From Egypt to Morocco

After concluding our time in Egypt, we flew from Cairo to Casablanca, a nearly 6 hour flight. We were surprised by how long the flight is -- just a reminder to us Americans how big Africa is and how we often forget that! (In contrast, in a few weeks we will fly from Marrakesh to London and that flight is only 2.5 hours!) This flight was quite a cross-cultural experience for us. The majority of our plane was one big tour group of pilgrims returning to Morocco from Mecca, through Cairo. We were the only two Westerners on the flight and two of maybe 6 people wearing western style clothing. As we were exiting the plane, we commented how we seemed invisible to the other passengers, which is really exactly the kind of experience we were after in our travels.

We had a few days in Casablanca on our own. We laid pretty low, filling our time with laundry, resting, and exploring the city. We did go to Sunday worship at St. John's Anglican church. Similar to the previous week in Cairo, it was an extremely diverse group of people gathered, quite different from most church congregations in the states. In both congregations we noticed the shared sense of community for those looking for an English speaking church which overrides some of the denominational and traditional differences that would otherwise separate people at home. The service was a hybrid of Anglican liturgy with more contemporary music.

We met up with our next tour group after a couple of days, this time with a couple of other Americans and the rest Australians. Casablanca is really just a commercial center and so there really isn't much for tourists to do/see. Before leaving town, though, we did tour the beautiful and expansive Hassan II Mosque -- the third largest mosque in the world (after Mecca and Medina) and the only mosque in Morocco open to non-Muslims. It was so ornate and exquisite in its craftsmanship. It was built in just 6 years and completed in 1993 at the expensive of 800 million US dollars. It is built right on the Atlantic Ocean with stunning views all around.

We drove on to Rabat, the political capital of Morocco and walked through parts of the new city, the Medina (old walled city), the kasbah (prompting the first of many jokes about "rocking the kasbah"), the royal palace and mausoleum. Due to the king's wealth, power and preferences, the city is very beautiful: clean with a lot of green space.

Finally, we continued onto Meknes where we stayed in a Riad in the middle of the Medina. Riads are old homes for wealthy families with courtyards and fountains in the middle and then rooms on the second and higher floors. Many have been converted into hotels now. After being welcomed with traditional mint tea and a bit of time to relax, we went to a family home for a delicious home-cooked meal. The family we visited are Berbers, not Arabs, as is our guide, Abdullah. We had a feast of soup, bread, tagine, dates, cookies and almond cake. We all left quite stuffed!