Cruise Port 18 – Casablanca, Morocco

Tahiati and Bonjour (Greetings in Arabic and French),

On May 24th, 2023, we arrive in Casablanca, Morocco! This is our fourth attempt to visit Casablanca – we finally made it!

We have a tour today to visit key sites in Casablanca and the capitol city of Rabat. When we wake we are already docked – another industrial dock!

Joy and I board our tour bus with tour guide Moussa and driver Mohammad. On our way to our first tour spot I spy this very interesting building! It looks like the lids of the boxes are opening up!

We drive by an iconic site in Casablanca – Rick’s Cafe from the classic Humphrey Bogart movie “Casablanca”!

We arrive at the Hassan II Mosque, the 3rd largest mosque in the world! It holds 20,000 people inside and 85,000 people on the ground outside. This is our view as we first approach the mosque.

Zooming in on the tower, the Mosque is truly magnificent! Look at the details!

Walking through the outer buildings we can see the “courtyard” that holds the 85,000 people. From this angle I feel a similarity with St Peter’s Square in Vatican City, but there isn’t any real similarity. It’s just an optical illusion because of the vast scale of this site!

As the bus leaves the Mosque we pass this lovely building that is the Hassan Mosque Foundation.

A very interesting mural decorates this massive wall!

Our next stop is Mohammad V Square with its pigeon-covered fountain! The Palace of Justice dominates the back side of the square!

The Town Hall anchors the southwest side of the square.

Facing the square is the Theater of Casablanca. I believe this is the back side. Fun, huh?

I believe one reason the pigeons are here is because of these men. These are the Marrakech Men, and they peddle birdseed to the locals and tourists! They wear the traditional garb of Marrakech.

Joy befriends the Marrakech Men!

And then I get my turn with them!

Our next stop is to see the Medina Market and do some shopping. We end up in a single shop across the street from the Medina Market. It is a store owned by a friend of Moussa. Moussa told us we can use credit card, but when it came time for us to pay for our goodies they demanded cash only! This part of our tour is a sad bust, even though we found some of the items we intended to buy.

We pass by the amazing church Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral. This makes me think of the US Air Force Academy’s Cadet Chapel!  It’s not as beautiful, but it is tall and long!  My apologies for the glass reflections from the tour bus windows.

We head to New Medina, also known as the Habbous District. This is the upper-class part of Casablanca where the Royal Palace is located.  We stop by the House of Pasha – the house of the Governor. The portrait hanging on the wall is the current King Mohammad VI. The inscription below the portrait reads “King Mohammad VI, may God grant him victory”. Victory?

We continue a walk through the Habbous District, and arrive at the King’s Palace. We are allowed here because the King is not at home. Once again, the architectural detail is beautiful!

A fabulous mural adorns a building on our way out of the Habbous. I learn from the annotation on the right side of the mural this is street art sponsored annually by WeCasablanca. This piece is from 2022 by the artist Zorg! After finding out about WeCasablanca, my guess is the previous wall mural 11 photos back might be a WeCasablanca art!

Take a look at more art at this website: https://wecasablanca.com/en/city-guide/street-art

We head to the city of Rabat – the capitol city of Morocco. It takes over an hour to get there, and we are surprised how green the area is!

We approach the wall of the city! Traffic is thick through the gate, both directions!

This is the Rabat train station. Moussa tells us the trains in Rabat run underground! Taxi cabs are blue in Rabat. Moussa says they are red in Casablanca. There is a row of blue taxis below, and even a couple in the photo above!

We pass the Rabat Telephone office.

We disembark the bus and set off through the Ocean Quarter, heading to our lunch spot.

We stop for lunch at Dar Rbatia in Rabat. I discovered the restaurant has a website! Check out https://www.darrbatia.com

Another tour bus beat us here and by the time the last of us arrive the main dining room is full. We are asked to go upstairs!

Bonus! We have a much more intimate room to dine in! The meal is served family-style – large dishes to share are placed at each table. We receive five courses! First: lentils and bread. Second: a steamed vegetable platter. Third: a fabulous chicken tajine! Fourth: a rich beef cous cous dish. Fifth: a fruit platter! Whew! We were full after the second course! Moussa comes looking for us – everyone else has left. We are told we missed the cookies at the end!

We head to the next stop at the Kasbah. On the way this cute kindergarten pops up! Someone had fun decorating this school!

We stop just outside the walls of the Kasbah. Rabat’s original walls were destroyed by a major earthquake and tsunami in 1755. Excavation and preservation of the remaining walls is a relatively recent undertaking.

We enter the Kasbah!

Everything here is bright and white! We are pestered by only one woman wanting to draw henna on all of the women in the group. She managed to corner and draw henna on the ship’s escort, but no one else!

Cats guard this beautiful door!

In the next alley another group of cats give their rapt attention to whatever is happening in the doorway in front of them!

We arrive at a large open plaza and head to the corner you can see in the far left of this image.

We have a spectacular view of the Atlantic ocean and the mouth of the river Oed Bou Regreg! The battlements below have cannon still protecting the river entrance.

To the left is a somber view of a cemetery that appears to be very old. The near parts appear to be sparsely populated, but the sections beyond the distant wall are densely packed!

Looking to the right, across the river Oed Bou Regreg, is the walled city of Sale Medina. The tower on the right marks the Mosque Sheikh Zayed.

In the distance is the tallest building on the African continent, the Mohammad I Tower! This appears to be a little bit of Dubai in Morocco. At its feet to the left is the Theater of Morocco. I’ll get a little closer to both later!

Still looking across the river, there are a couple of kayak classes in progress!

Leaving the river’s edge we take a walk through the Kasbah. We pass this colorful display of art! A stark contrast to the whitewashed walls everywhere!

Moussa leads us to a place to take a break, maybe get a cup of coffee. Here at Cafe Maure we find another vantage point to see another kayak class in session.

Looking north we see the beautiful walled Kasbah!

Heading back to the bus I catch this cute view! A lot of playfully decorated kiddie carts are available on this plaza for families!

A very short bus ride takes us to Hassan Mosque and Mohammad I Mausoleum. The entrance is guarded by these Moroccan Royal Guard on their beautiful horses! These are on the east side. You can see the contemporary wall. In the background the Mausoleum we’re here to visit is visible.

The Mosque of Hassan I was destroyed by the earthquake of 1755, and the 88-meter-high tower was reduced to the remaining 44 meters. The mosque itself collapsed and only the wall in the previous photo and these reconstructed rows of columns remain.

At the south end of the Mosque grounds a Mausoleum was constructed for King Mohammad V.

Each of four entrances to the Mausoleum is guarded by the Moroccan Royal Guard. The uniform is very similar to the horse guards, but the cape is red rather than white, and the fez hat is blue rather than green.

Inside, each of the four corners have guards posted! Their uniform is completely different from the other guards’ uniforms, but they must still be from the Moroccan Royal Guard!

The soaring dome catches the eye as I enter! The detail is incredible!

Scanning down, the walls are beautifully detailed. A rail extends all the way around the walls, providing views down to the tombs.

Looking over the rail, King Mohammad V lies at rest in the center. His two sons join him – Prince Abdellah on the right and King Hassan II on the left in this picture. Can you believe a Vietnamese architect design this?

From the Mausoleum grounds we have a much closer, much better view of the Mohammad I Tower! (I told you I would!)

The Theater of Morocco is also better seen from here!

Next door to the Mausoleum is the Mohammad V Mosque. It is much more intimate, much less grandiose, than the original Hassan I Mosque was.

Leaving the Hassan Mosque through the west side we see the Moroccan Royal Guard horsemen also guarding this entrance. Here the walls are the remains of the original Hassan Mosque.

Heading to our next stop we pass this beautiful mural on a hotel wall!  I don’t know if this is part of the WeCasablanca street art, but it is still amazing!

The bus stops at the Ahl Fas Mosque, but we’re not here to see this – it is just a parking spot for the bus.  We take a walk to see…

…the Royal Palace! The flag tells us the King is home!

We get to see a changing of the guard! Some of the guards are sharp and snap into place. Others just saunter into place.

We return to the ship and have time to go back to do some more shopping. We want to see the Medina market that we thought we were supposed to see this morning!

The bus drops us off almost in front of the store Moussa took us to this morning! This plaza has a bunch of little carts for the kids to ride! These aren’t as whimsical as the carts we saw in Rabat, but it’s fun to see the families enjoying these!

We find an underground walkway to get across the highway to the old market!

I fail to get decent photos of the market – it is sprawling and messy! But this image kinda catches it!

We ask at a few shops for items Joy wants, and the shopkeepers are very friendly and helpful! A few point us a few stalls down and we work our way deeper into the market. One man walks us all the way to another section and introduces us to another shopkeeper!

We eventually find what Joy wants, and head back to the ship. The last shuttle bus left for the ship 20 minutes earlier, so we grab a taxi.

An adventurous couple of taxi rides later we make it back to the ship! (Not all taxis are allowed onto docks – we didn’t know this!)

We have a 10:30 PM shove off! This is our last port of call for this adventure!

As we move out of port I see the Hassan II Mosque is shining a green laser into the sky! I learn it is pointing toward Mecca!

We bid Morocco au revoir and al-wadaa! It’s great we finally made it to Morocco!

We have a few sea days before we end this cruise in Barcelona, Spain!

Next stop – Barcelona!