Thursday, January 25^th, 2024

Casablanca. Morocco

Would you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express?
Would you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express?
They’re taking me to Marrakesh

Except we are in a coach and not taking the train from Casablanca going south.

I have always loved that Crosby, Stills, and Nash song since I first heard it in 1969. Graham Nash wrote it while riding on the train from Casablanca to Marrakesh. I loved the narrative; it is so beautifully descriptive. I thought, one day I will go from Casablanca to Marrakesh myself.

I looked in to rail rather than coach travel, but despite my desire to do what Graham Nash did, we ended up booking a tour from the ship. Not quite the same, and Graham would have said that was boring, but I was hoping that we could have some of the same experiences he did.

Our tour guide was called Maria, and the person from Fred Olsen who was with us on the tour was also called Maria. Very confusing. So Maria 1 became the tour guide, and Maria 2 the cruise person. Maria 2 is the classical pianist on board. I must say I do like it when there is a classical pianist on board!

I was so excited to be in Casablanca, and we drove through the beautiful boulevards to the toll road that took us directly to our destination. Gradually the urban sprawl of Casablanca

was replaced by agricultural endeavors,

and the further south we went we started whizzing by Berber villages

There were great views of the Atlas Mountains.

And wouldn’t you know it – there was the train between Casablanca and Marrakesh!

We made a “comfort stop” at a gas station half way to Marrakesh, and I was delighted to find not only did they have Mars bars, but they had little 2 packs of McVities chocolate digestive biscuits. I have never seen them before! They went very well with the more nutritious packed lunch provided by the ship.

We crossed over one of Morocco’s major rivers, the Oum el-Rbia, which had less water than usual due to the current drought.

Finally 3 and a half hours later we arrived in the outskirts of Marrakesh

And drove through the new part of town to the Kotoubia Mosque. Unfortunately there had been an earthquake in September 2023 and repairs were being done to the building, so we couldn’t really see that much. I was a bit disappointed.

After our brief look at the mosque, we left the coach behind and walked to the Medina to visit the Bahia Palace. There were motorbikes everywhere, and I had never seen so many parked in one place.

Apart from wanting to see Marrakesh because of the song, I was looking forward to seeing the Bahia Palace, which sounded absolutely wonderful from what I had read.

It was not to be.

We arrived there and it was closed. Maria 1 did not look happy. She did her best to see if we could get in, but to no avail. It was definitely closed for the day.

I was most upset, but there was nothing we could do, so we headed off deeper into the Medina.

The streets are very narrow, and really should just be for pedestrians in my opinion, but donkeys, carts, bicycles, and motorbikes share the narrow passageways. We soon learnt what a challenge it was trying to negotiate our way through.

Also, there were several people on the tour who had mobility problems, and they found it difficult to keep up with Maria 1. I wished she had a lollipop or flag so we could see her in the masses of humanity and motorbikes. It all felt rather unsafe.

She led us to a museum which was meant to be compensation for our missed visit to the palace, but it was also closed. I could feel that our group of 30 was beginning to show signs of annoyance.

I suppose a “comfort stop” does make people feel happier, so she then led us to the restaurant where we will be having dinner so we could use the bathroom facilities there.

It is actually rather lovely,

and apparently Alfred Hitchcock thought so as well, scenes from his 1956 remake of “the man who knew too much” were filmed there.

Then we were off on our forced march through the souk. No time to stop and look at the myriad of fascinating looking shops, we had to keep up with Maria 1 who kept on disappearing down hidden passageways.

Eventually we came to a square, where we could have a moment to take a deep breath and survey our surroundings. I heard the unmistakable sounds of a snake charmer, but I didn’t get a good view of his snake.

A few minutes later we were once more plunged into the maze of passageways and interesting looking shops.

We eventually ended up at the Ben Youssef Madrassa. The Madrassa has been a school dating back to the 14^th century, and the building was beautiful and worth the visit.

While I was wandering around admiring the mosaics, Brian was setting up my phone for a Zoom call. He is on a committee for our home owners association and needed to participate in the meeting. So there he was in late afternoon Marrakesh tuning in to a Zoom call.

After the Madrassa, Maria 1 was very excited to tell us that she had been able to get us admission to a nearby museum, so off we all went, Brian still on his call.

The museum was small, and beautiful, and although it didn’t make up for the palace, and we only had 10 minutes there, I appreciated that Maria 1 was doing her best. Brian stayed outside in the courtyard, still on his call.

Then it was time to head for dinner. We were all ready to sit down and have a drink, but it was still a 45 minute walk through the souk to get there, and I could see that several of our group were beginning to fade.

Off we went, Maria 1 at the front and Maria 2 at the rear.

Maria 1 had said that every time we turned a corner we would stop to make sure everyone could see which way we were turning. She had not been doing that, and it would have been a challenge in view of how twisty and turny our journey was.

Then quite randomly she did stop as we were about to make a turn, and then discovered that 5 of our group and Maria 2 were no longer with us. We stood around in the street in everyone’s way while Maria 1 made frantic phone calls.

Finally she said that we should continue on to the restaurant. However when we arrived at the square where the snake charmer had been, we were instructed to wait there as someone would be bringing the missing folks to join us.

We stood around waiting for ages, and then she announced that those who were lost were now found, and were at the restaurant already. Phew!

We continued on to the restaurant, and finally we saw the sign up ahead. However, our way into the restaurant was blocked by a crowd.

A man who was with the other Fred Olsen tour group had been knocked over by a motorbike right outside the restaurant, and he was lying on the ground. Luckily he wasn’t hurt badly, it really could have been much worse.

He was able to slowly get up on his feet again, and we all managed to get in to the restaurant and settle in.

We dined in a lovely room, serenaded by 2 musicians playing local music.

The food was delicious – chicken, and lamb and vegetables, followed by orange slices.

We were entertained by a dancer with a candelabra on her head,

A belly dancer,

And a man making quite a lot of noise with Moroccan castanets, krakeb, swinging the tassel of his Moroccan hat.

The update on the missing members of our group was that one couple has followed some people who were not on our tour by mistake, and by the time they realized this, our group was nowhere to be found. Luckily they were able to ask directions to the square and remembered their way to the restaurant from there. They were clearly very traumatized by their experience.

Maria 2 was with the others, and as she speaks French, had been able to ask for directions to the restaurant. So our group was all together again.

You would have thought that Maria 1 would have been extra cautious when escorting us back to the coach on our journey through the souk at night, but no, off she went at her usual pace again.

Finally we reached the coach, and settled in for our long ride back to the ship. Half way through our 3 and a half hour drive we pulled in to a gas station to use the bathrooms. The bathrooms were closed. There had been a lot of imbibing of wine and beer at the dinner, so people were not happy.

On the ride home the Marrakesh Express was playing loudly in my head. I was wishing I had downloaded it on to my phone as I couldn’t be sure I had all the lyrics correct in my brain.

We had traveled on a coach through clear Moroccan skies.

There hadn’t been ducks, and pigs and chickens, but we had seen sheep, donkeys, and cats instead.

There was definitely an American lady 5 foot 2 in blue somewhere in the crowd.

Colored cottons did hang in the air

I’m not too sure how charming the cobras in the square were

There were striped djellebas on sale everywhere, but we are not likely to buy them to wear at home.

Maybe we hadn’t been riding the Marrakesh Express, but I was living the dream.

Finally we arrived back at the ship. It was nearly midnight and I we were all exhausted. We were met at the gangway with a cup of hot chocolate. It was a cool evening, and that was such a thoughtful gesture. Sometimes Fred Olsen really does get it right.

And there was another towel creature waiting up to greet us.

Yes, there had been issues, but I had experienced a wonderful day. Wow, I’ve been to Marrakesh 