Travelin' Road Show: 05/29/14

Thur May 29th 2014 - Casablanca & Rabat, Morocco

Typical Morocco many many minarets

What a fabulous day. Other than a strange beginning. We were told that our clocks were to be set one hour back last night.. it was in the news letter with reminders on our bed ... but at 6am the Captain came on and announced that they did not in fact change. Janice happened to be up (at what she thought was 5:45 but it turned out to be 6:45) So we had only 45 minutes to get up, ready, breakfast, ablutions and off on our pre-arranged tour.... The announcement was only in the hall and anyone who was not yet awake would not hear it... hence panic was the order of the morning for many folk on the ship. We were fine, but wondering about a captain who couldn't get the time zones right... LOL.

The old and the new

Minarets call to prayer heard during the day

Army, Police and Palace guard outside Palace

Outside Palace gate..

Derek balancing column on head!! Palace

Our guide Niame

Ancient walls near Chellah

Entering Chellah

Anyway we were lucky to get great seats on the bus and a lovely tour guide, Niame. She gave us quite a good overview of Moroccan history, language and culture as we drove through Casablanca for the one hour+ ride to the capital city Rabat. Arabic and French are the two most common languages. The population is mostly Berber, who are more conservative that the Arab Moroccans, but they seem to live in great harmony and we saw that women wore a mixture of modern and traditions clothes, some with scarves, some without... their choice. The current King, Mohammed 6th and his wife Lalla Salma are very modern in approach and are big supporters of women and equality. The monarchy is very popular here. In Rabat we were taken first to the Royal Palace for a photo op. Turned out to be an event when a police officer started to get his knickers in a twist about one of the people on the tour taking photos in the wrong place and then he started on our tour guide asking her for her I.D. papers and causing quite a ruckus. One call into his radio brought a car and 4 'suits' emerged with dark sunglasses... things started to look a little tense.We were quite excited, but a little nervous. A few Aussies on the trip decided to start booing and heckling...which we felt may not have been the most intelligent thing to do in the circumstances in a very strict Muslim country... but all ended peacefully and we were allowed to leave once the young man had deleted the photos from his camera!!! One of the suits got on the bus and apologised and told us we were very welcome in Morocco. How nice! On to the Chellah Necropolis... a beautiful spot where the remains of a royal dynasty from the 14th century were buried. We saw huge numbers of storks nesting in the ruins and enjoyed a beautiful view across the river. There were roman ruins on the site too. On to King Mohamed 5th Mausoleum. What an amazing example of tile work and art. We were very impressed. Got a few photos inside and of the guards on horseback outside. Also next to the mausoleum, is the

Hassan Tower, the minaret of an incomplete red sandstone mosque. Begun in 1195, the tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world along with the mosque, also intended to be the world's largest. In 1199, Sultan Yaoub al-Monsour died and construction on the mosque stopped. The tower is 140ft, about half of its intended height. Several walls and 200 columns were left unfinished.
Instead of stairs, the tower is ascended by ramps. The minaret's ramps would have allowed the muezzin to ride a horse to the top of the tower to issue the call to prayer.
It was intended to be one of the biggest covered prayer halls in the world, but the columns remain outside and uncovered adjacent to the minaret tower.

Storks nesting on old Minaret tower

The next stop was an old casbah were we got the chance to enjoy a real Moroccan mint tea... and some almond cookies... wonderful. We walked through the old quarters of the casbah and saw local people who had come to mourn a recent death. Our guide was wonderful and very informative. We returned to Casablanca and went shopping in a "government store" where the price was the price, no haggling and no pressure. Souvenirs, spices, Tangine cookbook, silver earrings and a 'Fatima hand" pendant were suitably acquired. Memories of Morocco (meaning sunset) include the beautiful Jacaranda tress and four vibrant colours of bougainvillea, stories about the Hammam baths and the benefits of Argane oil.

More storks

Ruins at the Necropolis at Chellah

Our guide gave us her favourite Tangine recipe and her favourite way of making mint tea as we drove back to Casablanca. We decided not to explore further as we only had a couple of hours left and were not in to being hassled by vendors anymore. A slice of good pizza and a cold beer were calling our name on the ship. We were very happy with the day and glad we took the tour, despite earlier disappointing experiences with the tours. Our group was a small and lively bunch. We are planning on having dinner and then taking in the show... a singer called Paul Fredericks... fingers crossed he is good.