Blogs from Grand Casablanca, Morocco, Africa - page 6

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 ... read more

From far off, through circuitous corridors, came the scent of citrus-blossom and jasmine, with sometimes a bird’s song before dawn, sometimes a flute’s wail at sunset, and always the call of the muezzin..." ~ Edith Wharton In Morocco 41 hours of hellish flights and airport stopovers that were too long to be comfortable and too short to be of any use except for staring morosely at fellow travellers caught in the same unfortunate predicament. But there is a price to be exacted for all great experiences...and this was ours. Having paid our dues we finally landed in Casablanca, in more or less one piece... Scott being "the less" - not being accustomed to long haul flights or such drastic time zone changes. This meant most of our first day in bed recovering, although he did venture ... read more

Having thankfully missed the Mr Made in Italy contest last night we had a full day at sea before arriving in Casablanca. There was an evening of activities with an Italian theme to celebrate 150 years of Italian unification. Apparently Italy has only existed as a single country since 1861. We were also told that there is so many varieties of pasta to choose from you could eat a different type for every day of the year. Why didn't we just get told there are at least 365 shapes of pasta (or 366 in a leap year!!) An Italian joke: "The trouble with eating Italian food is that 5 or 6 days later you're hungry again!!"Not too sure if we were suppose to laugh or order food??!! A full day at sea wouldn't be complete without ... read more

1) Always have a supply of alcohol on hand (NOTE: rule only applies if you have alcoholic parents). 2) Betty is a bimbo (GPS). Road signs are few, when driving you have to follow your nose. Directions are given but rarely understood... (leading to lesson number 3) 3) LEARN SOME FRENCH (and if possible, some Arabic and Berber, or at least ‘shokrum’ and ‘salam’) 4) Don’t underestimate the weather (the Sahara is NOT always warm), skimpy clothes NOT optional, dress warmly 5) If you meet a friendly local THEY WANT MONEY... (leading to lesson number 6) 6) Don’t expect change! (any extra cash you hand over will be considered a tip) Always carry little change. However, locals are honest, they won’t steal. 7) Toilets are surprisingly clean and usually supply toilet paper. Way beyond Asian standards. ... read more

Dropped the rental car in Marrakech - it was relatively hassle free, after we found the car rental place hidden inside a petrol shop inside a back alley inside a hidden area of the new town ... but hey! That's what travel is about eh? We would never have found the place based on the map point given to us by the rental guy in Fez. We should have used a GPS ... but we used the higher tech method of asking knowledgeable locals. The trick is to find the one person with the right knowledge and ignore the 15 other very helpful locals who point you in the wrong direction because they don't want to offend you by saying they don't know what you're asking about! Not much different than a GPS that wants to ... read more