Casablanca Day 1

"Their taking me to Marrakech. ..  " The song has been playing in my head since we began to plan this trip.  Now after almost 2 years one might think I would have taken time to learn more than the first two lines of the song.  Tomorrow we are off on a new adventure.  Morocco for 17 days on a guided tour for just the two of us.

We are excited about visiting a new country and filled with apprehension at the same time.   We are going to visit souks, medinas, Fez, Tangier, sleep in the dessert in a Bedouin tent but what if the guide isn't good or one of us gets sick.

The bags are packed and we are as prepared as we know how to be.  I had a pedicure yesterday so my toes are gorgeous.   What more do we need.

Day 1

We made it!  We are in Casablanca.
The trip here went smoothly.  Air Rouge was actually pretty good.  After my moaning because our previous experience wasn't so hot they didn't have to do much to exceed my expectations.   The staff were excellent. Our seats, thanks to Mickey were excellent too.  The plane that took us across Canada was much nicer than the one we flew to Casablanca on.  Too bad it hadn't been the other way around.
Arrival time in Casablanca was 7:00 am.  Roy slept, I did not. Customs went well.  The line was long but we chatted with the couple ahead of us in the line.  They travel a lot and had some interesting stories to tell.  Ya gotta love fellow travelers.
Once though customs the nerves kicked in.  How will we find our driver what if he isn't here, how the heck to do get out of the terminal!  All is well; not only did we find the exit we found a young man with a sign with our names on it. I couldn't stop smiling. I was in Morocco and we found our driver.  We had both admitted that we were nervous but everything turned out the way it was supposed to.  Amazing.  The city is a long way from the airport.  Our driver was not the chatty type.  A  very nice young man.  We learned that he is 22 and wants to get married. He answered all of our questions but didn't volunteer any information.  He taught us how to say thank you and how to pronounce jebala, or at least he tried to. Neither of us caught his name.  He says will drive us to Rabat tomorrow. If he is our guide as well as our driver I sure hope his tour guide mode kicks in.
The drive is like any from an airport to the city.  Not very exciting.   Everything is much greener than we expected it to be.  They have had some rain.  The buildings on part of the drive reminder us of Mexico.  Once in the city there were traffic jams that you would associate with morning commutes anywhere.
He who has no name let us out at the hotel saying he would pick us up at 10:00 tomorrow.  The area surrounding the hotel doesn't look too swift but it is a huge step up from the areas we drove through.  The hotel lobby seems very nice.   We went up to the reception desk and Roy passed the reception lady his passport. She looked perplexed when we checked in.  We stood at the counter wondering what the heck was going on. "Is their a problem", we ask.  "There is", she replied," I have no reservation for you ".  Our hearts sank to our shoes.  Then I passed her my passport.  It was all good. We were registered under my name. Relief!  Although we were very early we were able to get a room right away.
The phone rang seconds after we got into our room.  It was Abdul, our guide, calling to apologize for not meeting us at the airport and cautioning us not to go out into the streets as we would be hassled.  That's a downer.  We were told we could get something to eat in the hotel coffee shop.   The lady there sent us up a floor to the breakfast room.  We had a mediocre, at best, breakfast the cost $50.00!  Oops.  We are seriously jet lagged.  Roy especially.  He is literally tripping over his feet.  After a nice long nap we feel much better.
Time to find some bottled water so in spite of Abdul's advice off we go. We found several shops selling groceries and a nice looking coffee shop but we walk back to the shop closest to the hotel and get a pack of 6 bottles of water (9 litres).  After dropping it off at the hotel we head out in the opposite direction. Not far from our hotel is a big square and a nice shopping area.  Some streets are closed to automobiles so that makes it quieter and relaxing .  We found a place that we will return to for dinner and stop at a sidewalk cafe for mint tea with sugar.  It seems you can sit as long as you want, even sleep at your table for the price of a pot of tea (  $1.50).
Dinner was unfashionable early.  We pretty much had all the waiters to ourselves.  I had a chicken tagine which was delicious.  Roy had  spaghetti which suited his jet lagged soul.? off and typing ddďdg x every time I drifted off to sleep.  Bedtime