chatted with others and some people stayed quiet.  I stayed quiet.  It was hot and I had a headache, so no point in trying to chat in French with my neighbors.  The woman next to me much of the time seemed to be reading a little Koran anyway.

The AC never came on.  From Casablanca to Rabat, even the corridor became crowded with people and their huge bags.  Finally Rabat's first station came, then we went through a tunnel and came out at the second, more central, Rabat Ville station.

We braved a crowd to get out of the corridor and down the stairs to the train platform.  But once out, all of a sudden, Rabat station seemed to be a nice, clean, modern station.  It's under construction, but we made it down to the street with no problem.