Volubilis We drove from Fes to Moulay Idris which is off the main road. It is a holy city where a great ruler is buried. Non Muslims are not allowed in the city after sundown. From there we drove five more kilometers to Volubilis which is an excavation of an ancient Roman city. Marble statues, mosaic tiled floors, engraved tombstones, columns, arches foundations and parts of floors and walls. It was surprising to find them out there in the middle of nowhere. From there we went to Rabat to get a picture of the Tower of Hassan and then to Tangier. Just before we got to Kinitra, a policeman popped out of a grubby little store and blew his whistle at us. We turned around and went back. He informed us in French that we were going too fast and it would cost 10 dirhams – 2 dollars - and we should pay him right then. He took Pat’s license but we refused to pay and this shocked him. He said that we had to wait 30 minutes and move the car to the other side of the road. Then another policeman came over and told us to drive back across the road. He chatted awhile and discovered that we were tourists and not military and he let us go into the store to get a coke. The first policeman came back to see what was going on and the older one gave him holy hell over the 10 Dirums. He walked over with a hang dog look on his face and returned the driver’s license. We drove on to Tangier
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A daily diary of a journey in 1962. Please post comments about where you were then on the Background page.
1962 was pivotal. This is the background:
It was a year colored by the Cuban Missile Crisis, an escalating involvement in Vietnam, the Berlin Wall and the Cold War with Russia, Civil Rights issues, a nascent space program, Nelson Mandela in prison, Betty Friedan's, The Feminist Mystique, the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the death of Marilyn Monroe. Archives
May 2011
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