We must be starting to wind down a little, we slept in this morning until about 7:45. After breakfast we went to see the concierge about what there was to do in Casablanca. We asked about the new big Mosque, but because it is Friday (the biggest prayer day in the Muslim week) it was closed to non-muslims for the day. She suggested that we visit the beach, and go for a walk along it, the Medina and an old market (similar to the Medina). We also asked about “Ricks cafe”, she didn’t seem to know exactly where it was and sort of waved her fingers over the map in a general area. (This doesn’t inspire confidence!)

We decided we walk down and have a look in the Medina. It was a short 10 min walk away and when we got there they were in the middle of opening up for the day. So there was a mix of activity from , those just arriving to set up shop and those who were up and ready for business. We didn’t get hassled too much, although one guy followed us for a while wanting us to visit his shop.  At one stage an older guy in traditional dress asked us where we were from, when we told him he said “Welcome to Morocco, enjoy the Medina, the casbar!” and beamed a great smile at us. We were delighted at the welcome.  After a while we decided to head back to the hotel, but on the way back we decided to explore a bit more. We had seen some older looking areas on the way to the Medina, so we headed off to have a look around them. It was so fascinating, we wandered around for ages. We found a few food and hardware type markets, at one, in the fresh seafood area, they had live tortoises for sale, big oysters, huge squid, and so many fish I hadn’t ever seen before.  We roamed around some more, found a shopping mall area, saw a group of taxi drivers arguing amongst themselves and earlier in the day we saw a couple of cars come to grief with each other (no one hurt, and no big argument, which surprised me).

For lunch we went back to the hotel and we each had a tagine. The dish I ordered was the same as one I make at home (Mince meat balls with egg) and Deb has a lamb and dried prune dish. Both were delicious. I will definitely be getting out all our Moroccan cook books when we get home J .

In the afternoon it was a little patchy with rain and we got some more water and read a bit, before meeting up with our tour group.

Our tour group is fairly small, 28 all up plus the tour director (Abdel Kadar). We are probably around the youngest, there are others that look around our age, but most would be 60+ (being generous J ). The group are almost all Australians, exceptions being 4 from NZ and 2 from the USA, which is a bit disappointing again.  (looks like the recession is effecting the Amercians!)

The tour starts in earnest tomorrow, apparently we will get a wake-up call at 6:30am and will be leaving on the coach at 8:00am,  first up is a tour of Casablanca, then it’s off to Rabat, Meknes and eventually Fes.  But more on that tomorrow.

We hope everyone is doing well at home, well done Ben, 19 settlements all by yourself!!!!!!!

Lots of love and hugs us xoxox