Touring Casablanca and the Road to Rabat

Sunday June 1 was a beautiful warm, sunny day- about 24C.  We met Mohamed, our guide, at 9:30 a.m. and headed back to the Hassan II Mosque for a tour of the interior with a guide from the Mosque. The mosque is erected partially on water and the late King Hassan II (1929-99) chose the location inspired by the koranic verse "The Throne of God was on Water".  The prayer hall is 20,000 square metres and is equipped with a retractable roof.   The inside of the mosque is very elegant and beautiful.  There were thousands of craftsmen involved in its construction and it was worked on day and night for six years until its completion in 1993.  Here are some photos from our tour:

View of inside of mosque

Detail of cedar railing from Atlas Mountains in Morocco

Chandeliers and lamp detail

Part of Prayer area

Lamp detail

The men's ablution room was located in the lower level and contains 41 fountains.

                                                                       Ablution room

We also saw a beautiful hammam (bathing room) that is not used, but is shown to visitors.

                                                                           Hammam

                                                                                         Detail of tile

After our visit to the Mosque, Mohamed took us for a drive through Anfa, a very wealthy area of Casablanca where the French lived when Morocco was a French Protectorate (1912-1956).  There are many amazing villas, including a number of very modern ones, with huge hedges and lots of beautiful bougainvillea and hibiscus plants.

                                                                       Driving by villas in Anfa

                                                                     Another villa

We stopped for a coffee at a very busy cafe that overlooked a public beach.  Everyone was out on this beautiful Sunday.

                                                      View of public beach from cafe

We then went to visit a Catholic church, called Notre Dame de Lourdes, which was built by the French in 1956, just before independence.  It is a contemporary design with beautiful modern stained glass windows on two walls of the Church.

                                                        Outside of Notre Dame de Lourdes

                                                                          Stained glass windows

                                                             Stained glass wall on one side of Church

We then stopped in the Quartier des Habous, an area of Casablanca built by the French at the beginning of the 20th century.  We saw a building resembling a castle, which is the Pasha's court completed in 1952, which is now used as a district government administration building.  There are a number of mosques in the area as well as Casablanca's Royal Palace, which could not be photographed.  There is an area which sells handicrafts and a Moroccan pastry shop, that unfortunately was closed when we were there.

                                                                 View of Mosque

                                                             Former Pasha's court, now District office

Our last stop in Casablanca was Place Mohammed V, which includes an impressive Courthouse, built in 1925.

                                                                     The Courthouse 

We then took the slow highway along the ocean to Rabat, which is about 90 km northeast of Casablanca.  The trip took us about two hours.  We passed areas that were incredibly built up, refineries built adjacent to beautiful old villas from French protectorate days, and parts of the ocean that were not built on.  There is an incredible amount of development taking place along the shore. 

                                                            Pristine part of ocean front 

                                                                           Development near Rabat

We arrived at about 5:00 p.m. at the Rive Hotel where we are staying, near the Centre Ville.  We still can't get over all the beautiful flowers covering parts of houses and apartment buildings.

                                                    Bougainvillea down the street from our hotel

We went for a walk downtown, which was full of people out on a beautiful Sunday.  We saw the Rabat LRT, and then stopped for some local grilled food.

                                                                       Rabat's LRT     

                                                           Downtown Rabat in front of walls of the Medina

                                                                  Mixed Grill in huge taxi parking lot

                                                             Alain choosing his food

                                              New Moroccan friend who was buying his food before us

                                                                With my grilled lamb

On the way back to the Hotel, we stopped for a coffee and chatted to the man beside us who wanted to know where we are from.  People are very friendly.  Everyone speaks French and some people speak a bit of English.  Most of the signage is in French and Arabic.  Many people we have talked to  think all Canadians speak French.... we tell them not so, as we muddle through with our limited French.  The mix of French and Arabic is very appealing.

We had a late dinner at the hotel.  The end of a full, interesting day.