Christmas in Casablanca Part 4 and Final

Apologies for the length of this post, but I decided that it was time to close on Casablanca after 4 parts and return to real life once more!!  There were many photos that I did not want to leave out, so this post grew longer than planned! As we were exploring mostly on foot, the daily life of the city centre unfolded in front of us!

Perched on the corner selling Moroccan bread. Vendor's dilemma: either to be visible to potential customers or chance of being run over!

I want one of these :-)

Casablanca's own Twin Towers. Home to an hotel, offices, shops and supermarket.

 A smaller and older mosque than the new Hassan II building shown in Part 1, but you can see the intricate decoration on this one as well.

Loved this photo of the two cats enjoying the warmth of the bonnet below, heated by the engine,  and the sun from on top!

View across the large Park of the Arab League  (sadly rather neglected,with a number of broken and dry fountains) of  the Cathedrale Sacre Coeur in the background. See part 1 for more information on the Cathedral.

Lunch time snooze; guess this is as good as it gets in the park!

In Place Mohammed V near the Post Office, I think this was the only fountain we saw  in working order.  Presumably this is where all the pigeons hang out for water and crumbs, as the birds were everywhere!

The stylish main post office.

 The map of the new tramway, which opened only days before we arrived.  The route (at present) is 30km long, with 49 stops.  

In the centre of Casablanca, there are men at every road crossing, with whistles and flags stopping the traffic and pedestrians, so the tram can run through intersections, stopping  only at designated stops.

 One of the  "space-age" trams running down the centre of an existing roadway. The fares seemed reasonable, and any success in clearing the masses of clogged motor traffic would be a big benefit!

and this is the Place of the United Nations, near the port and market;  the centre of this area appears to be a main gathering and waiting point.

 Restaurant Imilchil, where we had our Christmas luncheon. Lavish decoration in an otherwise very plain and run-down street!

A very Moroccan interior.

The Harissa soup was highly recommended, so we had to try it out, and yes it was certainly a 5 star!

Nigel had lamb cooked with prunes and almonds, which he said was delicious while I had fish (no photo!).  We were surprisingly full afterwards, so ordered fresh fruit for dessert.  We accompanied our meal with an excellent Moroccan Cabernet red wine, which we had not expected to be available.  Many restaurants are Muslim owned or influenced, therefore there is often no alcohol on the menu.

 Our last meal in Casablanca was at the Casablanca Cafe.  We had eaten there earlier in our stay and discovered they had a good set menu, economically priced.   Of course, Casablanca could not be visited without finding some signs of Bogart and Bergman around, and the cafe did not disappoint us!  The famous 1942 film was based on Rick's Cafe, but apparently all filmed in California!!; the name carries on, in a building very near the fishing port. It had very good write ups but the menu wasn't cheap, we thought.

Inside the  period interior of the Casablanca cafe.

Nigel and myself proving that we were there!

Loved these large green eyes. The pavements everywhere have seen better days!

Our return to France and winter weather came as a big shock after sunny Morocco!  Here we are driving home over the Pont d'Aquitaine suspension bridge spanning the Garonne River in Bordeaux.

Morocco was altogether a different and most interesting winter holiday break and the  dry and sunny weather a pleasant relief from the never-ending rain at home!

 

See also - My Life Before Charente Updated 01/02/2013

and my daily photo diary at http://photodiarydps.blogspot.fr/

Christmas in Casablanca Part 2

For those of you who are map lovers, here is the Google version showing the town, set on the Atlantic Ocean, and the regional road network

View Larger Map

                  Interesting doorways with intricate detailing, built by craftsmen a long time ago!

We found that most of the buildings in Casablanca were at extremes; either derelict, on the point of falling down, half finished and then abandoned or very smart and new.  The vehicles on the road were were of a similarly vast range; many cars seemed as much as thirty years old, often dented and missing bits of bodywork, but still running somehow; in contrast, there was also a fair quantity of new BMW's, Mercedes and Porsches amongst the traffic.  Below is the sad  sight of a half finished apartment building. Palm trees are everywhere! The street layout and landscaping seems to be the heritage of  French governance. The state of the pavements is typical!

While here is a more upmarket version!

There were many bicycles and mopeds around, neither of which have to be licensed.  The latter are a huge hazard, as they never stop at red traffic lights, so they can easily cause accidents or run pedestrians over!  The traffic is a complete nightmare and we would never have considered hiring a car.  There is traffic everywhere so it seems, and if one car should stop, no matter what the reason, everyone behind just leans on their hooter!  There is a continual cacophony of car hooters going on, very hard on the ears!  This guy below to my mind is really taking his life in his hands (or bottles!). People generally seemd to be busy and the "scavenging/recycling" trade is a popular business.

This is quite an attractive school building.  Obviously they were on holiday by the look of it, all doors and windows being  closed up.

As this is a Muslim country, there were very few signs of Christmas around. However, we did  see this Santa's Grotto in the local shopping centre, so although Christianity is catered for, it didn't seem to be drawing the shoppers!

There were several wall paintings around, but most were peeling and in need of repair; this was one of the better preserved examples.

The hotel offered bed and breakfast only, and eating out every day was not too much of a hardship!  There were plenty of restaurants to choose from, so we much enjoyed this aspect of our visit here.

Nigel had lamb kebabs; good portions in this eaterie, which was well recommended by TripAdvisor reviewers.

While I had fish. Both cooked with lots of Moroccan spices and very yummy.

I think though this was my favourite stop for coffee and ice cream, a corner cafe called Venezia Ice. It was not this quiet later in the day.

 Just look at the selection here .......
These are all ice cream cakes - beautifully made but not cheap!

"Ordinary" cakes!

More ice cream cakes, with macaroons in the front.

and another view of the ice cream cakes.

More of Casablanca to follow in part 3 - there are so many interesting and unusual sights.  I promise I will get back to Charente eventually!

 

See also - My Life Before Charente Updated 17/01/13

and my daily photo diary at http://photodiarydps.blogspot.fr/

Christmas in Casablanca Part 1

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone who sent us Christmas and New Year greetings. They were much appreciated!  I hope that you all have a wonderful 2013.

We flew out from Bordeaux with Royal Air Maroc on Tuesday 18 December 2012. We had an easy motorway drive of 90 minutes to a well organised airport.

Flying via Toulouse airport (a 30 minute hop) to drop off well over half of the passengers, it seemed, and pick up the same number; mostly Moroccans who obviously worked in the town and were returning home for a break. This plane below is a BA aircraft in strange and unattractive brown livery. Not one of their best ideas!!

We arrived in Casablanca to a busy airport. No sign of our  transfer driver - 2 phone calls and 45 minutes later he appeared.......

We had dinner on the plane and as it was quite late on arrival at the hotel, we just made ourselves at home and had a good night's sleep.  We woke up later  than planned, and ordered a continental breakfast in our room at no extra charge. It was delicious; the French patisserie skills have been well retained.  We then decided to take a 20 minute walk down to the seafront, where the main city attraction is the really stunning   Grand Mosque Hassan II. It is the seventh largest Mosque in the world see HERE. It is right on the shore, as you can see, but the beach is rocky!

The craftsmanship and design of the mosaic work is most beautiful.

Looking across the bay to the d'el Hank lighthouse. It's set away from the town  -the perspective makes it look as if it is amongst the houses!

An interesting hand painted tower seen on our walk back to the hotel. Note the traffic lights - all up in the air; makes it difficult for pedestrians to know when the traffic is about to stop!

We tried a Spanish restaurant for dinner the first evening. It was well recommended on Trip Advisor, and although the food was excellent, the décor was stark white, all hard surfaces and there was simply no atmosphere at all.  It was also fairly expensive to our minds and we decided that one visit was enough, despite its good rating! We did have to laugh, though, at the waiter trying to uncork our wine.  Holding the bottle upside down, she eventually managed to screw the opener in part way and then break the cork off.  After a long discussion with her boss, over by the till, she came back with a new bottle which she successfully opened, but also holding it upside down!  We had ordered  Shiraz and the very first bottle that was brought to us was  Syrah. With a head shake and a shrug of the shoulder, we were told it was the same!  [Note: I think most of Europe and the USA calls it Syrah while South Africa, Australia and Canada call it Shiraz.  We are used to South African Shiraz which (to me) does not taste like the French Syrah.  I guess the country makes a difference.]  We did eventually end up with the required Shiraz which was on the menu! For all that, the fish soup we both had, was delicious, and although my fish main course was pretty average, Nigel's steak was very tender and cooked to perfection.

The next day we were up in time to make it to  the breakfast room and we  were offered a typical Moroccan breakfast.  The baked eggs with bits of dried shredded lamb  were quite delicious, but we were not so sure about the 'crumpet' with syrup or the folded "crepe", which was decidedly chewy. There were plenty of rolls and croissants as well, so we did not go hungry!

Finding our way around Casablanca was not that easy.  Despite having an excellent street map of the town centre, very few street signs seemed to have survived from the French era!  Most had either faded completely or been removed! Here is one of the very few that we found.

It was wonderful to see tropical flowers around in mid-winter; this crane flower (Strelitzia reginae) brought back wonderful memories of South Africa, where we had them growing in our garden.

Also the hibiscus

As for the smells in the supermarket, around the spice counter it was quite mouth watering.

On the second day we visited the Cathedrale Sacre Coeur.  This was obviously a beautiful place to visit in earlier days; a Roman Catholic edifice, no doubt built under French auspices, set in what has become a completely Muslim country. The main building with stunning stained glass windows looks amazing from the outside, but it sadly it is now neglected, stripped bare of all fittings and a breeding space for pigeons.  We gather that they do have the odd exhibition here, but to us it just looked quite derelict.

 

The wonderful windows

At the back of the church, if you look closely at the top of the photo you can see some of the pigeons at rest!!

Hope you enjoyed this change from the Charente - more to follow, so stay tuned!!

 

See also - My Life Before Charente Updated 10/01/13

and my daily photo diary at http://photodiarydps.blogspot.fr/