This morning, we had just enough time to visit Casablanca’s primary attraction, the Hassan II Mosque, before leaving the city. The mosque is the third largest in the world (after ones in Mecca and Medina, in Saudi Arabia) and has the world’s highest minaret. It’s also the only mosque in Morocco open to visits by non-Muslims. It was built in the late eighties and early nineties by the previous king, and is impressive for its sheer size and opulence, though it’s also somewhat controversial because of the cost of building it and how it was mostly taxpayer-funded.
After visiting the mosque, we caught a taxi back to the hotel – with yet another driver who tried to scam us – it’s pretty normal here, unfortunately. A few sharp words in French generally takes care of the problem, but there’s no denying that Morocco has a long way go in terms of cracking down on scams if they want to grow the tourism industry. It’s a shame, really, because I find I keep having to check my reactions; most people are genuinely nice and helpful, and it’s turning me into someone I don’t like very much, assuming everyone has an angle or is after something. Unfortunate how a few bad apples can have that effect.
Anyway, we caught a train to Rabat, Morocco’s capital, where we spent the afternoon checking out the city. Rabat has a fairly impressive mausoleum with the tombs of the past kings, and a huge area full of half-built pillars where a mosque was planned hundreds of years ago but never built. From there, we spent a couple of hours wandering around the Medina, visiting the market stalls and indulging in some delicious Moroccan pastries, before visiting the Casbah (as in, “rock the”) on the sea for some sweet mint tea. Delicious.
Rabat is quite pleasant, but it doesn’t seem all that exciting. Government town, we were explained. Same deal everywhere. It’s only an hour train ride from Casablanca, so apparently the locals head there for more things to do and more nightlife. The Casbah, with its bright blue houses, is very pretty, and the sea breeze made even the hot weather pleasant. As for the markets, well, I haven’t bought anything yet but I’ve got lots of items on my wishlist.
Internet access is quite hard to find, so updates are likely to be sporadic. I’ll post when I can. Meanwhile, Go Habs!