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Published: September 24th 2012
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Rabat
Entrance to the King's palace Casablanca is a large bustling modern city and the port is the largest in North Africa. We appear to be the only cruise ship in port but there are bulkers loading phosphate and container ships loading and unloading. The day is warm and sunny but not too humid. We board our bus, one of three, heading for the capital city of Rabat but first we must deal with the rush hour traffic.
The streets are wide boulevards but the cars are bumper to bumper and then there are the bicycles motorbikes and carts and pedestrians crossing wherever they want.
Horn honking is accepted and expected. Slowly we head out to the highway that will take us to Rabat. Our guide today is Benis and he is proud to point out the growing economy and the good relations with the west. Sunni is the official religion so there is none of the sectarian violence that grips must of the Muslim world.
Benis was proud to point out a new concept of low rate mortgages that the king has backed in order to allow people to move out of the shantytowns and into their own homes. One thing distinguishes all
The Casbah
Blue and White and beautiful the apartments, homes and shanties and that is satellite dishes. They are like flies on a carcass.
We drive by fields, barren of everything but plastic bags and bottles. This is a real problem in most third and second world countries and even at home where they hang from trees like weird Christmas decorations. Flocks of sheep and goats graze and a few horses as well.
I could give you a step-by-step description of our day but we saw so much that you would probably just get tired. We visited the palace of King Mohammed VI and his mosque and checked out the guards. We headed to the unfinished Mosque and the tomb of the architect who died before he completed it and it has been left unfinished in his honor. We visited the Kasbah, a wonder of narrow, twisting lanes all painted in blue and white. Each owner is responsible for maintaining their property and they take their responsibility seriously.
We stop for cookies at a scenic point overlooking the river and stroll through the gardens.
The route back to Casablanca takes us along the sea where expensive villas and apartments and hotels line the
The mosque
soars above the plaza road. Most of these are second homes for Moroccans living in the interior of visitors from Europe.
When we return to the city we visit the Hussein II mosque, an immense and beautiful group of building embracing the central plaza. The minaret was built over the ocean and soars high above the city. On building is an exhibit hall and museum, another a library. Fountains, always fountains in Moorish architecture, line the arcades and cool the air a bit.
Finally a quick stop at Rick’s Café of “Casablanca” fame. This bar opened eight years ago by a woman whose father was an extra in the film, which was actually made entirely in Hollywood.
Some quick thoughts on impressions today’s tour. This is a very western feeling culture. About ninety-eight percent of the men dress in western style clothes, very few glabellas. Among the women, most of the young women dress in western style but I didn’t see any tank tops or see through blouses. About half wore scarves. Among the thirty-forty year old women, the majority wore scarves, about half the glabellas (in beautiful colors and patterns) and I saw four in full burkas.
I expect
the people in the tourist industry to treat us kindly. From comments I heard from folks who went out on their own, the Moroccans welcomed them with smiles and thanked them for visiting. After all we see and hear, this was quite a surprise.
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