Madeira, Portugal
On April 28th we arrive in Madeira, Portugal the home of soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo. The island is very picturesque with high mountains and houses perched along the side. We decided not to do a tour since it is a small island and just walk around and see the site. We walked into town and down the main streets and had lunch and then walked through one of the city centre’s gardens and by the Cathedral. We didn’t end up getting to do much more sightseeing because it started to rain really hard so we decided that we would go back to the ship for the rest of the day.
Casablanca, Morocco
On April 30th we arrived in Casablanca, Morocco. There was some concern over us docking in Morocco because of the terrorist attack that happened in Marrakesh on April 28th. After monitoring the situation our ships security decided that it was safe to dock with heightened security around the ship. We had originally decided to do a tour to Marrakesh but had canceled it a few weeks ago. The tour to Marrakesh ended up getting canceled because of the attack. We decided not to do a tour in Casablanca and just walked around and saw some sights. There is a huge market in what is called the Old Medina that has very narrow streets with vendors selling everything from luggage to kid’s toys and food. We didn’t go very far into the market as it is very overwhelming with people jumping in front of you and putting things in your face to buy. The market is also very confusing to get around and later in the day while walking around we saw the art director who said it took him a while to figure out how to get out of the market and that he couldn’t find anyone who spoke English to help him. We walked up the main street of the port and then decided to go see the Hassan II Mosque. To get there we ended up walking down a road that had housing on either side. A lot of people had hung up their clothes on the outside walls and the kids were playing soccer in the street. It’s always a bit uneasy walking through areas like these because there are no other tourists around and people aren’t use to seeing tourists in places like this so naturally they stare and watch you. The Mosque which was at the end of the road is the 3rd largest mosque in the world can hold 25,000 people and another 80,000 in the courtyard. The area that it is in is away from the city centre on the edge of the sea with part of the mosque having a glass floor over the water for worshipers to pray. The exterior is beige with blue and green mosaics and has the tallest minaret in the world which can be seen from most places in the city. We walked around the exterior but didn’t go in because there are strict rules on who can go…non-Muslims are not suppose to go into the mosque unless on a tour. We decided that we would start our walk back to the ship since it was about 3 km and decided to take a busier road. We had a fairly uneventful walk back except as we got closer to the port we heard the call for prayer from a minaret in the city. We have only heard the call for prayer one other time while in Dubai and it’s really interesting to hear. We enjoyed seeing the mosque in Casablanca but otherwise it was not our favourite place. We got hassled a lot more then we had in other cities…especially from people who wanted to sell us drugs and there are so many thefts you have to be really careful. A woman on our ship got her backpack stolen while she was out with her husband. She said she had both straps on her arm but that someone came along and cut them and ran off.
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