Memories of Morocco

Sept. 9 - Rabat

We arrived in Casablanca on Sept. 10 at 8:00 and finally got through the passport control about 11:00.  At about 1:30 we boarded the bus for a tour of the capital city of Rabat that is about 2 hours from Casablanca.  The main attraction was the King Palace and the casaba – the remains of the fort that protected the old city walled city of Rabat.  The King is in his early 40’s and has set a priority of modernizing the country starting with Rabat.  There is a considerable amount of construction taking place including a city rail line (something that Seattle could take a lesson from).

Sept 10 - Casablanca

Today we took the city tour of Casablanca to get a little orientation of the city. The streets were packed local citizens trying to get home for the feast to begin.  We had arrived at the end of Ramadan and at sunset people could break their month long fast (they only fast between sun up and sun down for the month of Ramadan).  The orientation took us by the 3^rd largest mosque in the world, Kings Palace, and a newer church with floor to ceiling stained glass.  We also drove by stately homes, shabby shacks, and streets named for famous French writers and authors.  We were reminded that Morocco was a French protectorate from 1912 to 1956.  Much of the architecture in in the country is French design.

One of the highlights of our stop in Casablanca was having dinner at Rich Café.  This is the café that was made famous in the movie Casablanca except in the movie the café was in a movie studio in Hollywood.  This café is a replica of the move icon complete with piano player playing 1940’s jazz, white table clothes and a wait staff dressed in the period dress of the 1940’s.

Sept  11 & 12 – Marrakech / Ourika Valley

Today we left for our first overnight trip to Marrakech and the Ourika Valley – a 3.5 hour bus ride south from Casablanca.  Our first stop was Majorelle Gardens.  A botanical garden filled with an abundance of plants from 5 continents.  The gardens were started by Pierre Berge’ and after his death Yves St Laurent took over the stewardship of the area and ashes were interned there according to his last wishes.   From the gardens we headed for the famous Marrakech markets with snake charmers and monkey handlers, and a souk with miles of winding streets and back alleys all lined with stalls selling just about anything you think you have to have.  The sellers are very aggressive and expect to dicker on anything you even look vaguely at purchasing.  We had lunch in the market area and headed for our hotel. 

After checking in we gathered for another bus ride to the medina (old city), walked through small alleys and streets and entered a small, nondescript door into a nice restaurant for dinner and local entertainment (a belly dancer).  The authentic Moroccan Food and wine were good and a good time was had by all.

The second day of the tour was travel to the Atlas Mountains and the Ourika valley.  We visited a Berber home.    The Berber tribes have inhabited this area for 1000’s of years.  The name Berber was a Roman name given to these peoples meaning barbarian.  The Berber home we visited was typical of all the homes in this area – stone floor, cushioned benches, no running water, kitchen with clay stove and two saunas for bathing.  The house also housed the family cow and burro just off the main floor. 



Berber House Kitchen





Berber Sauna




Berber House Main Room

The lady of the house provided fresh mint tea, homemade bread, honey and butter for all 39 guests.  After leaving the Berber village we stopped at an herbal factory were we got a lecture of the value of a number of local plants and herbs and their medicinal qualities.  Now that we smelled just fine from trying on 20 different herbal concoctions we boarded the bus and headed for Casablanca.



Hostess making tea


Sept 13 – Casablanca

We jump a cab and headed for the grand mosque to take an tour.  This mosque, 3^rd largest in the world, is 20,000 square meters will hold 25,000 worshipers with a court yard that will hold another 80,000.  99% of the material used to build the mosque is from Morocco.  The French Chandeliers and the titanium doors are the only exceptions.  It is really a work of art. 


Sept 14 – Casablanca

Ship sails today for Ghana.  We took the morning doing a final walk through some of the shop in the local market and picket up a few, must have items.