Blogs from Morocco, Africa - page 5

The port in Casablanca is huge so first sightings of the city are not good, but once past the huge containers and into the city itself the sights improve. It is a huge place with lots of white buildings in need of a coat of paint. Like all cities, it's wealthy area with tree lined streets and large white houses is fine but there are plenty of poorer areas. It has a very long frontage by the sea called the Corniche with lots of hotels and cafes and restaurants. The choppy sea makes it a magnet for surfers. Our first stop was at the huge Hassan11 Mosque which took 7 years to build by 10000 workers and is very beautiful. It has the highest Minaret and a beautiful roof which can open to let in the ... read more

From the start of our researching this trip, Chefchaouen, also known as the blue city, has really appealed to me. We had it as a stop on our tenative itinerary, but after all the windy mountain roads going to the desert, Monica decided she wasn't interested. However, it still called to me, and I had also found out there were waterfalls nearby, so I decided I'd head there on my own. I looked into taking either a bus or grand taxi there, and possibly spending the night, but then I'd have to do a separate trip from there to the waterfall, which would mean more travel time, so I ended up arranging a private taxi to take me as a day trip, stopping at the waterfalls on the drive back. The doorman/security guard of our apartment ... read more

Today we headed out at 9 to get a grand taxi to Souk ElArbaa, so that we could get our train to Tangier. We left lots of time, in case it took awhile for the taxi to leave, but it ended up leaving pretty quickly, so we had time to kill at the train station, and then the train was 40 min late, so even more time. This time, it was just 1 straight train, so we settled in for the ride. Once we got to Tangier, the host for the Airbnb that Monica booked picked us up and took us to the apartment, which was pretty close by. The apartment is beautiful- on the 7th floor, with a view of the beach. 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, living area, kitchen. There's a washing machine, so we ... read more

Today we had a great long walk along the beach. I walked barefoot, and had my sandals clipped to the strap of my bag. Midway along our walk, I noticed I only had one of them. The other has a velcro closure that hasn't been working well, and musr have come unstuck along the way. We retraced our steps and eventually found the missing shoe. Since we had already turned around, we decided ro keep going along the beach in the other direction. It's a really long beach, with a steep hill leading down to it. The water is a bit rough. There were lots of guys fishing in one section of it. The beach eventually wraps around a corner and then the ocea meets a river that leads to a lagoon area, which is known ... read more

Today we headed in to see Morocco's capitol, Rabat, which is a short distance from Bouznika. We caught a shared taxi from Bouznika plage to Bouznika, then took the train to the city. The morning was overcast and a little cool. We found our way to the Hassan tower, a minaret of an incompleted mosque from the 12th century, and the mausoleum of Mohammed V. Then we walked down to the waterfront- such a beautiful area, with the mix of old and new, the view of the Kasbah of the Udayas in the background, and people taking rowboats across the river from Rabat to Salé. We found a restaurant along the walkway to have a little break from our exploring. Monica had a healthy detox booster, and I had a nutella brownie 🤣 After, we headed ... read more