CASABLANCA 2008

CASABLANCA

Bogart never filmed here. (And, like Chop Suey, Rick's Café is a product of American imagination, not reality. That said, an enterprising woman did open a restaurant on the ocean front called Rick's Café, but, as noted, Bogart never saw it.) Casablanca is a mixture of the old and new and a mélange of many cultures. Our hotel is one of the old 5 star hotels and Moroccan imagery and design is everywhere. Our guide, Hassan, like most of the A&K guides we've had, is polite, knowledgeable in the culture, and speaks beautiful English. He will stay with us for the remainder of our six days in Morocco. Last night he picked us up at 12:30 a.m. (really 1:30 a.m. Frankfurt time) and made polite conversation to two brain dead people. We had shipped our large bag ahead and were relieved to meet up with it at check-in.

We slept until 11:30 am the next morning. That's an absolute first for us.

Sightseeing was, as promised, not extensive. Our first stop was the second largest Muslim Mosque in the world, built in the late 1980's. It is immense, built in the Atlantic on landfill, and funded by contributions from "every family in Morocco" according to Hassan. The decorative work was stunning, from the carved and painted cedar to the intricate, lace-like

cuts in a very fine plaster. Everything is hand carved and hand painted. Twenty five thousand people can attend a single worship service, inside! If the Plaza area is filled, that adds another seventy five thousand people. For those used to Christian churches, the interior of an Islamic Mosque seems more austere. Intricate and beautiful in its style, it is both simple and complex at the same time, with each component of the structure a mix of architectural design, practicality, and spiritual significance.

We then went to several old sections of the city. On the way, we

stopped to see a Catholic church as a contrast to the Mosque. The people of Casablanca pride themselves on their open-mindedness and tolerance. Catholics (including the French and Spanish) have been a part of the City for hundreds of years. The most amazing part of the church was its stained glass. Stained glass is a standard feature in Catholic churches but this stained glass stretched front to back on both side walls, without supporting wall structure in between the glass panels.

The last part of the tour was to the oldest part of the city. Although interesting, it was not too different from other old cities around the world, with small windy streets with houses chuck-a-block together and people everywhere. Of course, there was the souk (bazaar) but since we hadn't cashed a check yet, we looked but didn't buy. Besides, there will be many other opportunities to shop.

Our last stop was a generations-old fishing village by the sea

surrounded by a wall (we could not go inside the wall). Because the State owns all of the land from the ocean to say 300 feet from high tide, these people are there at the suffrage of the State. Casablanca is planning to build a large marina and tourist hotels where this village is and along the whole coast to the north, the village will cease to exist soon.

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