Post #2. Oct 5 Getting Here and Rabat

My awesome sister Sylvia got up around 5:30am to give me a ride to the airport.  It’s beyond the call of duty especially when you don’t like driving in the rain and dark and it was definitely both.  The highway isn’t lit and the lanes at the construction of the Keating Cross Road flyover have been narrowed significantly as well as twisted to accommodate the build.   And since the markings are only temporary for this project, they’re hard to find in the dark and rain.  In any event, we got there safely and I think she got home without incidence.  

The plane was supposed to leave at 9:00 but for whatever reason it left 45 minutes late despite every passenger in their seat by 8:59.  I was surprised at how hostile the passengers became due to the delay and were mouthing off at the stewards.  The level of frustration the staff showed when one of the stewards responded to passenger comments about incompetence was that she wasn’t pleased either as she was working for free until the plane lifted off.  The whole thing seemed so un-Canadian to me.  The pilot made two announcements—the first one at about 9:10 saying that the issue was due to a discrepancy between the head count on the plane and at the gate but that it was resolved and we would be pushing back soon.  The second announcement was around 20 minutes later after passengers lobbied for one and it was basically the same announcement.  There were a few who said out loud they didn’t believe the explanation.  

My AirCanada app showed that my flight left early at 8:59!  That was never corrected, so I am now suspicious of carriers’ on time statistics.  There were several passengers around me that had tight connections including me (one hour and 19 minutes).  There was a couple in the seats in front of me that were on the same Casablanca flight.   They continued to voice off about suing the airline if they didn’t make their connection.  I was glad to finally begin departing because the complaining finally tailed off.  To his credit, the pilot was able to make up all but about 10 minutes of the original scheduled arrival time and I did my best OJ Simpson run through the airport to make my connection.  Although that connection distance from Gate 11 to Gate 63 was about as far as it could have possibly have been, I did make it with about 15 minutes before boarding began.   Fortunately, it is a secure area throughout the path from gate to gate and so there was no need to re-clear security after de-planing.

I met up with Judith who was already waiting at the departure gate.  I had been keeping her informed of my flight status, which didn’t really look promising at takeoff.  It was a relief to see her there as it really confirmed that I would make this flight.  We boarded and found our seats.  I was amazed that I had a whole overhead bin to myself — a business class perk I guess.  Later on during the flight, I needed to retrieve something from my carryon, but discovered I couldn’t reach the latch and had to ask the steward to open the bin for me… 

I watched a movie, Napoleon (it was really gory) and enjoyed a surprisingly adequate meal that I had preordered.  Then it was lights out for a while.  I can usually sleep pretty well on flights, but I found AirCanada’s upgraded seats to be very uncomfortable.  I managed a couple of hours anyways and our flight landed in Casablanca (Mohammed V Airport) around 6:00 am.  We were quickly through security screening and walked over to pick up our priority coded baggage.  Judith’s bag was already going around the carousel; mine came out a full 30 minutes later.  The priority label on my bag was not effective.

We met our guide Moonien (pronounced Moon-I-eem) and driver Larribee and climbed into a black Mercedes Van for the drive to Rabat.  I had been up for about 24 hours and Judith was a few hours beyond that.  It’s a pleasant trip, about a 90 minutes.  The outside temperature is about 25 degrees.  

The scenery was interesting with much new construction going on.  Morocco, Spain and Portugal are co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup so infrastructure, housing, and commercial enterprises were all under construction for this event.   We drove past the huge construction site of the world’s biggest stadium.  At 115,000 seats, it’s located about 40 miles north of Casablanca, Morocco expects that they will be able to host the FIFA World Cup Final itself, and take that honour away from Spain which is struggling with a corruption scandal involving the Spanish Football Federation.  The stadium complex will include an indoor swimming pool, athletic’s track, shopping centre and a hotel. 

Rabat takes its name from a ribat, a fortress monastery.  The ribat was originally built in the 10th century and in the 12th century the ribat was rebuilt as a kasbah by the Muslim Almohad Empire, a fortress citadel that protects a local settlement area.  Now known as the Kasbah of the Oudayas, it is located on a hill at the mouth of the Bou Regreg, a river separating Rabat and Salé.

 

 

 

The main gate of the kasbah. 

 Fortress walls of the Kasbah.  The main gate is at the far end of the building.

Our entry gate into the kasbah.

Typical scenes inside the Kasbah.  Whitewashed buildings and interesting wooden doors.  Apparently this is expensive residential real estate.  

In some of the photos you will see cats.  There are many feral cats and most of them do not look in the healthiest of conditions.  Judith appears to be on a mission to make friends with most of them.  

The narrow paths of residences opens up into a large open courtyard overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  

There is a huge beach area below the open courtyard.  The canal to the right is the mouth is the Bou Regreg, the river bordering Rabat and Salé.  There were about 15 swimmers dwarfed by that river all looking like triathletes getting their morning practice in.  

In the 17th century refugee groups including Muslims from Christian Spain, Moorish pirates, buccaneers and such began to amass in the region looting and attacking European shipping and participating in the Barbary Slave Trade.  Under French rule until 1912, Rabat is the seat of Government and the official residence of the King.

We got back into the van and drove over to the Tour Hassan (Hassan Tower).  This minaret is Rabat’s iconic tower that looks over the Bou Regreg estuary.  It is the main remaining building from the 12th century Almohad Empire and was part of a project to build the world’s largest mosque.   Unfortunately the mosque never got completed as the patron died before it was completed.  The minaret was left standing at 44 meters.  The rest of the mosque was destroyed by an 1755 earthquake.  Some of the pieces were reassembled into an interesting display of stone pillars.   

Entrance gate into the Tour Hassan complex.  We thought we’d get our picture taken with the horse and guard.

The minaret in the background with the photogenic pillars.  The minaret is supposed to be part of a mosque and this one stood for centuries without one.  This was corrected in 1971 when a mosque was built on site in 1971.

What’s amazing about this space is that the entire area was once covered by a stone ceiling that was destroyed by the 1755 earthquake.  It’s a lot of real estate and it’s hard to imagine that much area covered by a ceiling.  

This is the Mausoleum of Mohammed V.  The present day king’s father (Hassan II) and grandfather are laid to rest in the marble mausoleum.  It is fully decorated by exquisite marble carving, geometric mosaic tiles, and carved plaster.  The curved ceiling is covered in gold leaf.  Royal guards wear traditional uniforms at each of the 4 entrances. Appropriate dress and respectfulness is required from all visitors.

Gold leaf ceiling

  

Some of the amazing Moroccan geometric tile work known as zellige.  Each individual piece is hand shaped and laid.  

From the terrace near the mausoleum we could see an interesting building.  The Grand Theatre du Rabat was designed by Zaha Hadid, a well known architect who passed in 2019.  The theatre boasts an 1800 seat theatre, a 7,000 person amphitheatre and an experimental performance space.  Our guide tells us that the building was designed to resemble a snake but other readings say that the curving design was inspired by the nearby Bou Regreg River and by Arabic calligraphy.  

We’re back in the van and head over to the Museum of History and Civilization.  It’s a small museum and it doesn’t really take much time to go through it.  Part of it is about the history of Morocco through the centuries showing various artifacts and the other part seems to focus on its collection of ceramics, statuaries and Roman artifacts.  I didn’t take any pictures, but the collections would be better for me is there was information in English.  They only have the artifact descriptions in Arabic and French.  

The next step was to get some cash out of a bank machine.  Moroccan Dirham is apparently difficult to source in Canada.  Judith advised that her research indicated using bank machines when you arrive.  Apparently the exchange rates are about as good as you can get.  So that’s what we did.  It feels a bit sketchy standing there, but all went well.  Of course you can only get larger bills, with the smallest denomination spat out by the machine equivalent to $15CDN.  That seems to be a bit rich for tipping the bellboy bringing up my luggage to my room, so when we checked into the hotel, we were able to exchange to get smaller bills.

The next stop was the Rabat Medina.  This is the old town or historical centre.  It’s a walled city and is built in a grid during the 17th century.  There is local shopping of groceries, food, coffee shops, jewellery stores, etc.  It would be easy enough to spend half a day exploring this Medina but we did it in 15 minutes.  Our guide Mouniem said that we will visit more impressive markets in Marrekech and Fes, so he thought given our lack of sleep we should check into the hotel and rest.  

A typical market street.

A vendor for olives and preserved lemons, etc.  So colourful!

In the market is a used bookseller, Mohammed El Azizi Benarabi.  He has operated this store since 1963.

We’re staying at the Sofitel Rabat Jardin des Roses.  It’s a nicely appointed place.  Our tour rep is Ahmood who informed us today that the hotel does not have any twin beds as we had booked.  So instead we are given two separate rooms next to each other

My room with the king sized bed.  As soon as my luggage arrives, I go straight to bed for a 2 hour nap.  We’re careful not to sleep too long so that we can acclimatize to the local time zone.  

The view from my room.  Down below, there’s a pool, lots of lounging options,  golf driving range (although its more like a chipping range), the So Nice Hookah Lounge, a gym, massage place, and lots of high end specialty stores.  

The So Nice Hookah Lounge.  

We took a tour of the facilities after grabbing a light meal after our initial snoozes.  I went back to my room to blog and Judith says she organized and grabbed more shut eye.  

Around 7 we convened for another light meal and sat on the outdoor patio (without parkas) enjoying the breeze.  

Dinner view of the gardens.  

It was an eventful day, but we made it through successfully without tears or bloodshed.   Tomorrow we’re meeting at 7:30 am for a leisurely breakfast before we meet our guide and driver at 9:00.  We’re on our way north up the coast towards Tangier.