After reading the book The Caliph’s House by Tahir Shah, I wanted to see Morocco. I had never been to the country and the history and customs described in Shah’s book made it sound fascinating.

It just so happened that I would be in Portugal in the Fall, so why not take a short flight from Lisbon to Casablanca?

But how do you tour a country where you’ve never been?

I was going on this tour by myself while Kees hiked along the coast of Portugal. To our surprise we discovered that Morocco is listed as one of the safest countries in the world. It also has a pleasant climate and is relatively cheap.

I asked a special friend in The Netherlands if she wanted to join me. And she did! Her company made this trip extra special. Hanna was my very best friend throughout Kindergarten and elementary school. We had only seen each other once, briefly, in 55 years…. Would we still get along? Would it make travel more fun or more difficult?

Casablanca seems to be a living contradiction. Sparkling white new highrises and ancient crumbling walls. Women in high heels and haute couture as well as women wrapped tightly in dark abayas and headscarfs. French and Arabic is mostly spoken here. It feels Middle Eastern but is African…

I was in Casablanca a day earlier so I took a train to the airport to meet her. After traveling in Europe, the dirty, creaky train felt very primitive but it did chuck along on time. I disembarked at the airport, the final stop on this track from the port of Casablanca. But when I walked inside, I was stopped. To enter the airport, I had to have a boarding pass. “But I’m not going anywhere,” I explained, “I’m meeting someone.” Too bad, I was told by the uniformed officer, no one entered the airport but those who were flying somewhere. I recalled being at Amsterdam Airport a few days earlier, where hordes of people congregate to meet friends with flowers and banners, balloons and even dogs. What a contrast.

I gave a sob story of my friend not speaking French, the common language of Morocco, and not knowing where to go. Which was true. “Wait here,” I was told.

Another uniformed official showed up with more stripes on his sleeves. He studied my passport and eventually told me to go inside the airport, up the escalator and wait for my friend there. “Do not go anywhere else!” he warned. So I waited. For several hours.

Once Hanna arrived, we chatted nonstop to catch up on years of not seeing each other. And were surprised by how comfortable this friendship still felt. We wanted the same things, liked the same things and got along famously.

We hadn’t really seen each other in more than 50 years but got along great!

To travel around Morocco, I had first looked at booking our own accommodations and planning our own sights to see. But when I read the Northern Morocco itinerary offered by Intrepid, I realized how much easier it would be to travel with a small group. I had received Intrepid emails for many years. The company is Australian based. Its trips had always appealed to me and they specialize in small groups, eco friendly travel and active holidays. They use local transportation rather than air conditioned touring cars and use small, family owned hotels rather than intercontinental chains. With a ten day tour at a total cost of less than it would have cost me to book my own, I was sold.

Our first nights were spent in the Imperial Hotel, which looked fine online but turned out to be a dismal place. The toilet did not flush. There wasn’t enough food at the breakfast bar for all the guests. And, worst of all, there was a night club on the first floor. It had me worried about the accommodations Intrepid had arranged but, luckily, this was the only bad hotel.

Morocco is a kingdom in northern Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic ocean, the Mediterranean sea and the Sahara desert. Its rich history has left fascinating cities, mosques, villages, souks and more. It is predominantly Muslim.

We met our 10 other fellow travellers in our hotel in Casablanca. Our fellow travellers were from Australia, the UK, 2 from the US and 3 Canadian, plus my friend from The Netherlands. Our tour guide was a jovial, easy going young man who spoke excellent English. The original people of Morocco are Berber. We found the people extremely welcoming. “Salaam Aleikum! Bonjour! Welcome to Morocco,” we heard everywhere.

Before the official start of our tour, Hanna and I took a taxi to the largest mosque in the world besides the one in Mecca. With a capacity of 25,000 inside and another 80,000 in the outside square, the imposing mosque was built over 6 years by some 12,000 artisans. Perched on the edge of the Atlantic ocean, its minaret is 200 meters tall.

The floors, the ceilings, the enormous doors are awe inspiring as are the marble ablution rooms downstairs. When we bought our entrance tickets, we were disappointed to see a sign that photography is not allowed inside the mosque. However, when we entered, the guides told us, “No worries! Take all the photos you want.” We wandered around for a long time, gazing up at the towering columns and listening to the waves of the ocean crashing on the shore just outside the arched windows.

After returning to our hotel, via a walk through the souk and along the famous Rick’s Café, based on the place visited by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the classic movie Casablanca, we met with our tour group and prepared for the start of our tour to Rabat, Fes, Tangier and more. We’ll take you along on this trip in our next blog posts.

Resources:

Morocco Tourism: https://www.visitmorocco.com/en

Intrepid: https://www.intrepidtravel.com/ca

Hassan Mosque: https://www.fmh2.ma/en

The ablution rooms on the lower level of the mosque.

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