"everybody goes to Rick's"

and so do we- for lunch on our first day in Morocco... in Casablanca... our lunch was a combo of continental and local... GA had chicken tagine and I have a pasta dish with fish...

and here are the photos - all very atmospheric...

of course homage is paid to the movie-

and it runs on an endless loop in the bar/casino room upstairs...

the parking out front- and yeah, tourists go here all the time- but how many times in your life to do you get to imagine Bogey upstairs with the letters of transit in his dinner jacket- waiting to help someone get the late night flight to Lisbon?  so worth it!

we take a driving tour of other city neighborhoods and Aziz asks Mustafa to stop at Place Mohamed V but I am falling asleep in the back and my two hours for last night and the quick nap this morning have made it imperative that I find a bed pretty much immediately- so we pass on a walk around Place M5 and head back to the Hotel Doge - where I am asleep before my head hits the pillow... we meet up for dinner later that evening (early 7:30 reservation for Saturday night at the Relais et Chateaux place in the hotel) no real recollection of dinner- I think I had fish...LOL - up early tomorrow for a full day of Rabat touring and a drive on to Fes (our next hotel stop for three nights)- onward.... come back and join in the fun....

Casablanca's Hassan II

So off we go and our first touring stop is the Hassan II Mosque- the stunning and enormous mosque is now open to the public at very limited times so people can see the incredible craftsmanship of the interior... but first the exterior... I have tried to have some closer in and some further away shots but I don't think those that have people in the photos do justice to the size of the place-

before we go inside here is the info from the brochure:

next up in the photos - the inside of the mosque and the baths-

we exit on to the plaza before continuing on our sightseeing in the city at the Central Market- Marche Centrale----

Aziz, our guide, took the photo of the two of us while Mustafa brought the car around to take us on the next leg of the journey... but before that we make a tour of the corniche... and see some of the damage the weather has wrought this winter- but that is for another post... already this one is quite memory intensive with so many photos of the incredible details of the tile work and marble and other materials in the mosque and the baths below it. So more later - of course!