Saturday May 31 was our day to wander in Casablanca on our own before the tour starts on June 1. Our hotel is in a good location. We decided to walk to the Hassan II Mosque located on the ocean about an hour from our hotel. We generally walked on a street next to the outer wall of the Medina (old part of the City), though we also entered at a few locations to wander the narrow old streets.
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| Street near our Hotel |
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| One entrance to the old Medina |
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Canon viewed from outside the Medina
An alley in the Medina
We left the Medina and headed up to the Mosque, passing the Royal Naval School along the way. The guard didn't like us taking the picture. Definitely a port town.
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We arrived at the Hassan II Mosque, which dominates Casablanca's skyline. The Mosque was designed by a French architect and build by a team of around 35,000. It was constructed between 1987 and 1993. It is now the third largest mosque in the world after the Mosques in Mecca and Medina. The main hall can hold up to 25,000 and has a retractable roof so that it can be turned into a courtyard. The minaret is more that 650 feet high. We weren't able to go inside when we were there, although it is one of the few mosques in Morocco that non-Muslims can enter. It is an amazing building, with beautiful tiles.
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| Hassan II Mosque |
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View of inside and beautiful stained glass
View of buildings across from the Mosque
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The following two pictures show off the beautiful tiles.
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| Alain in front of fountains |
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| In front of tiled detail |
Alain and I are both fans of the ocean. The Mosque's foundations lie party on land and partly in the sea. There were a number of young kids hanging out in the vicinity.
Ocean view with the Mosque
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| Hanging out |
We continued our walk on La Corniche, where there are a number of cafes with ocean views. We stopped for coffee at the "Very" cafe. Alain had a "nus-nus", the Arabic word for a small cafe creme, and I had an espresso.
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| Alain with his nus-nus |
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| At the "Very" Cafe |
After our coffees we headed back to the Old Medina where we planned to have a very late lunch at La Sqala, a restaurant located within an 18th century fortress, with a beautiful garden. We walked back along the waterfront, passing a massive development, including apartment buildings, a theatre and a new Marina.
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| New development on the waterfront |
We walked up a street leading to the Medina and passed Rick's Cafe. It was closed, so we didn't go in. The most recent renovation was done in 2004 and the inside is apparently a replica of the Hollywood set used for Rick's Cafe in Casablanca ( 1942), one of our all time favourite movies. The owners are a group called "The Usual Suspects." Fun to see the outside, but not a priority to visit the faux-Rick's.
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| Rick's Cafe celebrating 10 years |
We finally reached our lunch destination. There was a plaque explaining that the fortress had been built by artisans from Genoa in 1770.
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| Plaque outside restaurant La Sqala |
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| Garden where we ate |
We shared a gorgeous Moroccan salad and a vegetable tangine.
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| Alain with Moroccan salad |
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| In front of vegetable tangine-- also delicious bread with olives and two tomato sauces |
We finished our meal with Moroccan mint tea. The practice is for the server to pour the tea into the glasses from a great height.
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| Pouring mint tea from a great height |
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| Another part of the restaurant |
We headed back to our hotel, passing one of the oldest mosques in Casablanca, built initially in 1790 and renovated in 1892.
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Jamaa Ouid al Hamra
We passed a group of men having treats from an outdoor vendor.
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Our final photo of the day was of the very modern LRT a few streets away from our hotel. If Casablanca can have a modern LRT system, why can't Toronto?
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| Modern LRT just leaving the station- tickets can be bought right outside stop |
We ate a late dinner at the hotel- this time a set menu with some choices. June 1 is our last day in Casablanca prior to hitting the road to Rabat.
p.s. How 'bout those Blue Jays--- when we got back to the hotel before we had dinner, we were able to follow the score in the Saturday win (11-2 over Kansas). We are five hours ahead of Toronto time.
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