After a week roughing it on the mountain, Michelle and I decamped to Casablanca and then Marrakesh for a little rest and relaxation. Casablanca had two great attractions - Rick's Cafe and the Hassan II Mosque, the largest mosque in Africa (and the largest in the world outside Saudi Arabia). It was built in only six years, and apart from Venetian crystal chandelliers and two Italian white marble columns, is made entirely from Moroccan materials.
The mosque has space for 30,000 faithful, and they run tours for infidels like me (including plastic bags for our shoes) when the five daily prayer sessions (sunrise, 1pm, 4pm, sunset and dinner [8pm]) were not taking place.
Inside the structure but separate from the Mosque a set of baths have been constructed for muslims and non-muslims. These aren't currently in use (and the guide was a little vague on whether they would ever be opened to the public), however they include a cashier, showers and change rooms all ready to go. Being a conservative muslim country, there are of course separate pools for men and women. And as an aside, I was quite pleased with the photo.
The old town in Marrakesh was great. The Souk (or market) had all sorts of traditional Morrocan goods for sale, most of which were produced there. So while there were dozens of stalls selling the same glass and metal lamps, trinkets, leather slippers, teapots, trays, glassware, ... there were also stalls where they were making these same items. Apparently the artisan markets are subsidised by the Government which seems to work as it made a welcome change to the equivalent markets in Casablanca which sold second hand televisions, fake Louis Vitton bags and plastic childrens toys.
After Marrakesh, Michelle headed off on a plane, so I reverted to my travellers ways and got the overnight train to Tangier, then a ferry to Spain, picked up a car in Algercias and then ate a perfectly respectable British lunch of Steak and Ale pie in Gibraltar. I had always thought Gibraltar was an island, but it is actually just a peninsula onto which the British have squeezed a military base, an airstrip (you drive across the middle of the runway to get into the town),
a World War II Cemetary and memorial, a cable car, English architecture and street signs, and a defiantly ¨British¨ attitude to being perched precariously on the edge of Spain. Many of the tourist trinkets proclaimed that Gibraltar was proudly British since 1704.
A couple of days of driving 'round the coast took me up to Barcelona which was fantastic. At first I wasn't sure if it was just relief at being back in the developed world, but shortly concluded that it is just a great city. I had a day and a half of sightseeing which wasn't nearly enough to see all of the architecture and sights in the city, let alone visit all the museums and go shopping.
I managed to make it into the Sangrada Familia de Anotoni (the Gaudi cathedral that is the Barcelona equivalent in recognition terms of the Sydney Opera House), La Pedrera and the Battlo House, but never made up up town to. In addition to Gaudi, there are a bunch of other notable architectural works and notable architects who lived in the city.
Please turn your head 90 degrees for this one.
In addition to the architecture, the shopping was great, the food was great, the people were friendly and, despite forecasts of three days of rain, the weather was pretty good too!
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