Morocco… at last

We were ably transported to the airport by A, and once checked in, we headed for the Virgin lounge where we made ourselves comfortable until it was time to head through immigration, via Duty Free and then to our gate where we skipped the lines to make our way to the pointy end of the plane. Straight away we were encouraged to imbibe on champers and once underway it was time for wine and nibbles. We then survived the almost 14 hours flight to Doha, watching movies, eating, drinking and snoozing. 3 1/2 hour stop over in Doha which is a huge airport. We had our first taste of the warm weather when we had to get off the plane onto the tarmac and be bussed to the terminal, in the Business Class passengers bus, ofcourse! Found our way to the Club lounge and whiled away our time there. Quite a distance to our gate, so thank goodness for travelators. Once again we were bussed to our plane, on the Business Class passengers bus, and the drive took more than 10 minutes to get to our plane which was definitely at the very edge of the airport grounds. Once again up to the pointy end of the plane, in fact I was in 1A. very comfortable, but not as roomy as our lovely little pods, but this time, the added bonus of the back massaging control in the seats. Almost 8 hours later with even more food and drink consumed we finally arrived in Casablanca. Certainly a changing landscape awaits us. Woo hoo.

No sooner have we walked off the plane and come out of the sky walk where we find 2 young gentlemen in suits, (our very own Men in Black, just minus the sunglasses)carrying a placard with our names on. They introduce themselves as Khalil and Mohammed, and start walking at a very brisk pace through the terminal towards Immigration where they race us to thefront of the small queue. We are then whisked away to the baggage carousel where eventually both our cases appear. Somehow we have lost Mohammed in these manouvres but Khalil grabs both casesand almost frog marched us through the busy terminal towards Customs where for some reason that made no sense whatsoever, after an animated conversation with a Customs fellow, in rapid Arabic, my case is put through the scanner, but Julie's isn't, even though the other people waiting to get through had to place all cases on the conveyor for scanning. We think because mycase is lighter than hers, it was just done for show. Anyway, we are then through Customs and into the general airport where we are introduced to Hamad and Achmed (at least I think that's what they said) and told to bid farewell to Khalil. We have no idea what's going on and are unsure if Khalil has just sold us to these 2 guys in exchange for 6 camels, but as we are both jet lagged, we follow blindly our 2 new escorts out of the terminal. As we then walk out into the open, there is a large fenced area that hundreds of people are standing behind. Julie is convinced that they are all there to welcome us but apparently there are a number of people returning from a pilgrimage and it is all their family members there to welcome them back! We somehow manage to work our way through the crowd, and make it to the car that Hamad is loading our cases into. Once inside the car, Achmed reintroduces himself and Hamad, telling us that Hamad will be our driver for our tour, and he is our guide. it is about a 45 minute drive from the airport to our hotel. Nothing spectacular scenery wise, and lots of what may be appartment blocks are empty, or unfinished. Supposedly there is lots of infrastructure being worked on due to international soccer games coming up. As we pull up in front of the hotel, Achmed tells us to stay in the car while he gies in and confirms our booking. A couple of minutes later he comes out, shaking his head, saying that they don't have a booking for us, so we must be booked in to their sister hotel further down the main road. Off we go, and then pull up at a smaller hotel of the same name. In we go with Achmed. I dont understand a word of Arabic but even I can tell that we arent booked in there either. the very amenable fellow at reception asks for a booking confirmation and all I had was the tour itineray which gave the name of their hotel. Another fellow takes our passports and it looks like we are about to be booked into that hotel. However Achmed has gotten on his phone and is having a very loud conversation with someone, that at the end of the conversation has us being given back our passports,and bundled back into the car, to return to the first hotel! the nice man at reception did tell us that if we had to come back there again he would definitely give us a room. Im sure he felt really sorry for us, bless him. So back to Barcelo Hotel number 1 where we are booked in! Achmed bids us farewell,telling us that they will pick us up tomorrow morning at 9.30. We head up to our room and double over laughing. The bathroom and bedroom are one room. There is no wall or doors separating them, and there are mirrors everywhere. Quite literally unless one of us goes and waits inthe toilet while the other one is having a shower, there is no way we can't help but see a full frontal of the other whilst showering. Thank goodness Im so tired, that Im really a bit beyond caring.

There is only 1 glass and 1 mug in the room. So we decide to go for a wander around the hotel. The pool looks great, but we wont be using it today. A walk up the street fails to locate anywhere suitable for dinner and a return to the hotel and checking out the restaurant menu with exorbitant costs, we agree to get reception to send up another mug and more bottled water, as we've been advised not to drink the tap water. Neither of us are very hungry but as it is dinner time we figure we should eat something and then get an early night. I have brought cheese and crackers so we have them and a cuppa. That's dinner for tonight. Time to brave the shower, that had the added complication that Julie couldn't work out how to turn it on! I came to her rescue, but more laughing ensued as Ihad promised to avert my eyes while she was showering, but got called in to get the shower to work! We survived the shower experience, and welcomed an early night. Looking forward to our first full day in Morocco. Casablanca doesn't impress greatly at the moment, but we havent seen much yet, other than 2 hotels!