Yes…as many of your astute comments have questioned…we went to Morocco via central Spain. As I’d said, we were on a tour that was sponsored by the Student Programs and Housing office. We were on a tour designed for the undergraduate students. (Read: CHEAP) In order to be cheap, you end up with the most circuitous flight arrangements! So our flight went from Cairo to Barcelona to Madrid (multi-hour layover) to Casablanca. We left Cairo at 12:30AM and arrived in Casablanca at noon local time (2pm Cairo time) – 14 hours of travel time. OUCH. Oh well, it is cheap.
We had a longer-than-planned stop in Barcelona, caused by our smarmy^H^H^H travel agent. Apparently he had messed up two of the tickets, so decided to deplane in Barcelona WITHOUT HIS LUGGAGE. Imagine airport security – Egyptian man and his wife get off a plane without their luggage at a stop that is not their destination. Kinda fishy?! Well, they searched the whole plane, trying to identify the owners of each piece of hand luggage, before we could go on to Madrid. The unfortunate part of this story is that one of the students was asleep during the search. Because she was sleeping, she did not claim her carryon bag, so it was confiscated in Barcelona. This bag contained EVERYTHING she was bringing!
When we FINALLY made it to Madrid, the best part of the layover was BREAKFAST (shown here with my mascot).
Jack and I got a chance to enjoy our favorite food on the planet: jamon bocadillos! These are crispy small baguettes filled with pieces of serrano jamon, sometimes Manchego cheese and a little olive oil. Khalas! That’s all! YUMMY!!! We practically lived on these during our trip to Spain. Bocadillos, fresh OJ, really good coffee and we were feeling good!
The flight to Casablanca was uneventful. The woman whose bag had been taken in Barcelona had to file a lost bag claim, but we got out of the airport with minimal chaos.
Casablanca, for the most part, was a disappointment. Everyone knows the name from the movie, but the city is a modern, planned, business center. It is neither lovely nor romantic. We had a “tour” of the city – saw the Corniche (seaside drive) and the Hassan II mosque (3rd largest mosque in the world, largest in Africa) and were pretty much done with Casablanca. Jack and I decided not to go for the dinner (arranged by the tour) and to strike out on our own. We found a FANTASTIC traditional Moroccan place (see Jack’s pics) near the hotel for pretty cheap but tasty Moroccan food.
In the morning, we were getting ready to head for Rabat, when we found out from the students about their dinner. Apparently they went to an italian restaurant (remember, we are in Morocco) AND were charged $20 (yes, that is US dollars!) per person for it. Jack’s and my Moroccan tagine and couscous dinner cost less than $20 TOTAL! We also found out that we all had to PAY EXTRA for the city tour of the previous day! AND the travel agent was asking it to be paid in AMERICAN DOLLARS. Spidey senses were tingling – this is not Kosher!!!
Rabat was fun. The Kasbah was beautiful, and Jack and I abandoned the tour about mid-day. The travel agent was not happy about this and warned us of “all the dangers in Rabat” before, begrudgingly, agreeing to our departure. (Not that his agreement was necessary in the first place… ) The rest of our day in Rabat was, although not overly spectacular, OURS. We wandered, ate street food, watched people, took pictures, laughed too loud and enjoyed ourselves. We got back to Casablanca on the train, for less than the “bus tour” cost.
We wakened the third day to cold rain in Casablanca. Not that it mattered, we had a 4 hour bus ride to Marrakech to look forward to!