April 6, 2023
After another bumpy night at sea we arrived early this morning in Casablanca. Casablanca has a population of 4.2 million in the Metropolitan area and is the business center for the region. Most people know Casablanca from the 1942 movie Casablanca , what was axially entirely made in Hollywood.
For this morning we planned a trip with several stops in the city. We started off with a 800 meter walk towards the custom building and the bus. Our first stop was at the Hassan II Mosque. The mosque is towering 210 meter into the sky and is build on piles on the edge of the Atlantic ocean. According to our tour guide there is ocean water running underneath the church. ( I didn’t crawl under the floor to confirm that)This mosque is the largest in the country with a inside capacity of 25000 and an outside capacity of another 80,000. On top of the mosque there is a green laser beam shooting up in the night sky towards Mecca. Upon arrival at the mosque , the guide lead us to the entrance. After we entered the mosque we were requested to remove our shoes. The inside of the building is quite the scene with its marble pillars and beautiful tile floors. The inside is an enormous open space the size of several football fields. The mosque was build between 1987 and 1993 and around 15,000 tradesman worked on the project. On the bottom floor is the prayer area for the males and on the second floor is the prayer area for the females. There is a basement area with over 100 fountain areas to wash your face hands and feet before moving into the prayer hall. Our guide explained to us the basic fundamentals of the Islam religion. Currently, we are in the middle of Ramadan. Basically no food or water between sunrise and sundown for the whole month.After the mosque visit we boarded the bus for a seaside restaurant to have a toilet break and a complimentary refreshment. Back on the bus we went towards the residence area of the king. As the king was in residence, there was a a lot of police around. After walking around a block through narrow streets we got back to were we were to meet the bus. Well…… no bus but lots of commotion, the street was blocked off, parked cars were being towed away. There was a line up of black SUV’s at one point I noticed an undercover guy getting out and he pulled an AK47 riffle out off the trunk of the car and took it inside the vehicle. Meanwhile our guide had taken off to find our bus. After waiting on the sidewalk for 5 minutes or so , we saw our guide waving to us to come over to the end of the street. He had located our bus. After boarding the bus, which was parked blocking halve the intersection with a dozen cars honking their horns at us telling us basically to get off the road. After we finally got going, we traveled to a square where we were given an opportunity to purchase authentic Moroccan leather products, spices and a variety of other handmade crafts. Carol ended up with a nice pair of slippers or pantoffels the Dutch would say. After this market stop, we headed back to the ship.
That pretty well sums up the day.
Cheers
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