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| Doorway to home, Oudaya Kasbah, Rabat, Morocco |
If your impression of Morocco was of the waters of the
Atlantic and Mediterranean lapping up on deserts and sand, you would be wrong.
If you thought of Morocco with the images of Lawrence of Arabia, you’d be
wrong. If you assumed the people of
Casablanca were like Tripoli, Cairo, or Tehran, you would also be wrong.
Rabat and Casablanca were the second and third Moroccan city
I visited in our two Moroccan ports and I was very pleasantly surprised. I had read that Casablanca was filthy and
hardly worth getting off the ship. I had
assumed that both cities would be that way but I quickly learned to make my own
evaluation as I found both cities vibrant, and very attractive. Casablanca is
the largest city in Morocco, though not its capital. It has about 4 million people within its city
limits and about 5 million including surrounding metropolitan area. About an hour away, also along the coast is
the capital of Rabat with about 3 million residents.
Because Barb wasn’t going to do an excursion, I had to determine
what, if any, tour I would do. I hadn’t
yet booked one for Casablanca before I left home but after reading the
itineraries of all the tours and listening to the presentation by Shore
Excursions Manager Maria and On Location Guide Brett, I chose a tour called The Imperial City of Rabat and it turned
out to be an excellent decision. After
being so accustomed to descriptions by On Location Guide Barbara Haenni from
both world cruises and two other cruises we did, I was pleased to find Brett,
who is considerably younger than Barbara, to be equally informed on the ports
we visit on this cruise. In one talk he
indicated he was from New York and I immediately decided he was definitely not
from New York City. He talked too much
like those of us from Western New York.
In another talk on our upcoming visit to Siracusa, Sicily¸ he said he
grew up in Syracuse, New York. Then of
course, I knew why he was good (for those who don’t know, I am a Syracuse
University Orangeman). He had commented
in his talk that he was going to go to Rabat since he had never been there, so
I figured the Rabat excursion might be worthwhile to do myself.
The excursion left early, at 7:30, so it meant getting up
and ready early. The weather promised to
be a pleasantly warm, sunny 74 degrees with blue sky and sunshine. However that early, there was a great deal of
fog and the moisture on the bus windows made it difficult to see very much
until the sun burned it off. We were
quickly out of Casablanca and on an excellent motorway that connected the two
cities. Since it was a Sunday, traffic
moved quickly. Traveling the
countryside, it was easy to notice that while the people don’t have the same
standard of living we enjoy, it seemed far better than most other African and
Asian countries we have visited. Many
people were out, some in their Muslim dress and others in the more Western
style of dress, walking, playing sports (overwhelmingly soccer of course) or
doing some sort of physical labor. Lots
of cattle and donkeys, as well as some sheep and goats were to be seen in the
fields. What surprised me most were the
number of young people engaged in soccer, basketball, running or other forms of
physical exercise. There were lots of
soccer fields, nearly every one of which was in use. Morocco was much greener than I anticipated;
given the fact that it’s close to Spain, why should one expect desert
conditions? Trees ranged from palms to
even Norfolk pines which we commonly observed in New Zealand. While the route to Rabat was quite flat, the
Atlas Mountains not too far south serve as a barrier to the Sahara Desert.
When we arrived in Rabat, we headed straight for the Royal
Mosque which we viewed from the outside.
Few mosques are open to non Muslims so there was no question as to us
being able to go inside. From there, we
walked across the open courtyard to see the Royal Palace of Rabat. The king, the popular grandson of revered
King Hassan, was in Casablanca where he maintains a palace as well. In the major cities, including Agadir, the
king has a palace for his convenience.
Unlike in the UK¸ where the Union Jack flies only when the queen is in
residence, the Moroccan flag flies over his palaces at all times. We were able to take pictures of the palace
and guards from a distance and were not permitted cross the street directly in
front of the palace.
A short distance away was the 12th century Hassan
Tower over the ruins of an old abandoned mosque in Rabat which gave an
impressive reminder of the extent of the civilization that flourished on this
site centuries ago. An interesting
sidelight that our guide pointed out was the large number of stork nests in the
high ruins! I had never thought of this
before, but I believe I saw more storks here than the total I have seen in my
life. The last stork I remember was on a
chimney in Denmark in 1998! Some were
building nests while others were feeding their young.
Our next stop was to view the mausoleum and library of
honored Moroccan kings, again with the beautiful architecture and sculpturing. The sarcophagus of King Hassan V who brought
reforms including equal treatment of women to Morocco was in the center along
with several other tombs. Moroccan
soldiers in full ceremonial uniform guarded the tombs from above as we walked
through the ornate building.
Our final stop in Rabat was at the Oudaya Kasbah near the Atlantic Ocean. It was totally different from the one we had
visited in Agadir. The one in Agadir was
obviously the ruins of a fort while this had become a quaint residential area
with winding paths similar to what we had seen several years ago on the Greek
islands of Mykanos and Santorini.
Occasionally residents came out or walked the pathways and some greeted
us with a “bon jour”, French and Arabic being the two official languages in
Morocco. I was grateful, with my very
limited knowledge of my high school French, for the signs in French which,
needless to say was far more recognizable than the Arabic.
Our return to Casablanca took us along the Atlantic coast
with picturesque scenes of waves crashing on the rocks and once again, the
ubiquitous soccer courts in use. Many
were jogging and swimming and we enjoyed the scenery before returning to the
motorway for the quicker return to Casablanca.
Back in Casablanca we had two stops prior to returning to
our ship. Having never been in Morocco
and with limited time in a day, I had had to make choices as to what to
see. Going to Rabat gave me a chance to
see some of the Moroccan countryside, but it would mean I would see little of
Morocco’s most famous city. However the
tour did include a short time in Casablanca, so we made a short stop at
Morocco’s Great Mosque (Hassan II Mosque) which is Morocco’s most famous. It had been commissioned by the King to honor
Hassan II and began construction in 1986 and was completed in 1993. We walked across the immense open space in
front of the mosque where there is sufficient space for tens of thousands to
pray. It is one of the rare mosques that
permits visits by non-Muslims but our tour didn’t include that as the focus was
on Rabat. There were beautiful mosaics
in the tiles and on the open space as well as magnificent fountains which added
to the beauty. From there we passed
“Rick’s Café” of the legendary 1940s movie Casablanca
fame for a photo stop. This “Rick’s
Café” was named however after the movie, not the other way around. From there we went to what is called United
Nations Square and walked across it for a short shopping opportunity before
returning to the ship via a chance for a quick photo of a Jewish
synagogue. Our guide explained that
there are about 7,000 Jews and 10,000 Christians in Casablanca and that they
are free to practice their religions without interference with the majority Muslims.
We did find Morocco to be more open and apparently tolerant of non-Muslims just
as we had found on our two previous visits to Muslim Indonesia.
It was an outstanding two days in Morocco and we came away
with a much more favorable impression of that country on the northwest corner
of Africa than we could ever have imagines.
Now the Rock of Gibraltar and ports in Spain lie just ahead.
CT
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