April 25, 2024 Casablanca, Morocco, 10 days left of 138

 

Good Morning Casablanca! This was taken by one of the other guests, Lee, who happens to be from Oregon.

Welcome to the port of Casablanca. We are finding Morocco a delightful surprise. I don't know if we had preconceived ideas, but we find the people happy and welcoming, the cities busy, but clean, and prosperous, and we are feeling safe. Before I share the rest of the stories I thought I would just let you know if you have the opportunity. Come and see for yourself. 

It is a busy port, the third busiest port in Africa and very close to the city. As always there are containers for as far as you can see. It takes a lot of containers to supply this many people living here.

This is the train station. Again very clean, and not as busy as you would expect.

All the markets have flowers, and you see people carrying their flowers home. They seem to place much more value on fresh flowers than we do in the states.

I love that the fish are displayed on ice, and look at how thoughtfully they are displayed. The pride is evident.

Their trams are used and look new and clean. Look at the tiled dome in the background of this picture, and the beautiful front on the cafe below. It is a feast for the eyes, as the buildings show the different styles of the people who have occupied the city, as well as the love of color and tile.

They are renovating these buildings one at a time. Note the crumbling balconies. This building was in the French part of the city.

Most of the building on the left were flat white, but then around the window and balcony this was the decoration. I love the attention to detail on the older buildings. I am sorry we are not continuing some of these techniques.

On the right note the style of the decor on the building, but also note the writing, it is Moroccan, Arabic, and Berber. Berber language until recently had no written language. In the 17th century they decided to figure out a Berber script. Our guide called the Arabic and Berber calligraphy.

This is how the doorway to the market looked. It was hard from this side of the street to capture the size and use of tile.

This building had two styles of tiling. 

This is part of the wall around the Old Medina. Most cities in Morocco have an Old Medina, or old town. Walls were build for their protection. Note the cannons on the walls.

The walls continue on this side, and are painted white. Note the walls become the sides of the buildings contained inside.

Below is one of the seven gates to the Old Medina. Each gate has a name, and there are varies reasons for the naming of the gates. This one is Bab Marrakech, the main entrance to the Old Medina.

Next stop was the Hassan II Mosque, the largest religious monument in the world after Mecca. There are similarities in all mosque, the Minaret, the tiling, and always the green color.

Our tour was only of the outside. It was an extra $40. to be able to see the inside of the mosque. We did not have the time to go inside.

There are other buildings that held a Library.

Outside the mosque were several fountains. None of them were spraying water today, but I thought the tile work was beautiful.

Next stop was Rick's cafe. Anyone who has seen the movie Casablanca knows about Rick's cafe. This was a must see for Mike. They have tried to recreate the cafe for tourists, and reservations are needed. We were able to walk around the inside, have a drink and some appetizers. No they were not playing the piano, and we did not get to hear anyone say "Play it again Sam". We have our t-shirts to prove we were here. In the bar area they did have the movie playing in a loop.

Everywhere there are stairs. 

Tonight after trivia they were playing the movie Casablanca on the big screen. "Here's looking at you kid." It is a classic, and if you have not seen it let us know and we can have a movie night.

It has been a good full day.