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Casablanca Vacations and Luxury Travel Packages |
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Casa Tour
The harbor is as convenient a place as any to start a tour of Casablanca. A number of international hotels, the Bare du port (main station for the Tangier line) and the modern Centre 2000 shopping mall are situated near the harbor. Motorized visitors are well advised to leave their cars here, as parking can be a problem. In any case, the medina and colonial quarter are best explored on foot. The residential and beachfront area of Ain Diab is best reached by cab. They are not at all expensive and, since taximeters are required by law, no longer a financial risk. There is a 20 per cent surcharge on all taxi rides at night.
The elegant and beautifully palm-lined Boulevard Felix Houphouet-Boigny (formerly called Boulevard Mohammed el Hansali) leads from the harbor area directly to the city's center. This main thoroughfare has a large selection of Moroccan arts and crafts from all over the country on offer.
The medina, with its numerous winding alleys, is on the right. It has a kisseria where goldsmiths eagerly await customers. All along the Derb Omar delicious smells of fried fish, kefta (meatballs) and kebab arise from numerous restaurants. Harira soup and chebakia (honey pastries) are served during Ramadan. Water peddlers dressed in red robes and carrying goat-skin water bags attract people's attention by ringing a bell as they go.
If one feels like taking a stroll through the elegant pedestrian zone, one merely needs to begin at the Palace of Justice and head north along the Rue du Prince Moulay Abdallah. The pedestrian zone starts at Boulevard de Paris. Fashionable Moroccan women buy their clothes at the boulevard's fancy boutiques, while the men sit back and chat in one of the numerous sidewalk cafes.
The short Rue Aristide Briand is a continuation of Casa's main thoroughfare, Boulevard Mohammed V, which leads east from Place des Nations to the gare des voyageurs (main train station). Shops, restaurants, cafes, bakeries, icecream parlors, bookshops and cinemas flank both sides of the busy boulevard. Here one can buy almost anything from raffle tickets to international newspapers, or casually have one's shoes polished.
The boulevard's main attraction, however, is the Marche Central (market) on the corner of Rue Colbert (open daily until 1 p.m.). The market has a large selection of meat (even including pork for its Christian customers), poultry, cheese, fruit, vegetables and a great variety of fish. Everything looks clean and is appetizingly displayed. Even tortoises and canaries are to be had. The merchants are always friendly. Small fruit and vegetable and spice stalls are also found under the arcade by the outside wall of the covered market. The rich aroma of roasted coffee, mingled with sweet-smelling flowers and spices makes it diffcult for visitors to resist stopping at each one.
Every neighborhood here has its own market, of course. The one in the Maarif district where Spaniards and Italians used to live during the days of the Protectorate, for example, is especially interesting.
The audacious attempt to fuse Moroccan notions of a business quarter with European ones has proven quite successful in the new medina, which is also called habous. This Neo-Moorish quarter (in the southeast, to be reached via Route de Medouna) was laid out in 1923. Unlike the medinas of Fes and Marrakech, the old part of the city in Casablanca was way too small to cope with the rapid increase in population. According to the general aims of French policy, Arabs and Europeans were to be segregated.
In the alleys south of the Sidi Mohammed and Moulay Youssef mosques, there are numerous rows of shops under shady arcades where merchants sell jellabahs, fossils, silver bracelets, daggers, copper kettles and plates, bowls made of thuya wood and numerous other Moroccan crafts. Fast-talking carpet dealers are only too pleased to show inquisitive tourists their hand-woven products. Beyond the Moulay Yussef mosque the alleys form a checkerboard pattern through the neighborhood where carpenters and tailors exhibit their goods, primarily for local customers. The Patisserie Bennis in the Rue Fkih el Gabbas is renowned for its mechoui (roast mutton) and bastilla (puff pastry filled with pigeon meat). Among the great number of sweet specialities, the cornets des gazelles (small cookies filled with marzipan) are particularly recommendable.
The Mahkama du Pascha court building located to the north of the Sidi Mohammed Mosque was erected between 1941 and 1956. The interior is a cross-section of traditional craftsmanship. Its rooms are decorated with cedar-wood carvings, stucco, colored fayence tiles and ornate wrought-iron gates. The Royal Palace built in 1912 under Sultan Moulay Youssef is not far away. It is situated in a park surrounded by high walls and is, unfortunately, not open to the public. |
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