Morocco Day 1

After a sound sleep brought about by regular intake of gins throughout the day, Casablanca beckoned. We were only minutes from the old Medina.

But we did not even reach it before we were accosted (nicely) by Hassan, who said he was an artist and had an exhibition in a shop just inside the walls, and insisted on accompanying us there, lest me miss it. No pressure to buy anything, of course (he kept assuring us).

Don't remember actually seeing any of Hassan's artwork, but the shop was fantastic - full of amazing carpets, and we really could have done some serious damage to the bank account, but we had already bought our carpets months ago. Pity. They do make excellent souvenirs.

Hassan left us in the hands of his assistant and went off to accost the next lot of tourists. We were seated. Tea was served. The differences between the styles of carpet making were pointed out. We did manage to get out of there without buying anything.

As we were heading off into the medina, we heard a shout. It was Hassan. We had not seen his herb shop! So we had to troop back and enter into a lovely smelling small shop, full of herbs and spices and lotions and potions. Two ladies in the back room were grinding almonds and argan nuts to make a paste. This paste is marvellous for skin and wrinkles, the old wrinkly man told us. Eventually we bought a tub of it.

Everyone is really friendly and waves or shouts out 'Bonjour!' - children, young chaps, old folk. Nobody hassles you. We walked through some rather dodgy areas - tented villages with rubbish piled high and tiny stray puppies and kittens, but never felt unsafe.

We found our way to the mosque - the second third largest one on the world, after Mecca- and it is spectacular. Built right on the waterfront, taking up a huge area, with beautiful covered walkways and gardens around it. There was a nice rocky beach, with all the boys and young men enjoying themselves swimming. The women, of course, just looked on in their full body coverings.

We walked round the waterfront, towards the port, but then discovered that you couldn't access the town that way, so had to walk all the way back in the heat. Jings! We were stuffed. So a taxi back was the most sensible choice - we'd've been going round in circles trying to find the hotel. Best £2 I've spent in a long while.

We had a group meeting this evening. Sixteen of us. We're the grannies, but not by much, there's a good mixture - young ones, lots of middle ones and a couple of Aussies in their globe trotting retirement. Several Aussies, a couple of Swiss, a German, a couple of Americans, and an English chap and us. Sounds like an Agatha Christie story...

Our guide, Abdou, is simply gorgeous. I will blip him one day. A big smile, lots of dark curly hair, and he's so proud to be showing us his country. He went over the whole tour, and told us it was 'full on' with not many rest periods. (EEk!) He escorted us all out for a meal at a local restaurant and to try Casablanca beer.

Adventure proper starts tomorrow with the train to Rabat and then an afternoon three hour train journey to Meknes. He happened to mention that we might have to stand unless we want to upgrade to First Class. Upgrade please! He also advised us to pinch the hotel toilet paper as it's non existent in public toilets. (EeeK!)

I've been told not to blatantly take photos of people, so I walked through the Medina with my camera surreptitiously down low, snapping away. But I had already lined up this doorway and blue wall when the woman came and stood there, so she can't complain.