I am writing this on the high speed train to Casablanca. This morning, Latifah and Habiba served us another splendid breakfast of coffee, homemade yogurt, that yummy avocado drink and homemade pastries in the communal dining room. We could hear birds chirping through the secondary courtyard which is open to the sky. Our charming bedrooms face towards the central courtyard with a skylight, which shuts out most of the street noise. It's an exageration to say "street," as it is actually only pedestrian traffic except for an occasional motorcycle. Interestingly, the city is active at night and wakes up around 9 am. Last night we passed a street band playing just outside the medina, one of the band members put a hat with a tassle on my head and motioned to spin my head around. I couldn't risk getting dizzy so I declined and gave him a tip. When I saw him later that night, he recognized me in the crowd and yelled "I love you" across the plaza. Uh huh.
I had mixed feelings about leaving the Riad Zohra and Latifah & Habiba. They are so gracious and sweet and kind and generous I wanted to adopt them. Latifah showed me pictures of her family, a very beautiful 17 year old girl named Nade (Nadine), 2 boys, 11&10, both soccer players, and her handsome husband. They live nearby, so we had the Riad pretty much to ourselves. We "spoke" using a combinaton of français and a lot of hand gestures/smiling/laughing/giggling. Google translate helped us to pay the outstanding balance with an impressive combination of Euros, Dollars & Dirhams to save us from having to find an ATM. What a mathematical exercise that was, Latifah had some difficulty understanding that a 100 dollar bill was the same (la même chose) as five 20 dollar bills. Once we settled all that, she was relieved, telling me it was a grande plaisir and invited us to come back soon. She promised she would even learn English, haha. We kissed and hugged each other and as we walked out the door, she placed her hand over her heart and said "I love you." She waited until we turned the corner before going back inside the riad. Such a sweet and genuine gesture, I am telling you, girls should rule the world.
Just pulled into Kenitra. Next stop Rabat. This train is very quiet, plush, smooth, ultra modern and equipped with a cafeteria, WiFi, compact restrooms, designated private areas for telephone conversations and other amenities. Obviously very fast, Rabat came and went. Next stop, Casablanca. Punctual, too.
Mustapha picked us up and took us to the Hassan II Mosque located literally at the water’s edge. It is a monumentai building with a dizzying and seemingly endless list of statistics: third largest mosque in the world (the other two are in Saudi Arabia). 6 years to build, employing 30,000 workers, capacity of 20,000 people with another 80,000 outside in the Grand Plaza, the columns are carved with quotes from the Koran, starting from right to left. The ceiling, heavily decorated and ornately carved, recedes (OMG!) to reveal the sky above, an unbelievable feat of engineering. Very impressive building.
Late this afternoon, Mustapha drove us to Marrakech to a quaint place called Riad El Nil. The hostess had a delicious dinner ready for us which was so nice as we were all pretty tired. Getting out of Casablanca and into Marrakech, the traffic was pretty intense, today being Sunday. Helter skelter, chaotic keystone cop kind of driving, plus tailgating made for some very nervous moments in the car. I think I understand why they pray five times a day here.