The final chapter in Morocco for the Paechs!

After our wonderful experiences in Fes and Marrakech we made our way back to Tanger (to catch the ferry) via Casablanca and Rabat.

Rick's replica cafe...spoiler alert!!!

Use your imagination...and watch the film again!

Here is another spoiler alert for those who have romantic ideas about Casablanca. Rick's cafe never existed in Casablanca...ohhhhhhh...I here you say...I (Chris) was most put out! But we did drive past one the the 12 Rick's cafes replicas that have been built in Casablanca. Each capitalising on the unsuspecting tourist.

Casablanca is a huge city of "white" (blanca) buildings, too much traffic and is quite grotty for my liking. But Casablanca claim to fame (other than rick's cafe) is the second largest mosque in the muslim world and is the tallest relgious building in the world. It was completed in 1993, with a number of advanced technological features, eg the roof slides open and it has a heated floor in the huge prayer room, and a lift to the top of the minaret for the call to prayer.

It is very, very big, check out the photos. (We recommend that you Google Hassan II mosque - Casablanca...very interesting statistics, including 50 million man hours over 6 years to complete it! Of interest is that the key architect was a French friend of the King and Christian influences can be seen in the building.)

The Hassan II Mosque. Two thirds of
the building is built over the water- inspired by two Koranic verses.

Close up on some of the detail...stunning!

David is in the foreground dwarfed by this
enormous building

This is the forecourt that can hold over 100,000 worshippers!

Rabat was our last port of call before leaving the magificent country of Morocco. Rabat is the capital of Morocco and the King resides here, although he has palaces in most towns as well. We dropped in on his palace here in Rabat, but he wasn't home, but we did pass is cavalcade (of cars - mostly Mercedes) on our way to Marrakech.

Visited Tomb of Mohammed V, where an Iman sits & reads the Koran....Royal guards keep watch outside and the Minaret "Hassan Tower" stands outside (This Roman/Byzantine style mosque is considered to be of equal importance in the Islamic world with the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, which we visited, and The Giralda in Seville - which we climbed to the top of(!!) and which is now part of a huge Catholic Cathedral)... see our earlier Spain blog entries for the Giralda photos!



 

Tomb of Mohammed V

One of the four Royal Guards at the gates
of the tomb!



Iman sitting and reading the Koran.



D & Guard.  Why they are guarding a dead

guy anyway???



I just had to show you our hotel balcony in Rabat!
We ended up moving from this room anyway,
because of the 'delightful' smell coming out of
the bathroom pipes!  Mmmmmmm!