Casablanca, 8th December 2023

Up bright n breazy, breakfast with a familiar theme, and off to meet my driver. We're off on our continuing road trip, today to Casablanca. I've seen the film a few times so let's see if the place is really in black & white.
I must say, I'm warming to the countryside here: Fields of olive trees, rolling hills that sometimes remind me of a John Ford Western. Even the road surfaces on the autoroutes are good for the most part.
However... there's always a however. Casablanca hasn't got much to recommend it. Even the driver admitted there's just the mosque and the bit of old town near the hotel that are worth seeing.
The hotel is a leap into the C21st, if a little too 'corporate business-type stopover'. Sadly there's no pool for me to break out the swimming togs I optimistically packed, and the sauna is 980 dirham a pop. I politely declined.
That's about Euros 100 in real money.
What's purported to be the old part of Casablanca is a fairly predictable warren of grubby (in a good, picturesque kind've way?) alleys, but meandering down even the least touristy ones didn't really lead anywhere fascinating. I don't think I'm getting jaded, but maybe I've been spoiled in Fez.
[The road bridge in the shaky photo is apparently the biggest in the whole of Africa!)
Confession: not too many photographs today. The camera was a acting up again so I had to revert to the iPhone (sometimes the standard wide-angle lens is a tad extreme).
The last shot was whilst I was eating a shwarma sandwich inside a North African 'eatery', with cracking afro-beat music playing on the system.
Only one night here, but it's a good opportunity to rest a while. Tomorrow's a fairly long drive back to Marrakesh.Read more