Morocco #1

May 9th.....Arrived in Casablanca after 2 hour flight from Madrid.....Casablanca is not what you think...looks quite unkept and very third world....not our visions of Morocco. Our hotel is very standard. After settling into the hotel we ventured for a walk around our area......eventually found a bar that was rockin.......after much sign language we thought we ordered 2 beers and 2 glasses of white wine. what arrived was a bottle of white wine and four glasses.....wine was passable.....next arrived a plate of olives followed by a plate of salad...very nice....all for the cost of a bottle of wine (cheap). after finishing this we went back to our hotel for a meeting with our new travelling companions and the tour guide. Our group consists of 2 Canadians, 2 Kiwis, 1 American....the rest aussies...all around our age....except for Judith (76 yrs) to be later called "The petite Gazelle" and Peter the young American doctor....

The first thing our guide , Samir, tells us is not to eat the salad.....oops.... we have already done this but fortunatley no effect health wise....We went back to same area as bar for dinner with the group...a drawn out affair.....and our first of many tagines.....good meal but not memorable.

Had a goods nights sleep apart from Sharon not having sheets on her bed....the silk sleeping bag liner came in handy....next day after breakfast, boarded the bus for a look around Casablanca to the new mosque (third largest in the world)...wow what a building....then proceeded to travel to Rabat the capital of Morocco.....nice lunch on the way....had sardines grilled in tomato sauce...then on to Rabat....toured the royal palace (a city in itself) and on to our hotel......this is in my opinion the worst hotel I have ever stayed in.....best forgotten except to say one of our group had the bathroom tap come off and flooded their room and the corrider...lots of excitement in the morning. We dined in a nice restaurant in the Medina (walled city) wall ...a very nice meal. now on to Fez........