Our plane lands in Casablanca at 7:10 am. We process through immigrations, retrieve our luggage (except for Marian and Phil, who had none!) and are met by the TraveLearn tour guide, Larbi Najmi. We also meet the 5 other people in our group, Lucille and Claire from Hawaii, Nancy and Bob from Kansas and Louise from South Carolina. Before leaving the airport terminal, we take the opportunity to change some dollars into dirhams, the currency of Morocco. At the time of our visit, the exchange rate was approximately 10 dirhams to one US dollar. Our group reassembles and Larbi takes us to board our very nice, very large 40-seater bus. Then we are off to the Hilton Hotel in the capital city of Rabat. Martha and I have a room that looks out to the front of the hotel. The grounds are nicely landscaped with beautiful gardens in the rear. We had just finished unpacking, when all of the electrical power on our floor goes out. This apparently was the result of a faulty outlet in our room, which tripped a breaker when I plugged in the hair dryer! The outlet is replaced and the power restored within 30 minutes. Well, I thought, the rest of the trip should be carefree, since bad luck is said to come in triplicate, and this makes three – lost suitcases, broken tooth, and power outage!
Our first meal in Morocco is lunch at a local restaurant. It is a multi-course affair, complete with dessert, mint tea, and a cat that roams around the legs of the table, the chairs and the diners! After lunch, we visit the Archeological Museum. Our guidebook tells us that at this museum: “The collections cover Moroccan history from prehistoric times to the Muslim conquest, with emphasis on the Phoenician and Roman eras”. The artifacts are definitely impressive, especially the bronzes. Since the museum guide speaks no English or French and none of our group understands Arabic, we do our best to communicate in sign language. Surprisingly, I learned much more than I realized at the time. The bronze busts of both King Juba II and Cato the Younger are stunning. The marble sculptures, jewelry, coins and some well-preserved skeletal remains speak for themselves, giving us a little insight into Moroccan history and culture. This is our first look at items recovered from two archaeological sites, Chellah Necropolis and Volubilis, both of which we will visit later on this tour.
Leaving the museum, we take a refreshing walk along Rabat’s Avenue Mohammed V. As we pass a line of flower stalls, Larbi stops to make a purchase, and then presents each of us with a beautiful carnation! Our walk continues past some commercial shops, a Parliament building, the main post office, and right into the railroad station. We exit the station onto a tree-lined avenue from which I can see not only the minaret (tower) of the El Sounna Mosque but also, in contrast, the spires of the Cathédrale de Saint Pierre. Eventually, we return to our room to rest, but after a few minutes, Martha and I decide to explore the hotel, inside and out. We “toured” the lobby area and then strolled around the gardens, me smelling the flowers, and Martha taking pictures. Later that night we have a buffet dinner in the hotel. The food is wonderfully varied and bountiful, and this proves to be the normal fare throughout our trip.