May 28, 2012 - Casablanca, Morocco

May 28, 2012 - Casablanca, Morocco

The weather is great, sunny, mild temp and no rain. We were in Casablanca three years ago and took the city tour. We really didn't have much time to shop. Evelyn had wanted to go to Marrakech but I just didn't want to make the 7or 8 hour R/T drive, the tour was a total of 12 hours. Not my idea of fun, so I had to find good shopping or I would be in trouble. We had already seen the highlights of Casablanca as I mentioned including the Hassan II Mosque which has the tallest minaret in the world. It is quite something.

We left the ship around 10am and took the free shuttle to the port gate. My guess is that it is about a mile or more to the port gate from the ship. We walked up the street from the port and found a number of shops beginning to open. Bargaining is the way here and you have to be prepared to walk away. The shops will take either dollars or euros or the local currency "Dirham". After a few blocks we found the souk market and then the real shopping began. Myrna is a very good bargainer and I had her train Evelyn. We got some interesting things and it wad fun walking around. Everyone was friendly. The sellers pressed hard but knew when to back off, they understood no. After about two hours we found a small cafe and Don and I had a beer and Evelyn had coffee, they didn't have diet coke (or light as it is referred to ), so Myrna passed. We walked back to the shuttle and returned to the ship.

We had lunch and then played bridge.

We will eat dinner in the buffet and see the show tonight.

Tomorrow is Cadiz, Spain.

Casablanca, although close to Europe is definitely not European. Morocco is North African and the infrastructure, and general look of the city clearly demonstrates that. You see women in all types of Islamic dress and even some in western attire. It I'd the second largest cit in Africa, second only to Cairo.

And finally, there was no Rick's Cafe in Casablanca during WWII although the city was under Vichy control so by proxy all sorts passed through during the war. It is colorful and has an energy all it's own. Everyone, at least all the men seem to smoke. This must be where US tobacco companies are making all their money. "no smoking" has not yet reached Morocco..


Sent from my iPad

Hal