Casablanca and Marrakech

As the name implies most of the buildings in Casablanca are white (casa = house, blanc = white) - or at least they were white once! Today our tour took us to some of the older and not so old parts of the biggest city in Morocco.

We started at the Hassan II Mosque which we visited the outside of yesterday. This is the only mosque non-Muslims are allowed to enter and it is as impressive inside as it is outside. During Ramadan over 100,000 people can pray at the same time - about 25,000 inside and the rest outside on the forecourt. The other impressive feature is they can open the roof to allow the sun and fresh air to fill the building.

Check out the photos but this is one amazing building. Our guide, Soufiane, explained what happens and who does what and when, all really interesting. He then took us downstairs to the ablutions room where water fountains provide water for people to wash before praying. All on a massive scale.

After the mosque we went to the Habous Quarter where clothing, books, souvenirs and loads more were for sale. It seems Morocco had a large Jewish population and their evidence is all around the city.

This was followed by a visit to the Central Market where they sell fish, seafood, meat, veggies, flowers, and lots more.

Like I said before the traffic is just astounding but I think I am starting to work it out. Big intersections are part traffic lights and part roundabout. So when the lights turn green cars wanting to turn left (they drive on the right side here) all pile up on the left waiting for oncoming traffic to clear before they all charge across. No orderly lining up in the left lane just a big swarm.

After the markets and lunch we hit the road to our next destination - Marrakech. About a 3 hour drive. The highway is a toll road and was very good. No where near the amount of traffic on the autostrade in Italy.

Marrakech is a lot smaller than Casablanca and a lot older. The buildings are all a maximum of 3 or 4 stories high and are terracotta coloured - the colour is mandated by the government. It has an old section that is behind the walls and a new section outside the walls.

It was pretty late in the day by the time we arrived so not a lot of time to look around. Dinner was in the old part of town in the main market area. It was packed with lots going on. There was a snake charmer but I am not sure the snake was real, it didn’t move much! Anyway an interesting place to look around.Leer más