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Casablanca is a travel destination on many bucket lists, mainly because of the 1940 movie with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. In reality, Casablanca bears little resemblance to the movie, which was filmed in California.
Casablanca has been occupied by the Berbers, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Portuguese and the French. The name means “white house,” but there is some mystery as to what the white house was (possibly a white tower). Today, Casablanca is Morocco’s largest city and chief port.
Russell escorted the three-hour “Casablanca Walking Tour & Rick’s Café” excursion. Guests walked downtown through both the modern art deco architecture and the Old Medina (old town). The highlight of the tour was a stop for a drink at “Rick’s Café.” This restaurant and bar, which celebrates 20 years in 2024, was designed to recreate the bar from the movie. (Russell was surprised nobody ever thought of this sooner.) Guests also saw the Hassan II Mosque, the second-largest religious monument in the world (after Mecca), but were not allowed to go inside.
Meanwhile, Gail escorted the six-hour “Moroccan Cooking Class” excursion. As she would later describe it, her excursion “struck gold.” Because the cooking class was not ready yet, the guide asked if guests would like to visit the Hassan II Mosque. Not only did they visit, but they got to go inside. At 9:30 am, the Mosque was almost deserted, and Gail felt like part of a private tour.
The cooking class was really more of a demonstration; Gail was not able to do any actual cooking. However, guests were treated to a nice lunch of tagine-cooked Moroccan food.
It rained several times throughout the day, so by the time we met up again after our excursions, we decided to stay warm and dry aboard ship for the rest of the day.