2019 Tour – Day 15 – Lot of Experiences Plus a Little Motorbiking

03/09/2019 – Kènitra, MA

Driven km: 144

We woke up early (7 AM) to be able and squeeze in as much as possible in the morning hours as we had to check out of the hotel as usual by noon. The plan for the day was to walk to the Mosque Hassan II, which is near the port in Casablanca, about 3-4 km away from our hotel. We had a really quick breakfast as we only had coffee and a little bit of some bread, to save on time. Our first destination by foot was to get to the Medina of Casablanca. We saw already many of them in different cities but the one in Casablanca was so far the easiest to navigate and the smallest one as well. We also had the advantage of the early hours because almost all shops were still closed as we swung by them with speed. We only stopped to take some pictures quickly because we had to be at a specific time at the mosque otherwise we miss the tour, which is only organized a few times a day.

As we got closer to the mosque it was already from a distance clear how impressive its size is. The minaret tower is 200 meters tall, which is the tallest in the world. The mosque itself is the third biggest overall with a capacity of 25.000 persons that can pray inside and additional 80.000 persons can stay outside on the big square in front of the building. The special about this building is that it was built over the ocean as a symbol for finding God because as we learned during our tour God resides before the creation of the world above the water. So this is how believers can be the closest to God.

Before going to the mosque we visited a small but quite nice exhibition about the different art forms that are used in Morocco and were also used in the mosque for decoration.

The guided tour was very informative and thus very interesting. The guide pointed out an important thing as we took off our shoes and put them in a bag, which we did not mention so far, there are no plastic bags in use in Morocco anymore. They use a sort of thin textile bag everywhere in order to fight pollution. Additionally, we heard from him a lot of numbers and facts about the mosque. But the most interesting notes were regarding religion. He pointed out that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have all a common root. The religions do not differ from each other in their core beliefs but have some differences in the formalities. In Islam they also recognize even Jesus Christ as the son of God, however, he is an equal prophet to other prophets and not as a special central figure as he became in Christianity. He also said that Islam is actually a really peaceful religion that focuses on the goodness of people and all of the bad publicity it receives now from the media is only because of a handful of people who are trying to take advantage of the fear of others and of the wars that they make money out of. Quite a true statement and we were so happy to hear this in such an international group at such a beautiful place. He also mentioned that when deciding about the building of the mosque they opened a charity where all Moroccans and Muslims were able to donate whatever they thought they can spare. In this collection, they collected the equivalent of 600 million USD. The building itself was planned by a French architect and was built almost exclusively by Moroccans using raw materials from Morocco. It is also a clever way to create workplaces and recirculate money into the economy as the whole building phase lasted seven years.

After the visit, we headed back to the hotel because it was already 11 AM and we had to check out by 12:30 PM. We took a different route back, which led us through an old historic part of the city that is nowadays a poor neighborhood. We could imagine that if we would have told somebody where we are they would have told us that his area is not safe. It certainly looked a bit rough on the outside but all the people we met on the streets looked at us and greeted us with a smile on their face. They seemed to be very nice and friendly towards us. Only the smell of rubbish rotting in the heat was not that nice for our noses but we got used to it and the whole place had its own cozy ambiance that we were happy to have seen and experienced. We also happened to end up at a very lively souk where the main topic was the start of the school year and most things sold were books pens and notebooks, etc.

At our arrival at the hotel after the 3-4 km walk, the security guards greeted us with a big smile again. They sat outside the whole time watching the cars and our motorcycles parked on the street. We quickly packed our things and mentally prepared to get into the Casablanca traffic chaos again what we already experienced on the previous day. This time the navigation took us on the right way and we did not have to do any extra turns and figure out the way ourselves. It took us ca. one hour to get out of the city in the traffic to reach some sort of industrial area of Casablanca in the north. We drove along the coast towards Rabat, the capital of Morocco. The route was nice as we finally could see the Atlantic Ocean as well but only for a short time period. The development of the beach properties must be booming recently as we saw so many new buildings and also at least the same amount of ongoing constructions.

We reached Rabat but did not stop in the city. We just drove through and looked around as much as possible. The city looked very organized and very clean. In the end, we could feel that this is where the king resides. There were police checks on our way in and out of the city quite regularly (5-6x each side). We did take once a wrong turn and had to do a bit of a detour in Rabat but we did not mind it because we have seen a bit more of the city.

After leaving Rabat we headed further north along the coast. Unfortunately, the road was not like what we expected and it did not go close to the beach and we could not see the water at all. However, it led us at least through some nice forests. We planned initially that we will do once more camping but there were no campsites nearby so we decided to look for someplace in Kénitra, a beach, fishing and surf town north of Rabat. We found a room at a house (Villa Mehdia Plage) for €38/night. Mounir and Frances were welcoming us and we could park our motorbikes in the garage, which is always nice because we know they are safe for the night.

After a quick shower and change, we headed to the beach to check it out. We managed to get there before sunset and walked along the sea in the sand barefoot and watched our last real sunset in Morocco (before embarking on the ferry we will see another one but we will not spend the night in Morocco anymore). It was a marvelous view that looked even better in pictures than it was in real life. 🙂

After the beach, we realized that there are some snack opportunities around and that there was also a small amusement park and some souk (market) where people gathered. We ate a doughnut and some potato chips and also some popcorn. They were all very yummy and enough to fill our stomachs so we skipped dinner completely and replaced it with these delicacies.

After returning to the house we had a long and very nice discussion with Mounir about extreme sports, culture, traveling, and religion. It was very interesting to hear his thoughts about the complex topics we faced and thought about during our trip. Finally, he could give us some nice advice and a final conclusion to our debates: be good-hearted and love others because this will bring a balance in your life and you will get back what you give others (emotionally and also materially). And also even the prophet Mohamed said that you should never give away everything you have because you cannot help everyone and change the world as one single person. So if you worked hard for what you have you should also enjoy the fruit of the hard labor yourself besides helping others. It was a nice conclusion and a good discussion with him. We could have gone further with these topics but we had to call it a night at around midnight because we were already really tired after a long but full day and had to sleep as well before we drive to the ferry.

Our route on Google Maps: MAP