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Sunday was Casablanca and Rabat day. The description said "Imperial Rabat," and I wasn't sure how much of an exaggeration that was. It turned out to be not the slightest bit of exaggeration.

Still time zone impaired, we both woke up around 5:30; I was all combobulated by 6:30, when we left for breakfast. The Norwegian Jewel had the Tsar's Palace as the main aft dining room; the Jade used to be an American-flagged ship sailing around Hawaii, so that same dining room has a big statue of King Kamehameha, and many places are still Hawaii-themed.

For the most part, Casablanca looks like pretty much every other container ship in the world -- except for the amazingly tall minaret from the Hassan II mosque, which we visited the exterior of. It turns out that the mosque has the tallest minaret in the world.

A lot of people raised the concern about the safety of Morocco given things in Egypt and Libya, apparently unaware of the distances involved. Aside from persistent vendors and the fairly typical risk of thieves, it felt safer than Egypt. When we visited there in 2007, NCL had arranged motorcycle police escorts for the tours, as well as an armed guard on each bus. That wasn't the case with Morocco.

I spent a lot of time looking at the women; Morocco is said to be one of the more relaxed Islamic countries, but it's difficult to tell that from the women's clothing choices I saw. Egypt is about 85% Muslim; many women wore abayas and about 90% wore hijab, but there were some really innovative clothing choices. Two specifics that amused me: woman in green camo jacket and pants, army boots, and a super short denim skirt, with olive green hijab. Another woman in a bright satin club dress over modest white turtleneck and stonewashed skinny jeans with a hijab that matched the dress.

In Morocco, there were more bright abaya colors than in Egypt, with head-to-toe pink or turquoise being very common. Footwear was more limited; most women in abayas wore traditional slippers. Overall, about 80% of the women I saw wore hijab; 80% of those wore abayas. Wealthier areas had both fewer hijab and abaya wearers. I'm not sure how many of those women were immigrants or foreigners, though.

What I did see in Morocco that I didn't see in either Egypt or Turkey: several women out having coffee together. You can drive around in some countries and never see women sitting out in public except perhaps at a bus stop. I waved at more than one (right hand only, as left would be rude), and they were very friendly and smiled and waived back. I did snap some street photos, but not of people I'd made eye contact with.

We drove by the sea, but I wasn't sure how many of the women out on the beach were tourists. We didn't drive close enough to see who was in the water.

So our second stop was a store, where I bought a tray to bring home.

Then we drove to Rabat, the current capital, where we visited the mausoleum. As with many public buildings in Morocco, it had gobsmackingly gorgeous tile and detail work. We then stopped for mint tea, the national drink. The place had a calico mother cat who'd just had at least three kittens. Their eyes were open, but the runt was still shaky on his feet, so it seemed like they were about a week old. Rick and I gave the kitties much of our attention. We then went walking through some very old gardens.

After lunch, we drove onto to the palace grounds, where we got out. At the very moment we were all off the bus, the call to prayer started. Unlike most others we've heard, it was apparent this was being done live. We then wandered over in front of the palace, where we stood about 20 meters from the entrance.

When we returned, we had an early dinner at the Italian place, where I ordered (and got) a gluten-free smoked salmon pizza. Mmmmmm! This requires no advance notice, just an adaptation of a daily special. For dessert, flour less chocolate cake.

One downside: NCL's removed self-service laundry from their ships. Boo.

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deirdre

February 2017

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