The Mosque and Rabat

This morning (Monday morning) Evergreen and I went on a SAS (semester at sea) led tour of the mosque here in Casablanca.  It was, if possible, even more magnificent than the cathedral in Seville.  The huge and really heavy roof (I don’t remember what our guild said it weighed) could be opened up almost completely splitting in the middle because of this the floor has heaters that can be turned on so it doesn’t get to cold for those praying there.  The architect was French (although I don’t remember his name) and I found it very intriguing to see the French style mixed with the Arabic.  The glass on the giant chandeliers was from France, and all the marble was from Morocco.  The wooden rails were cider from the Atlas Mountains (I think I remember that correctly but you can probably check on wiki to know for certain).  In the lower levels and on the outside was all the gorgeous tile work mostly in blues and greens but there was a whole room in yellow. 

The bus got back to the port a little before 10:30 so we caught the train to Rabat which is the capitol of morocco and only about an hour away.  We ate lunch at a little café that was playing Jim Croce.  I got a quarter of a roast chicken that came with a little pile of rice and French fries.  We also both got fresh squeezed orange juice (I forgot to mention that we also got some at the market in Marrakech).  The whole meal was very good.  After paying and talking to a man who I think was the owner about Jim Croce we left to see this town’s medina.  It is amazing to me how the three different town’s medina’s where so different in what they sold and the people that were there to buy things.  Although that could have been from the different times of the day we were at each market as well.  After making our way through the market we wandered around some more and eventually found and old fort that had been made into a garden.  We were sitting down when I felt something behind me and when I looked there was a cat just standing there leaning against me and then she just lay down right there beside me.  She had a few kittens running around behind us playing they were so cute!  I love cats.  We left Rabat at 3:30 and made it back to the ship just after one of the camel trek groups had returned so we had to stand in a long line before actually getting on the ship.  While waiting in line two more buses came with more students.  One of the ships staff told us that three buses were coming in tonight.  Dinner was good as usual.  I don’t think there can be such a thing as a bad day on this trip but we will see.  I keep having to remind myself that I have only been gone for about three weeks.