Marakkech to Casablanca

Didn't sleep well at all, probably my fault as I did Sudoku before sleep, lesson learnt! The bed was very hard and the pillow like a very uncomfortable wedge!
Breakfast was great. Lots of sweet cakes and pastries, but avoided them and had yoghurt and orange and dates. Then a pancake and jam.
We were joined by a little tabby kitten with a fluffy tail. It came in somehow, and the waiter tried to shoo them out, but they disappeared into another part of the hotel!

The train to Casablanca was at 9, so we headed round the corner to the station. Very handy hotel, thanks, JB! We were in first class!! A six seater carriage with quite wide, fairly comfortable seats. We were the first in our carriage but were shortly joined by an Irish couple and then a local couple, all with big bags. Which had to stand in the corridor.
The journey was about three hours long, James had his accounts to do and needed me to read out the figures to him, I was conscious that this may be annoying to our travel companions but it didn't take to long.

The hotel was once more very near to the train station Casa Voyageurs. We dropped our bags, and we couldn't check in yet. Then, Iwe jumped into a taxi to Rick's Bar... had to be done! It was rather disappointing outside but hit the spot once we were in. We sat and had Aperol at the bar, which was very good. It was fun. Everyone was taking pics, and the waiters and bar staff were happy to be photographed.

We then walked to Hassam 11 Mosque, the third largest in the world, the largest being in Mecca. In order to enter, we had to join a tour. It was huge, unbelievably huge, and extremely beautiful inside and out, so many mosaics, so much intricate carving, I found it quite unbelievable. It was only completed 1993 and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. It is constructed mainly of granite, marble, plaster, and wood from within Morocco and was paid for by the people of Morocco, making it belong to everyone.
It can hold 25,000 inside, women up on a higher floor and men in the main hall and 80.000 in the plaza.
We then walked along the seafront, which started out as a pleasant stroll along with others. However, as we walked further, we realised that we were in a dodgy area with dropouts hanging around. There was no way off the path, but we could see that there was a shopping centre a short way ahead, so ducking under a fence headed there.
We had MacDonalds. I am ashamed to say we just needed speedy sustenance.

Returning to the hotel Al Walid, we had a short time before the group meeting at 6, when we would meet our group and companions for the next 2 weeks. The tour leader is very young and seems quite sweet. The group mostly from down under, 9 from Australia, 4 from New Zealand, a Chinease American and ourselves. Our guide Mo was very young but keen. After introductions, we went via the tram to a restaurant where we tried our first Moroccan Tagine, not bad!Читать далее