Sunday, May 17, 2009

Cruise take four
















Casablanca
After a day at sea, our next stop was Casablanca. Here is a little history before I tell you about our day:
The Berbers were the first inhabitants of Morocco. The Arabs arrived in 682 and a second wave in the early 1700's. They brought with them their language, literature, and art which are still dominant today. It was the Arabs who first formed the conferederation that was to become Morocco - land of the Moors.
By the middle of the 11th century, Morocco had become a great Muslim empire. Between the 11th and 13th centuries that were a series of Berber dynasties, and an age of art and culture ensued. As about this time the Mediterranean powers were making their presence known and occupying some of the coastal regions of North Africa. In fact, the Portuguese occupied Casablanca from 1575 until 1755, and it is to them that it owes its name, "White House".
In 1912 Morocco came under the protectorate of a French/Spanish alliance which continued until 1956 when Mohammed V signed a treaty ending the occupation and claiming sovereignty for Morocco. Mohammed the V was succeeded in 1975 by his son, King Hassan II.
We opted for an afternoon tour of the capital city of Rabat and were not scheduled to see Casablanca's main attraction, the Hassan II Mosque, which is the second largest Mosque in the world.
However, we docked early and fortuntely, the boat was docked close to the Mosque.

We therefore ate breakfast, got off the ship and headed for the Mosque. We could see the Mosque from the ship, but it took us about 1/2 hour to walk there. It was worth it - it was one of the most impressive places of worship I have ever seen - larger than St. Peters in Vatican City. Parishoners must wash their feet before prayers and there is a huge open hall in the basement of the mosque with about 100 small fountains for such purpose - just a very impressive structure inside and out. After visiting the Mosque, we walked back through the Medina, which is the old part of town. This is a pedestrian area with open air markets called Souks. In these Souks they sell everything from fake Rolexes to live chickens - it is a wild place.
We finally made it back to the ship, ate lunch, and got ready for our afternoon tour of Rabat.
Rabat is arabic for "tie your horse". The muslim religion came from Saudi Arabia and spread to Spain through Morocco. Rabat is the port city where the muslims came and left from and travel was most often by horse. As such, Rabat is the place where muslims had to "tie their horse" prior to jumping on a boat to Spain. We passed a muslim cemetery - an interesting feature is that the residents are marked by two stones - a head stone as well as a foot stone.
Once in Rabat, we first visited an old fortified section of the city built in the 11th century. It served as a place for travelers to get a comfortable night of sleep (like a hotel). The heavy doors would be closed at night to protect the inhabitants from pirates. The buildings within the fortification are blue and white. Blue represents the Nomads, the original "residents" of this fortified site (after the blue scarf normally worn around their face to protect thm from the harsh wind and sand), and white is the universal color representing everyone.
There are three religions in Morocco - Muslim, Jewish, and Christian. At the top of the minerets of Mosques there are three spheres representing the three religions. Also noteworthy is the flag of Morocco which is a five pointed star against a red backdrop. The points on the star represent the five foundations of the muslim religion: charity to the poor, fasting during Ramadan, making a trip to Mecca once in a lifetime, prayer five times a day, and respect for the other religions mentioned in the Koran (Judaism and Christianity).
We next visited the Mohammed V mosoleum. This mosoleum is said to be the most beautiful in the world after the Taj Mahal in India. In the 11th century, two architects were trying to build the largest mosque in the world. When they died only the columns, minerets, and mosoleum had been constructed. In the 17th century the partially built mosque was destroyed by an earthquake. In 1961 King Hassan II restored the mosque to its original partially completed condition and buried his father and grandfather there.
After the mosoleum, we went to the Royal Palace. There are actually 14 Royal Palaces in Morocco. Most are in Fez, then Marrekech, Rabat, and Casablanca. Interestingly, the current king uses the palace as an office, but does not live there.
We left Rabat and traveled the 1.5 hours back to the ship docked in Casablanca. We got back at 7:15PM and therefore missed the sitdown dinner. We ate in the Windjammer, which is the buffet style restaurant open almost 24 hours per day. The entertainment that night was a night of swing with the royal caribbean singers and dancers - an excellent performance as usual.