Mudgways In Egypt: Beni Mellal Stopover

After 3 1/2 hours driving from Marrakech we finally arrived in Beni Mellal. The GPS managed to get us to the hotel in one piece, unlike other travellers who had complained about the lack of signage for the place. There are only about 5 hotels in Beni Mellal and this was rated the best so I was expecting something magnificent. We were very spoilt in the riad in Marrakech because this was a hotel and had no feel of homeliness at all. It wasn't a good start to our stay when the gate was shut and we had to wait a while for someone to let us in. After working through the paperwork with a girl who spoke French/Arabic we found our way to our room and air con. "Great! A bar fridge - food!" I thought. But because it's Ramadan the bar fridge was empty except for one bottle of water. When we asked for directions to a restaurant we were told the cafes in the city were closed til 22 o'clock. So off we went back into town to a fruit cart and bakery for much needed supplies (fruit, croissants, water & Coke) then we returned to our room to eat.
Later on that afternoon Tony's stomach started playing up so we stayed in our room til the next morning, hoping he would be well enough to drive onto Fes, which he was. Luckily there were no sights to see in Beni Mellal that we hadn't seen anywhere else. Staying in was a good excuse to watch a couple of movies and read my book. I guess the newest experience for us was the very loud BOOM, which sounded like an explosion close by, to signal the breaking of fast at 7.40pm as it was closely followed by the call to prayer. The annoying part was that it happened again at 3am to signal the time to stop eating. Nothing like an explosion to wake you up in the middle of the night ...