April 27th, 2024
Our good luck with weather needed today. We woke up to gray skies and rain it was also cool with a high of 65. We had an excursion at 10am so not too early. When we left the boat it was raining pretty heavily so we used rain jackets and umbrellas. Today we had a tour of Casablanca and a visit to Rick’s Cafe which if from the movie Casablanca.
We had a small group and our first stop was at the fish market when todays catch was still being unloaded. There are a bunch of restaurants right around the corner from the market and you are supposed to pick your seafood of choice and they will cook to order. I have no idea of prices but nice idea.
Huge lobsters and crabs
After the seafood market we walked down one of the shopping streets and looked at the architecture which is modeled after the French who had a large influence in Casablanca.
Most of the buildings are old but lots of carvings.
After a short walk we loaded back in the van and headed to a very large mosque called Hassan II Mosque. The mosque can hold 105,000 worshippers. 25,000 inside the mosque and another 80,000on the outside grounds. It has a 60 story minaret and was built in 1986 and took 7 years to build.
The mosque and the courtyard
Views of the mosque
Tons of tile work. The King turned off all the fountains due to the water shortage.
They have giant doors leading into the mosque
Everyone got their picture taken
Our last stop was to Rick’s Cafe which was made famous by the movie Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart. The funny thing is that there never was a Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca, it was just made up for the movie. They named this place Rick’s Cafe and tried to model themselves after the movie. When you read reviews about it it says the food is overpriced and not really good and the wait staff is rude. Also you have to have reservations and they don’t open until noon. Bottom line they do a great business despite that. We were the first tour group in.
Nothing fancy
There was a line to get in and we headed up to the 2nd floor to the bar and ordered drinks. The 2 bartenders were very cute and nice and I can’t tell you how many times they posed for pictures.
Us at the bar and then a close up of the mirror where it says Rick’s Cafe. The bartender even wore the cute little fez hat. Quite a few people bought t-shirts for 25.00 each which is quite good for a place that does not really exist except in a movie.
After the Rick’s Cafe stop the tour was over instead of going back to the boat we went back to town to wander around. I ended up getting a haircut which is my 3rd and last of this trip. I went into 1 place and asked if they could cut my hair and they said if I could wait 30 minutes they could. Then they ended up having a young man who appeared to be learning to cut hair take us a couple of blocks over to another salon and they took me right away. The guy who cut my hair spoke almost no english but he did an okay job. The kid who had brought us there watched and he explained some things to the kid. When he was done I went to an ATM to get some local cash. 100 Moroccan dinar is about 10 US. I came back and held out 3 100 dinar bills and a 200 dinar bill. This was equivalent to 3 10 dollar bills and 1 20 dollar bill in the US. The guy took 1 of the 100 dinar bills so he charged me 10 dollars. I gave him another 100 dinar bill as a thank you and gave the kid who brought us there another of the 100 dinar bills. So all in all a 30 dollar haircut.
We then went to a local cafe to grab a bit to eat. The cafes are mostly for people to sit and watch soccer and smoke and drink coffee. All the chairs are side by side instead of across from each other and they all face the giant TVs. The menus are limited. We ordered a french cheese omelette for me which came with a basket of bread and a sprite. Kathy got some bread and cheese and jam and a cappuccino.
Our snack
We watched the Liverpool and West Ham soccer game and paid 6.50 for the snack.
After the snack we went into the markets which are a lot like the markets in Istanbul and Vietnam but not as much stuff. Basically tons of knock-offs of Polo, Nike, Northface etc. There were also gold shops, local fabric shops, leather goods and of course Argan oil products. These shops go on forever and you feel like you are winding around and around. The vendors would ask you to come in and look around but they were not pushy about it.
We found a lady doing henna tattoos and Kathy decided she wanted one so she picked a design out of the books and we asked how much and the lady said 100 dinar which is exactly what we had left in local money.
The women used no stencils, did everything freehand.
Took about 15 minutes and she even added some glitter.
We wandered back through the market which was getting crowded
Wonderful produce and grilled corn for about 25 cents.
We passed by more fresh fish and tons of butchered meat with the carcasses still hanging. Chickens both live in pens and cut up ready for cooking. Nothing was refrigerated and the smell was quite strong.
The market
We made our way back to where the Viking shuttle was taking people back to the ship and got back on board around 5pm. Sail away was at 7:30.
It was a little rocky tonight again but not windy. The high tomorrow is 65 and we are headed for Tangier, Morocco which will be our last stop on the African continent.