Agadir, Marrakesh and Casablanca, Morocco

April 23, 2024 - Today mostly at sea, we arrived in Agadir, Morocco around 4:30 PM and due to us arriving so late in the day the only excursion leaving from the ship today was the Marrakesh Overland, which was our’s, and included almost 100 (3 buses) of the 500 remaining guests onboard. This Overland tour included a drive from Agadir to Marrakesh (4 hours), 2 nights and an all day tour in Marrakesh, and then a drive to Casablanca (3.5 hours) and a brief drive around Casablanca before returning to the ship early in the afternoon. We started an hour late, as there was a delay by Moroccan immigration which made our drive start at 7:30 instead of 6:30, so unfortunately most of it was in the dark. Our tour guide for the 3 days was Hanney, who lives in Agadir, and who gave us a little background of Agadir and Morocco overall as we rode, with one brief bio break, along the way to the Savoy le Grand Hotel. We arrived around 11:30 PM, and were given a small snack in the hotel restaurant while they scanned our passports and got our room keys together. Luckily, since we were the first bus to arrive, it only took about 20 minutes before we were in our rooms, setting a wake-up call for breakfast at 7:30 AM so we could begin our tour by 9:30.

Agadir, our view from ship - two planes are being turned into restaurants

April 24, 2024 - After an incredible breakfast buffet with every food imaginable, we were ready to board our buses at 9:15. Buses 40 & 41 arrived first and loaded up, and then we learned our bus had a shattered window, that must have happened at the overnight parking area or enroute to the hotel, and so we would have to wait 20 minutes for a replacement bus. (Flexibility is key when you travel) When they realized it would be a bit longer, they had one of the other buses waiting at the first stop, come back to pick us and drop us off at the first stop - where our replacement bus would meet up with us. So, it was a 30 minute delay to the start of our day, but all worked out fine. We stopped first at the historic Menara Garden, an historic site for this old city and a place were they built one of the first “pools” for collecting water that came down from the mountains. Our next stop was at the Koutoubia Mosque, the biggest and oldest mosque in Marrakesh. We then continued for a short bus ride to our final drop off spot for the day, in the old town market area (Jemaa el Fna Square). We walked through the old square, which was relatively empty at 10:30 in the morning, and walked to the Bahia Palace for tour. The architecture of these old buildings, with the elaborate carvings in the stone and the colorful tile work was impressive. We then continued our walk though some of the Souk markets to the restaurant for our traditional Moroccan lunch (salad, couscous, vegetables, chicken, bread with orange slices and almond cookies for dessert. They had music and traditional dancers - one woman dancing, sitting and standing while balancing a lit candelabra on a tray on her head and the other a belly dancer. After lunch we continued walking the the elaborate maze of stalls in the “Souks of Marrakesh” and saw every type of crafts being made. There were sections for leather goods (every type of sandal imaginable), steelworks, rug making, embroidery, etc. It was a true maze. We also visited an historical school building, again with completely handcrafted stunning architecture. We walked the entire afternoon, with the exception of a 15 minute stop at a “herbologist” shop, where they had seating and tried to sell us spices and Argon Oils that apparently heal any ailment. Some of the people sat through it only because they were tired of walking. We made it back to teh Jemaa el Fna Square at 5 PM, and were given 1 hour of free time to roam around and shop. We made it back to the hotel at 6:30, exhausted but more tired of the complaints from fellow travelers who didn’t expect to walk that much. We washed up quickly and just walked around the corner for a light dinner with Julie and Rick, who were on one of the other buses, and had already been back at the hotel for an hour. We had sandwiches at an outdoor cafe on a beautifully cool evening and then went back to the hotel and had a glass of wine at the outdoor pool bar before retiring for the evening. (no alcohol was served where we had dinner, as restaurants with outdoor seating areas on the streets are prohibited from serving alcohol).

Koutoubia Mosque - built in the 12th century

Old School - Hard to capture all the beautiful craftmanship that went into theses buildings.

April 25, 2024 - We were up, had breakfast, checked out and on our buses for the ride to Casablanca by 8:30 AM. It was a 3 1/2 hour drive, with one stop for a bio break (again, all three buses at the same place with 5 bathroom stalls). The landscape on our way to Casablanca was mostly dry desert areas and some farms that are struggling with the draughts they have had over the last several years, in one area the riverbed was completely dried up. Only once we got closer to Casablanca did we see some agriculture growing.

Once we arrived in Casablanca, we did a short panoramic drive along the coastline, with a photo stop at eh Hassan II Mosque, the largest Mosque in Morocco (which can hold 105,000 worshippers), which is built over the coastline as Muslims believe the water and the sky are so important and so the roof can open in 3 minutes, Our second photo stop outside “Rick’s Cafe”, which is apparently well know from the movie Casablanca. We were unable to go in without tickets/reservations, but we heard from others that did go in that it didn’t look anything like the cafe from the movie. Since neither of us ever saw the movie - we didn’t feel like we missed anything. After that we headed back to the ship and were through the checkpoint and onboard by 1:30 - after thoroughly enjoying our overland excursion to Marrakesh! We had a quick lunch and then took the shuttle bus back into the center of Casablanca, just to walk around a bit. Other than the shuttle bus getting stuck by a stalled train in the port for 20 minutes, it was an uneventful trip and a welcome opportunity to stretch our legs after spending the morning on a bus. We were able to see some of the damage from an earthquake that hit this area last September. We set sail at 8 PM for our final stop in Morocco - Tangier.

Tangier, Morocco

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain