Moroc
Apropos of nothing in particular, a brief set of explanations, insights, and opinion paragraphs, and then to Morocco.
It seems that all our recent trips require going through New York, followed by a minimum of eight hours in the air, a four hour layover, and then another eight hours in the air. This one was different - the layover was followed by only four more air hours. The layover again was in Rome. They say - "At least Mussolini got the trains to run on time" - I wish he had the same opportunity with today's airlines and Rome's airport.
This is the last stop on what our daughter calls our "Muslim Tour". We've traveled the last couple years to just Muslim counties - in this order: Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Kenya, Tanzania and now, Morocco. We've found they vast majority of people in these countries to be much like our friends and neighbors here in the US. Just friendly, normal people making a living, raising children and doing the best they can to make a good life. We've never run into the "raging Muslim" we see so much of on TV or read about in the paper. As a matter of fact, many radicals I run across are here in the US. We wish more American could meet and interact with the majority of the Muslims we've met. We think attitudes would be much different. Such is life ----
As we are putting this page together, Egypt is having their revolution. We've contacted, exchanged emails with, our guide in Egypt. He has a master's degree in Egyptology and has worked with the guy with the field hat you always see discussing Egyptian antiquities on television. He is very excited about the revolution and appears to be exceptionally encouraged by what is happening. I forwarded his email to the rest of our group who toured Egypt. They wrote a number of notes to him and he has replied to us all. We hope to get in touch again in a week or two to get his latest impressions of the Army and progress towards democracy.
Well, enough -
Morocco
Here we are in Morocco. We scheduled this trip long ago, partially based upon the recommendation of our doctor. She said that the are few places she has enjoyed more. We've our guide books and some knowledge picked up from the Internet, but we really don't know what the expect.
Our initial impression was "green, very green". We felt we would be in a dry, sandy very arid environment. Of course, had we been further north, or north-east, that would have been the case. However, here in Casablanca, and for the remainder of our visit, every where we went, we were surrounded by green. Green trees, primarily orange trees, lined all the streets. Flowers and vines decorated the homes, parks and gardens. Leaving the city, all the fields were unbelievable green and futile.
The other impression we gained as we toured was that the entire county must be under construction. The King and his council are building housing for their citizens on a scale that is difficult to believe. There are literally thousands of apartments and homes being built throughout the country. They seem to be following a long term master plan, in that you may see a large central construction area, and then a mile or two of roads and empty streets, and then another large development. Obviously, the two or more sections are intended to grow together over time.
This housing is interesting. It appears the goal is for everyone who can to own their own home. To this end, the government is building these thousands of apartments and houses. Anyone may apply for one of these. The amount they pay is dependant upon the prospective owners age, family size, and income. The mortgage is then set for 15 - 30 years. The home provides equity for the mortgagee and in time the family has a home of their own.
Of course, the home building encourages businesses to provide the home owner's groceries, staples, cars, furniture and such. It looks like a real win-win situation.
We're met by our guide Hassan
So we are on our way. We're quite a group. We have all ages, nationalities and backgrounds. This seems to be a more diverse group than we normally meet on a tour, and we've already found several who have a great sense of humor and appear to be pretty easy going. I'm certain we'll mesh as time goes on.
Our group
The sections of our page generally follow the course of our travels in Morocco, called Moroc by its citizens. We'll travel by bus -
Our bus and ever faithful driver
About the pictures:
You'll travel through our pictures and narratives. Please remember as you go though the sections that many of the pictures were taken through the windows of our bus. And unlike all our other bus trips, especially Turkey where the windows were washed at every stop and every night, our windows were dirty to start with, and only grew worse as the days passed. Further, having never been in markets such as we found in Morocco, I was unprepared for the hustle and bustle involving not only crowds of people, but also motorcycles, bikes, carts, donkeys and horses all crowded in passages that were very often never wider than maybe six feet. Consequently, being too close to moving targets, I took far too many pictures of "parts of things" - animals, store fronts, people, wares being sold - than I took of scenes that were worth sharing. Also, particularly within the larger mosques, my poor skills and inexpensive camera could not deal with darkness. For the most part flask photography is tenuous at best because of the depth of the area attempted to be photographed. When I attempted to use Photoshop to compensate for the dark pictures, I ended up with grainy, grey shots - got to learn more about Photoshop! Sorry!
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About the Kasbah
I had this idea that the Kasbah was/is a central square or market. I imagined the Kasbah would be much like the Spice Market in Turkey. After all: "Rock the Kasbah!" I couldn't have been more incorrect.
A Kasbah is the outer wall of a fortified castle, town, or even a home. They were originally developed by the Berbers. They normally have high, thick walls, with a very few wide gates. They normally are built to a square plan. Every city we visited had a Kasbah, and each was individually impressive.
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About the Medina
Each Kasbah surrounded a Medina, or town. Each Medina normally consists of a densely populated urban area within the Kasbah. The Medina has a numerous set of narrow streets, turning this way and that, confusing any visitor or potential enemy. The streets are builds and set in such a way to be one of the defenses should the medina be attacked. In the center of the Medina is found a square and often the Souk.
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About the Souks
The Souk is a market - but the most spectacular of markets. One could compare the Souk to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, in that there are all varieties of goods being sold. The amount of sellers vary form town to town , numbering from perhaps 200 or so, to perhaps thousands. Where the Bazaar was well lighted, had wide rows, and when crowded, the crowd was composed of people and merchants.
The Souk differs in that the walk space is very narrow, from perhaps 8 feet, down to less than 4 feet across. There is little natural light, so one gets the impression of darkness and compression. The narrow walkways are filled not only with buyers and sellers, but with bicycle riders, motor bike and motorcycle riders, mules, horses, sheep, push carts, loaded and empty two and for wheel cards being pushed, pulled and often stopped, blocking the walkways. One must be fully aware of the activity in front and behind, listen for the shouts of "give way" or "cart" or the beep of a motorcycle or the bell of a bicycle. Remain vigilant for pack animals with loads of raw leather, rugs o any other item that can be tied to a donkey or house. Very exhilarating and very exhausting.
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Oh, And About the Cats:
We are guilty of being "cat people". This results in cat pictures included in the otherwise subject oriented themes. In Morocco we saw more cats than within any other country visit - and as you'll see, the best cared for / well fed cats seen anywhere else, even though the vest majority are strays.
When I asked Hassan about this he told us the following: "There is a Moroccan story about Mohammed. One day Mohammed needed rest and took a nap. When he woke, he found a cat had use part of his robe to lay as it took a nap also. Rather than waken the cat, or frighten it, he cut the robe around the cat, left it sleeping and went on his way. As Mohammed had shown such respect for the cat, Moroccans follow Mohammed's lead, and treat all cats with respect and kindness."
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The pages belonging to the Morocco trip are found as follows:
So as Hassan would say, " ____________ "
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PLEASE READ: I Use WIKIPEDIA - Here's How