Assilah is the fourth walled city that I have been too, but defiantly the first Portuguese/Arabic hybrid.
It was first occupied by Portugal in the 14th century. Then Morocco took it over in the 16th century, decided to leave the walls up, but change everything within. This makes for a really interesting contrast of visuals as you walk around the old medina. Mosques next to Latin arches, next to european cobble stone next to mosaics. It really is something to behold.
Assilah is next to the ocean, so naturally this made us want to go swimming. We trotted down to the beach and found that the main beach is not kept very clean during the off season.
Now, I am no diva, I swim in the James River, but there were just a few too many baby dipers and chemical puddes for both Liam and I.
We heard that there is a much nicer beach south of town, so we decided to give it a try. We walked, for what felt like a few kilometers, but had no luck. We saw in the distance what looked like a resort and decided to walk towards it. When we got there we found a resort complex and golf course that was completely empty. There appeared to be some construction that still needed to be done, but over all these HUGE buildings towering over us didn't seems to have a soul inside. The lawn sprinklers were spraying and it felt as if the world had ended while we were walking and everyone had disappeared.
We continued walking through the grounds, and then there in front of us, the holy grail, a boarder less swimming pool.
We ripped off our clothes and jumped into to the clear waters. A private pool surrounded by resort giants.
We swam and laid poolside like millionaires for the afternoon, then found some towel on the ground, dried off and walked back to town.
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