Casablanca

Our last two days saw us traveling back to where we started as our return flight to London was also to leave from Marrakech. We kind of hesitated whether or not it was worth getting off Casablanca since our research told us that there really wasn’t much to see there. Initially, we had intended to get off there on our way to Fes, but our train ticket didn’t allow for it. In the end, we decided to stop over on our return to Marrakech.I’m glad we did. Thanks to our guide books (I bought a DK Eyewitness Travel, which was quite good!), we were able to decide on where we’d have lunch and which sights we were going to see. I lobbied for a visit to the Hassan II Mosque. It is the second largest religious building in the world and I also read that it is the only mosque in Morocco that allowed tourists to go in.

We arrived in Casablanca just in time for lunch and with just enough time to taxi to the mosque and catch the guided tour. Casablanca itself, aside from its antiquated popularity brought on by the Humphrey Bogart-Ingrid Bergman film, is really not much of a draw. It’s the country’s financial capital (comparable to our Makati), but it doesn’t really look impressively modern. Nevertheless, I was mighty glad we made that stop. The mosque was simply breathtaking and on its own made that layover worthwhile.