0204 Casablanca to Moulay Idriss

One tower of the Rabat Kasbah


Inside the Rabat Kasbah


Couscous and Tagine at or home stay


The floor in the Hassan II mosque


Hassan II mosque mosaic

Before we left we caught a Petit Taxi out to the Hassan II mosque. This is bigger than expected. It is built to house 25,000 worshippers and took 6 years to build from 1987 to 1993. Most of the materials apart from the Murano glass in the chandeliers comes from Morocco: cedar wood, marble from Agadir and ceramics that are locally made. It's grandeur is easily appreciated as there is a huge public square in front of the mosque which allows visitors to see the building from a distance and be amazed the closer they get. The roof is made of concrete and cedar wood and weighs 1100 tonnes. This roof amazingly opens to allow air to change in the mosque. It takes 3 mins to open and 2 mins to close.
We caught a train to Rabat which is the capital city of Morocco. This train turned out to have no seats so we stood for most of 2.5 hours. There were some interesting interactions with local people as you might imagine. The journey took us through rich farm land: olives, broad beans, malt, citrus, grapes, etc. The cars are obviously less dented than those in Casablanca and are expensive models. We walked to the Kasbah which is a mix of 12th century and 17th century buildings. It is a labyrinth inhabited by 3000 residents from various levels of society. There are artists, Government officials, and some Europeans as well as local people. The bottom of the walls are painted blue apparently because they believe indigo keeps away mosquitoes.
We caught taxis heading for Moulay Idriss. The taxi Steve and I were in had no window winders so one was passed around for us all to use. Once in Moulay Idriss we caught taxis to the hotel, La Colombe Hotel where we were served an incredible meal of Harira soup, Harissa and bread as well as Couscous and Kofte Tagine.
Here we had a cake for Linley's birthday which was the next day.