Arrived at Casablanca Airport early afternoon on Wednesday then took a taxi to our hotel in the central district. Freshened up and walked around the Old Medina to stretch our legs and start adjusting to local time. Early dinner and an early night.
Next morning we were picked up by the family of our Moroccan friends from Hobart and shown around the city.
We visited the massive Hassan II Mosque, completed in 1993, and took the hour-long tour for visitors. It is a building designed to make a statement, though the detail is exquisite and it was well worth taking the time to have a closer look.
After that we were driven to the beachfront suburb of Ain Diab then on to Quartier Habous and the New Medina. The ‘new market’ was built by the French in the 1930s and is an odd mix of traditional Moroccan souq and French marketplace. We cruised the stalls looking at djellabas (robes), babouches (slippers), pashminas (shawls), and olives, olives, olives.
Spent the afternoon at the family’s house being heartily fed and plied with sweet mint tea. It was a lovely experience.
Central Casablanca has plenty of French colonial architecture built during the 1910s to 1930s in a style called ‘Mauresque’ . We spent Friday morning seeking out some of the best examples. As we wandered the streets it was fun to check out the fashions and indulge in local pastimes like feeding pigeons.
The family picked us up again late morning and we visited Casablanca’s fishing port on the way to their house for lunch. As it was Friday, lunch was cous cous. The men stepped out later in the afternoon to go to mosque. We were shown how to make tea, and Julie was given a djellaba, kaftan, and shoes. The women dressed her up much to everyone’s amusement. We headed back to our hotel late afternoon, very grateful for the generous hospitality we’d been shown. It got our Moroccan experience off to a great start.
Took an evening walk around the Old Medina and readied ourselves to move on in the morning.
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