West Coast of Europe & to Casablanca Cruise - Casablanca

This is in Morocco. We got up at 0648. We left the ship as soon as it had clearance: about 0840 & walked along the long, stinking quay to the harbour wall & below this to the entrance, quite a long way. It was another very instructive experience doing the 2.5km along the corniche to the big (gigantic) Hassan II Mosque. It got quite hot in the Sun. We had to walk past a shanty town of corrugated iron & rubbish wood & I managed to get a photo of the mosque & the shanty town.

Old fort

The Mosque with the shanty town (left below) & rubbish pile

The Mosque

We bought tickets (E24 for two) & were guided round, carrying our shoes in plastic bags. It was grotesque, the amount of money they have wasted on this thing when the estimated $1,300,000,000 would better have been spent on 'affordable housing'. Nor was the standard of craftsmanship anything to write home about.

It's massive - holds 25,000 people

Uninteresting tiling

Washroom

The end by the sea

The forecourt holds anoher 80,000 people

Many visitors sense of proportion was outraged. We walked back through the 'real' market, where the locals were buying food.

Start of the real Market

The Sardine Man

The Bakers

A side street

The Dentist

The square at the NE end of the market

We walked out of it past medieval mobile phone shops to a main road & picked up a little taxi, who took us to the customs point I gave him E10 & made his day. We walked up to the ship, talking to a couple of Krauts in Mein Schiff, which had moored at the next quay. The Costa Fortuna was also in. After lunch, we went up to the top & I chatted to a retired policeman. I went up to the top deck to photo the sunset over the mosque.

This was not the end of the day. We had dinner early, as Antony had replaced the show with a local group of musicians & a belly dancer, which involved much rescheduling, as they had to be off the boat before it sailed. We were all fitted out with leis before going in to this show, where these Moroccan players were also good singers but it would have been nice to know what they were singing about! The dancer clearly had no bones. I had a word with Boss Antony later, as I was impressed, knowing the sheer amount of paperwork the band would have involved with port security & financial authorisation being what it is these days. I also introduced him to Avis. After the local band, there was a band on the quarter deck & dancing. I did trip the light fantastic for "The Last Dance" (which wasn't), a mistake, as my rotten guts paid me out.

Avis fitted with a lei

The 1st Rock 'n Roll generation shows how its done

The Band-hit this picture for the movie

Port 1 - Leixoes (Oporto)

Port 3 - Gibraltar

Port 4 - Cadiz

Port 5 - La Coruña