Day 7--Dec 15, 2013: Menus and Meknes

We had an amazing buffet breakfast in the hotel; omelets cooked to order, pastries, fruit, dates, etc.
We left the hotel at 8:30 in our 15 psgr. van. The missing group member turned up, and is a 20 something from Taiwan who is studying in Sweden.
We drove to the imperial city of Meknes, stopping on the way for lunch at a chicken restaurant, according to our tour leader, Ismael. They had other things, but I tend to take him at his word for the specialty of the restaurant. I got the 1/4 grilled chicken which came with white rice and some spicy rice, and fries. It cost about $3.50. Food is really inexpensive. And an adventure. Usually no menus. Ismael tells us what they have and we pick. Dinner was different. It was primarily a pizza place, with menus. I got a 4 cheese pizza. The servers wore yellow and red uniforms like you would see in an American fast food restaurant. Anyway, as I was saying, generally,  you don't get a menu, and you don't get a bill either. When you are finished, you walk up to the register and tell them what you had, or, the waiter writes your total on a piece of paper and you pay him. And we can't drink the water here so we have to constantly be buying bottled water. The large bottle costs 6MAD, or about 75cents.  
Back to Meknes: Sultan Moulay was so afraid of attack, he built a massive grainery to store food for himself and his 500 concubines for 20 years. And he had stables for his 12,000 horses.
We had a brief visit to the square where the locals gather to be entertained by story-tellers and snake charmers, and vendors were selling paintings and shoes.
There is rarely any heat in any buildings, and it is cold here. And the restaurants are often open across the front. So we often keep our coats on all the time. And people sit at the outside tables.