2024 - Morocco trip and a cruise : Mar 1, 2024 - Tetouan then to the blue city Chefchaouen

Tetouan is a city with Hispano-Moorish footmarks. Its Medina is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

At the Square in front of Tetouan's medina (Old Town)

First, we walked to the Michouar's Square and took some photos in front of The Tétouan Archaeological Museum.

Group photo in front of The Tétouan Archaeological Museum

Then, we got more photos outside the fence of the Royal Palace of Tétouan. The Palace is still active as King Mohammed VI has been known to visit during the summer. It is not open to visitors. Then, we walked around the palace to see some of the nearby areas.

In front of Royal Palace of Tétouan

Later, we drove to Chefchaouen which is a city in the Rif Mountains of northwest Morocco. It’s known for the striking, blue-washed buildings of its old town. The most popular theory of the blue city is that after WWII, when the Jewish community in the area grew as people fled Nazi persecution, blue was painted on the walls, floors and steps as a religiousthe practice, to represent the color of the sky and connect the city to heaven and God.

Due to the number of tourists in the Chefchaouen Old Medina, they restrict the number of cars driving up to the Old Medina, therefore, we had to get off the van and walked up the hill to our hotel. It was uphill but easy walk. The hotel did send a car to pick up our luggages. The Old Medina is restricted to foot traffic only.

After we checked into the Hôtel Parador, Wendy led us to wandering around in Old Medina. First we got to the Plaza Uta el-Hamman which is full of restaurants and they all have staff peddling customers with their menus. Most of them knew few Chinese sentences and kept trying to apply them to us. It felt like that we walked into a tourist trap. However, Wendy managed to guide us around without too much unpleasant experiences. We had many opportunities to take photos in front of the blue building and in the blue alley. It was very interesting.