What’s the first order of business in Casablanca? A visit to Rick’s of course so we duly went there and took some photos – you have to book to get a table and we didn’t have enough time. Notwithstanding the absence of Ingrid and Humphrey impersonation opportunities, we can pretty much go where ever we like as long as we stick to the basic itinerary because even though this is a guided tour of Morocco, it’s only the child bride and I who are being guided. We have a driver/guide to ourselves. We were told it would be a small group and in the circumstances, this is about as small as it can get.
Getting here was relatively painless – a short flight from Madrid on Royal Air Maroc. That’s the second airline on this trip that I’ve been on for the first time. The other was Ryanair which I’d been avoiding but which was the only airline with a direct flight from Manchester to Madrid when we wanted one. And it was fine. Maroc would be better called Midget (or should that be “Little People” – back off, social justice warriors) Airlines because the seats were closer than any others I have experienced. They were so close that the overhead lights and air vents were completely out of alignment with the seats. No long hauls with them thankfully.
So, first impressions. The life skills we learnt in Vietnam in respect of crossing busy roads have come in handy. There are zebra crossings here which are a complete waste of paint. You get harassed in the markets – par for the course – and people want to befriend you and show you around – of course.
Casablanca’s a bit like a coastal Indian city and a bit like an up and coming Rio de Janeiro but there are more mosques than in both of those places combined. In fact it has the biggest Mosque in Africa which is the fifth biggest in the world. On special occasions it can fit 25000 people inside and about 75000 outside. The Catholic shrine at Fatima in Portugal can accommodate about 100000 outside also. If you can’t arrange a seat inside at either of these venues in summer, I suggest a large floppy hat, a portable fan and a bucket of ice to stand in.
Casablanca is untidy, messy even, busy and noisy as befits a city with 6 million people. It’s dusty because of all of the construction and because apparently there’s rather a large desert not that far away. And it’s the commercial centre to Rabat’s government centre which explains, well it explains a lot actually.