Out and about in Casablanca

Took a walk through the centre of town again, heading for the huge Hassan 2nd mosque. As we went through Place Mohammed V again. we stumbled upon some sort if belly dancing thing which was being filmed for tv. We were the only non locals there too.

The Sacre Coeur cathedral was open but empty except for a few pigeons that were using it as a personal fly area. The place was built in 1930 but deconsecrated in 1956. its sometimes used as a cultural centre but not today; it was just us and the pigeons and a man at the door. He let us up the tower from which we had a good view of the medina to the big mosque. Mind you, it did entail walking through much pigeon poop which covered every singled step. It was quite a climb and high, with various exits onto open roofs. Not a place to go with vertigo.

We set out to walk to the mosque but had only gone a few hundred metres before being accosted by a man who insisted we went to his carpet cooperative. He was quite sweet, so we didn't mind too much but we also had to visit his herbalist friend before we could escape.

We tried to find Ricks Cafe ( as in the film ' Casablanca' ) by cutting through the market but that didn't work and we ended up lost amongst stalls selling fresh mint and an array of odd looking fruit. But we could see the minaret tower of the mosque so we kept that in our sights and eventually emerged from the dust and dirt of market to the rubbish dump, immediately in front of the mosque.

The mosque really is a very spectacular structure with the tower standing 210 metres and room for 25000 worshippers inside and 80 000 more outside. It was the legacy of King Hassan 2nd and is built right on the edge of the ocean on land reclaimed from the water. It's even got a centrally heated floor which you really need in a hot country like Morocco, and a retractable roof that opens quicker than that of a European football stadium, according to the guide.


We took a tour round it ( because we'd had to and they wouldn't let us in otherwise) but it was worth it as we got told various facts and figures and were taken into places that we would not have known about otherwise. And it's the only mosque in Morocco that non Muslims can enter.

After the mosque, we had another look for Ricks Cafe and this time found it. However, it was shut so we found a cafe to wile away some time before returning at 1830 hrs when it reopens.

It's down by the port and the navy base both of which were probably quite picturesque back in the 1940s. But not now although the sailors keeping guard were quite smart.... But not smart enough to shoo us away before we took pictures.

So now we're in Ricks Cafe drinking cocktails...there are two tramps outside who broke off their tramply arguing to wave at us and shout ' welcome, welcome' in English. Most bizarre!

open roof of the Sacre Coeur cathedral

Nadine all scarfed up for the mosque

Women's Hamman in the mosque

Rick's Cafe