Our driver wove his vehicle around an immense plaza that fronts Essaouira, giving us our first full view of this Moroccan city that sits on Africa’s northwest coastline.

But before I begin describing anything more about our visit to this scenic spot that offers great views of the Atlantic Ocean, especially when the sun sets, let me explain how we got there.

And why, specifically, we chose to book a private driver.

It was the fall of 2019, we’d just come from Marrakesh and were nearing the end of our two-week-plus visit to Morocco. Soon we would be heading on to Casablanca and then boarding our flight home.

Because there are no train lines that service Essaouira directly, and because my wife doesn’t like to travel by bus -- and because I wasn’t about to rent a car and risk death by driving Morocco’s back roads -- we didn’t have much of a choice. Not unless we flew, and we nixed that idea without thinking too long.

I don’t mind spending money but I’m not one of these guys.

Anyway, our driver parked and helped us find the hotel where we had booked a room. That, though, turned out to be a challenge, especially for two travelers in their 70s. And locating it was only half the problem, because once we did I had to carry our bags three flights up a narrow staircase -- not the first time I’d had to do the heavy lifting (and likely not the last).

That was the difficult part of our introduction to Essaouira. The rest, as they say, was cake.

First of all, the view that we got from the hotel’s roof, to which we had easy access, gave us a great overview of the city -- and of the way some people lived there. I remember watching one woman in a nearby building doing her rooftop clothes washing, which seemed like a scene right out of a documentary feature.

(I tried to get a photo of her, but she noticed what I was doing and waved me off. Not wanting to start an international incident, I consented. And anyway, the right moment has already passed. As any good photographer will tell you, timing may not be everything -- but it’s close to it.)

We spent two nights in Essaouira, which is the bare minimum you need to get acquainted with any city. It certainly won’t work for places such as London, Rome, Paris or Beijing, each of which would take several weeks or more to explore. But Essaouira is a far different story as it has a population -- as of this year -- of slightly less than 83,000.

Known for having one of the best anchorages on Morocco’s coast, Essaouira has attracted mariners for going on three millennia. The Carthaginian explorer Hanno the Navigator is said to have stopped in the city’s bay, which is sheltered by Mogador Island, as early as the 5thcentury BCE.

Mogador, in fact, was what the Portuguese named what would become the city itself in 1506. That was when troops sent by Portugal’s then-King Manuel I built a fort there. They named it Castelo Real de Mogador, that latter word apparently a derivation of the Phoenician word Migdol, which means “small fortress.”

Over the centuries, European countries -- Spain, France and England among them -- vied for control of all Morocco. Yet aside from a few pirates, and presumably the parrots on their shoulders, the city managed to resist all outside assaults.

France ended up being the nation most favored by the Moroccans, and they did it through -- surprise! -- diplomacy. It was, indeed, a French engineer who was commissioned by the Moroccan King Mohammed III to modernize the fort. That led to the name that exists until today: From “Souira,” which means “the small fortress,” it became “Es-Saouira,” or “the beautifully designed.”

As walkable as any Moroccan city, Essaouira has a lot to offer. Like the beach? It’s got several. Like shopping? Tour the medina and check out the bargains. Like history? Try the Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah Museum, which is named after the city’s modern founder.

As for restaurants, you’ve got any number to pick from. We found one that met our needs, Taverna Bolognese Da Maurizio, mainly because at this point in our trip the thought of eating some Italian food proved irresistible. And though we had not made a reservation, and the place was busy, the host greeted us with a smile and pointed to an empty table. (The couples that came in after us weren’t as fortunate.)

But the best part of our stay in Essaouira was just hanging out on the roof of our hotel, enjoying the cool ocean breeze while watching the sun go down. Sunsets are a passion of ours wherever we are in the world, whether we experience them in some exotic locale or merely from the shelter of our west-facing porch in Spokane.

Pretty hard to beat the view in Essaouira, though -- as the photograph that I’ve placed atop this story makes clear.