April 24, 25 & 26th Casablanca and on to Rabat and Meknes, Morocco

We really sweated out getting a new passport for Leslie, whose passport was going to expire six months during mid-May when we would be in Morocco, and therefore after that it would be difficult for her to travel. We had allowed two weeks after applying in Muscat, which, from emails from the Consulate back in March and discussions with them when we handed in the passport, we had understood should be enough time – no problem. 

We sent an email a week after the application to check on the passport. Next day we had a call that there was a tech glitch and not to expect the passport in time for our flight plans, and that we could consider getting an emergency passport. This made us stop our Morocco travel planning until we were sure about leaving. We sent a long email going though our options as we saw them and asking for advice on what to do. We received back the standard response that we could expect an answer in 3 days. You cannot just directly call the Consulate, you have to make an appointment to go see them. We decided to call the DCM to see if he could add any assistance for us in getting some advice on the email we had sent in, but it turned out he was in the US, and we woke him at an ungodly hour! On Wednesday we scheduled an appointment for Thursday and were lucky to find that there were 2 slots available, and also followed up with another email asking why we had no response to our urgent message. Thursday morning we finally had a call from the Consular staff indicating they hoped the passport might come that day. No guarantees until the pouch showed up and they had it in their hands and reviewed it. They did say that if it was not in the pouch that day, they would give it to David’s brother Paul and he could send it to us on the understanding we would go to a Consulate the get the old one officially canceled or they could send it to another Embassy/Consulate for us to pick up there. The passport ID cards would take a month to arrive but they would allow Paul to collect these for us, as Embassy/Consulates can only hold documents for 1 month and we won’t be back in Muscat till mid-September. 

We started packing right after this phone call, and “closing up” our upstairs space in Haramel. By 2pm we had my new passport in hand and by 2am we were heading to the airport to catch our Qatar airways flight to Casablanca via Doha. We are enjoying our finally reached Silver membership level with Qatar airways with its lounge and priority check-in and boarding!

The flight was 8 hours from Doha and unfortunately we had just a few empty seats in the plane and it was an older aircraft, but they did still have the individual TV monitors. It was a lower quality flight easily seen with no printed menus for meals, bathrooms an absolute disgrace, and the head flight staff not stopping by to welcome you on board as a Silver Member.

On arrival in Cassablanca entry was very efficient, entry quickly with just with an immigration card to fill out, bags arrived fairly promptly and then we went out to get some money from the ATM and find a taxi to go to the hotel.  The queue of taxis was like a lineup of ancient Mercedes. Unfortunately we got a 1960s model that even from the outside I had been looking at the appendage that was the muffler. Suitcases barely fit in, David sat up front with no functioning seat belt and I was in the backseat with luggage and no functioning seat belt and a driver that only spoke Arabic. The car had minimal brakes and lots of squeaking to further enhance the white knuckle ride, which, combined with the fumes coming into the backseat of the car, made us particularly thankful to finally arrive. Lesson learned with these “grand taxis” is to gauge which one you will be assigned and then adjust your position in the queue so you might get a different (better) one.

The Art Palace Suites and Spa is interesting with us having the opportunity to stay in 2 rooms. The first room on the 6^th had a lovely terrace but no wi-fi functioning. We had a soup and salad dinner at the hotel as we had been up over 24 hours and were slightly exhausted.  The next day we requested again (4^th time now) that they send someone to fix the internet and we ended up switching rooms to a larger suite, the Charlie Chaplin, which had good internet but no terrace. As we had not really planned any of our Morocco travel, access to the internet was important. We arranged for an English speaking guide/driver named Zuhair to take us around. We ended up with a nice newer van and a fellow that spoke Arabic and French. He drove us around to the  Hassan II Mosque, the third largest in the world and completed in the 1980's, which we were able to walk around the outside of, as non-Muslims can only enter the mosque in the morning on specific guided tours. 

Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca

View of Hassan II Mosque over bay

 We then drove along the Cornish and Zuhair pointed out various residences of members of the Saudi Royal family. Going into the area around the Moroccan King’s main palace in the La Nouvelle Medina (Quartier des Habous), we enjoyed looking out the car windows at the new souk but we wanted to focus on the old Medina area so off we headed.

The old Medina was interesting and we walked through with Zuhair so we were not really hassled. An unusual aroma led us to a man selling escargot soup as we were leaving the Medina area after perusing the jewelry section of the souk. 

Escargot Soup Seller in Medina

We had arranged to go for dinner at "Basmane", which had a belly dancing show. Our food was good and, of the two belly dancers, one was very good and surprisingly enough she was very slim. We got home after midnight.

Fortified outer walls of old Rabat Medina

The next day, Sunday, April 26^th we had breakfast and headed off for Rabat and Meknes, respectively the current capital and one of the ancient ones, using the car and driver that we had organized through the hotel. He did speak English and had a comfortable newer Mercedes with functioning seat belts, so we headed off to Rabat along the coast road. Arriving at Rabat we went straight to Kasbah les Oudaias (12^th) which has wonderful views of the sea and the river from its perch on the cliff in the oldest part of the city.

Rabat Medina alleys

The picturesque kasbah is still predominantly residential, and the narrow streets are lined with whitewashed houses - most of which were built by Muslim refugees from Spain in the Fifteenth Century. Some seem to have been restored by foreigners judging by some of the nameplates we saw on the doors.

We then wandered through some of the shops in the Medina across the road, primarily looking for a bathroom. We had forgotten that like all Buddhist temples, near Mosques you can usually find bathrooms. We then went back to the car and had the driver take us to a local restaurant for lunch before heading on to Meknes.

On arrival at Meknes’ old Medina we found that no cars are allowed entry. This necessitated us hiring a “porter” with a cart to help us move our luggage about half a kilometer to our riad accommodation. As you can see from the photo the lanes get very narrow!

Suitcase size a source of laughter!

We checked in to our Riad Zahraa al-Ismailia, which is the traditional old house which Leslie had booked for $32 a night, breakfast included. 

Cute little room in Riad Zahraa

We went out for dinner in another old riad, Riad D'Or, which not only gave us quite a feast but also had some local rose' wine, brand Tuareg. 

Since we had become lost trying to find the place, we had one of their staff lead us "home" after dinner, as we never would have found it after being turned around a dozen or more times.Then we crashed, pretty tired, and not yet organized for our next day in Meknes.

Chicken Tajine with Tuareg rose'