Mudgways In Egypt: Rabat with a capital R

I hadn't realized that the last blog I'd done was for Fez until sitting down just now, so the next few blogs might sound a bit rushed.
Rabat is the capital of Morocco, which is why I gave this blog this title. I can think of other words that start with R but I won't.
We stayed in a riad on the edge of the medina, typically hard to find initially but it was very close to the places we wanted to see. Even though it was Ramadan we found it easy to find food and water during the day which we could take back to the riad and eat. Rabat was not my favorite place in Morocco but Tony liked it. The medina was much easier to navigate than all the rest but it had more "Made in China" shops, the kasbah and museum were both closed, the beach was full of men and the restaurants the riad managers recommended were shut. BUT... the zoo was open and I got to see a hyena and mongoose, the mausoleum of Mohamed V and the Hassan Tower were amazing and the tram ride was great. Three days was definitely long enough and we did get to do plenty of walking. Story ... we caught a taxi from the riad to the zoo okay but when we got to the zoo there were no cabs outside. Being optimistic we thought there'd be one when we walked out later. After walking around the zoo for a couple of hours we had to walk another 5 km before we were able to catch a taxi. I don't know why I'm not losing weight.

We were upgraded because we were the only people booked.

View towards the river mouth with the wall to the kasbah (fortress)
on the right and part of the cemetery in the middle.

Only a few men and boys swam in the water. The rest played football
or wandered up and down the beach.

At about 7pm the football players packed up and started setting up
tables ready for breaking their fast at 7.45pm

The entrance to the museum. It was shut every day
we went, even at different times when it was supposed
to be open.

The plants in the museum gardens were beautiful though.

We walked from the riad to the mausoleum. This shot was taken on the
way there. This is the view back towards the kasbah.

Inside the mausoleum of Mohamed V and his sons. The decorations were
very intricate. Very somber place to spend some time.

There were guards inside and outside the mausoleum.
One even chatted to us.

View from the mausoleum to the Hassan Tower. It is incomplete
at 44 metres. It was supposed to be 86m but the sultan died before they could finish
it in 1199. It took 4 years to build this much.

The entrance to the mausoleum.

In Morocco the word for zoo is zoo but you have to get the
accent right so taxi drivers know what you mean. It was empty when we arrived
about an hour after opening.