Casablanca

We started day with a walking tour with a guide. Surprisingly most of the people in the group were from Australia too, a single soul from Texas to mix it up.

We started in the Sacred Heart Cathedral which is no longer a functioning cathedral but an events hall. We had an entertaining guide and enjoyed the information. Casablanca (White House) is the biggest city in Morocco. Morocco has a monarchy and it seems the king is well loved and supports both economic growth and human rights. I don’t think the guide would tell us something different but looking around the place, it’s clean, well maintained with women out and about. Also learnt about the Berber (Amazigh) people who compromise 60%of the nation and now their language is recognised as an official language. Depending on where you are in the country the languages spoken vary with which country had colonised it, French it is for Casablanca along with Arabic.

We then moved onto the biggest park in the city, (Arab league park) water fountains and greenery all around. Also an area for teenagers to get up to things without prying eyes. 

We then walked to the Mohammed V square, locally known as the pigeon square- thousand of pigeons give it the name. It’s surrounded by official buildings, all of which have the Moroccan Flag flying high. Interestingly the King in Morocco’s name alternates with Mohammed and Hassan, currently it’s Mohammed VI and his son is crown prince Hassan, who will become Hassan III. 

We then got to eat some local bread, it’s very much like paratha. Strolling along the roads in the area, it’s very much like France and is known as little Paris. 

We passed other beautiful squares, an artistic skate park before heading to the Medina. Unbelievably no one hassled us, it felt so good. The seafood market was humongous and you could choose some and get it cooked at a restaurant nearby. The kids couldn’t get out of it quick enough. 

The walk was well paced with breaks in the middle for coffee, where we sat in a gorgeous old house that has been converted to an artisan workshop. Another break was in a local warehouse learning about the Argan Oil. Savik enjoyed trying to open the mystery boxes, very tricky.

After the Medina, Aanya started flailing so we left the group at the Marina mall as they headed to the mosque (their last stop). Chicken nuggets and a huge slide helped the tiredness and we then went to the biggest Mosque in Africa and joined a tour in there.

The mosque was built in 6 years, can house 25000 people inside and 80000 people outside!! Its roof can open up and it was open when we were in there and the sunlight streaming in made it even more beautiful. The 10000 artisans have done a stunning job. 

Savik’s best bit was watching a teenage boy evade the security guard outside and jump from the railing into the sea. It was quite a drop and then we saw more boys coming up to do the same, it was quite amusing to see.

With too many steps taken as per the kids we headed up, happy to have soaked up quite a bit of Casablanca.