First hours in Morocco
Wow, that was a long day! It was about 23 hours from the time I got up on Thursday morning until I stepped off the plane in Casablanca. That was about 11 AM though, so the day was just beginning. The flights were fine, though there was a lot of turbulence on every leg. The sun had not risen when I took off from Paris, so I didn't get to see any landmarks from the plane, plus we flew right into clouds after takeoff.
By the time the sun came up, though, we were over the Pyrenees, and the sun hitting the snow capped mountains had my nose glued to the window. BTW, that line near the top of the image is the contrail of a jet that was flying parallel to us for about an hour.
Then we were over Spain and I noticed many wind turbines on the hilltops below. There are at least 100 turbines in this image.
I was on the right side of the plane, which was good, since the sunlight was blinding on the left side, but it meant that I didn't see Gibraltar when we crossed from Spain to Morocco. But I did get a really nice look at Tangier. We'll be heading there on Sunday for a couple of days.
We flew down the coast and I noticed a lot of agriculture. The ground looked like a patchwork of colors and shapes.
Anyway, getting through customs and immigration was easy. The Gate1 people were waiting right outside the airport doors, and just took over everything, which was nice. The bus picked us up for the 90 minute drive to our hotel in Rabat. Oh, they asked if we needed a bathroom before we left and led us to a "clean" bathroom. I do wish I'd taken a picture, but I was too busy digging in my pockets hoping I had a tissue. It was a squat toilet and was bring-your-own TP. Here's a stock image that I found on line that looks just like it, except the image shows one that has been recently cleaned. Use your imagination.
There were about 18 of us on the flight from Paris, and hence the bus to Rabat. (A few more joined us later in the day, and the final group size is 25, which is not bad at all!) The tour guide, Abdul, is very nice and knowledgeable. There is also a driver and a young assistant (he passes out water bottles and stays on the bus when we aren't on it). The drive was interesting, with sheep and shepherds, donkey carts, mosques, and farms to check out on the way.
In Rabat, we stopped at an exchange house to get some Moroccan dirham. Morocco has a closed currency—you can only get it in the country. I used the ATM, which I successfully negotiated, though it started beeping three times asking if I needed more time. In my defense, the sun was shining on the screen, creating a glare, and the ATM had a lot of questions for me to answer. A lot of our group took US cash inside to exchange it, and some of them had not done their homework. The exchanges will only exchange new US bills. Pre-2013? Nope. Ink mark from counting on the bill? Nope. Any wear or—heaven forbid—a tear? Not a chance. (I did bring some US cash, but I got it at the bank and the teller picked out all the clean new bills for me.)
The hotel is really nice! It's a Sofitel and probably one of the nicest hotels in Rabat. (We are here for 2 nights.) I'm definitely not living rough! My room has a nice balcony overlooking the gardens. I really wanted to go out to explore the gardens, but I needed sleep and a shower before the group met again at 6:30 for an intro meeting, followed by dinner. I slept for a couple of hours, which felt wonderful! After my shower, I still had a few minutes outside before the meeting.
At the meeting, we got our second round of the traditional mint tea, plus some lovely small pastries. We got our name tags, and Abdul put our names in Arabic on one side of our badges. Then a nice dinner. The people in the group all seem very nice. All of them have traveled all over the world. Many have done up to a dozen other trips with Gate 1 (which says something good about the company, doesn't it?). I'm settled in for the night now. I'm going to get up early for breakfast and a walk before we head out to explore Rabat at 9AM. And I've got my travel roll of toilet paper in my bag for tomorrow! I try to learn as I go! 😅
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