Casablanca is about four hours drive from Essaouira, and we wanted to stop in El Jadida on the way.
The camels in the truck in front of us seemed to enjoy the views :-)
After about an hour an a half of driving, one of us noticed that the name Casablanca disappeared from the road signs, which was weird. It turned out that somehow our TomTom has changed the final destination to Marrakech and we missed our turn because of it. Since the roads in Morocco have very little turn around opportunities, it took us about 30 min to get back on track, and we had to take a different road than intended. Instead of the highway we ended up on a provincial road, which, though took us longer to drive, was much more interesting from the scenery point of view (or at least I'd like to think so :-).
We passed some villages on the way, all in the same style - one main street/market full of people, donkeys, stalls, things being bought and sold.
It was just after school time, and children were walking back home along the road. I was wondering how far they have to walk every day to get to school...
The outskirts of El Jadida didn't impress us much and we were hoping that the older part of the town would be more interesting. However, once in the medina, Dima had a change of hart and said that he doesn't feel like walking around. I didn't want to insist and we left the town without actually walking around it.
To be honest, afterwards I regretted a little bit our decision to skip walking around. Too late... :-)
It took us about an hour to get to Casablanca and to check in. The city, although one of the largest in Morocco, turned out to be not very interesting from the tourist perspective. The only recommendation I could find was to visit the King Hassan II Mosque, which is the largest one in Morocco and the third largest in the world.
As it was later in the evening, we decided to leave the visit to the mosque for next day and to just walk a bit in the city center. The usual old part of town - the medina - was by far not as impressive as the one in Marrakech, so we got bored quickly. Next to it there was a large shopping area with all the modern stores that are usually found in other large cities around the world.
Altogether, we had to admit there was not much to do in Casablanca. Honestly, I expected more from it, but that was mainly due to the film "Casablanca", that I absolutely loved watching some years ago. We saw the "famous Rick's Café Americain" mentioned several times in advertisements and in the hotel brochure,
but since the place wasn't actually the real one or the place from the movie, and according to the most reviews it wasn't really worth visiting, we decided to have dinner in a small lovely fort instead.
Although pricy, the food was absolutely great and the best we had so far.
Being in Casablanca, it seemed only logical to end the evening with "Casablanca, The Movie", especially since Dima never seen it before.
and my favorites:-)
Captain Louis Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Outside the mosque there is a beautiful view of the promenade and the sea.
Conclusion: Casablanca is an okay city in every aspect, just not a very interesting one. It's a good place to stay overnight when driving from Marrakech up north along the coast, but we wouldn't recommend spending more than a night here. The mosque is worth a visit, could be easily done within an hour.
The camels in the truck in front of us seemed to enjoy the views :-)
To be honest, afterwards I regretted a little bit our decision to skip walking around. Too late... :-)
As it was later in the evening, we decided to leave the visit to the mosque for next day and to just walk a bit in the city center. The usual old part of town - the medina - was by far not as impressive as the one in Marrakech, so we got bored quickly. Next to it there was a large shopping area with all the modern stores that are usually found in other large cities around the world.
Being in Casablanca, it seemed only logical to end the evening with "Casablanca, The Movie", especially since Dima never seen it before.
Captain Louis Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick Blaine: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Captain Louis Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert!
Rick Blaine: I was misinformed.
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Maj. Heinrich Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick Blaine: I'm a drunkard.
Capt. Louis Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world...
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The next morning we drove along the streets of Casablanca towards the mosque.
Despite being new build, King Hassan II Mosque is quite a beautiful structure, both inside and out.
Despite being new build, King Hassan II Mosque is quite a beautiful structure, both inside and out.
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