Midnight train to Marrakech

The platform at Casa-Voyageurs smells of diesel and mint tea, and a kid is selling phone chargers with the confidence of a man who knows the night ahead. The train is late. Of course it is. I buy the tea.

Casablanca

Nobody comes for Casablanca, which is exactly why it’s worth a day. Art-deco facades going quietly to seed, an Atlantic wind that never sits still, and a medina that doesn’t perform for anyone. It’s the unglamorous gateway most people skip on the way to somewhere prettier — and it’s all the better for being ignored.

Marrakech

You arrive dazed, before dawn, and the city hasn’t switched on yet. Then it does, all at once: the square fills, the drums start, the smoke from the food stalls catches the low sun. Dust, mint, and the call to prayer over a place that never quite empties. Find your riad, sleep two hours, and let the afternoon take you.

The sound of this place. No playlist here — just the medina at full volume, which is its own kind of techno: relentless, layered, impossible to leave.

Practical box

• Getting there: ONCF overnight from Casa-Voyageurs; book a couchette.
• Rough cost: Train ~€11; riad room €25–40.
• Best time: spring or autumn — summer is a furnace.
• One watch-out: agree the taxi price before you get in. Always.

The best leg of the trip was the one I dreaded. It usually is.