Day 17 Barcelona

Arriving at Barcelona is like advancing 500 years from Morocco. Beautiful clean city with wide boulevards, excellent traffic control, and lots of pretty people. When we checked in to our hotel we used their computer to buy tickets to Sagrada Familia. It is a monstrous church built by the Spanish architect Gaudi. We explored the city a little bit in the evening – walked down to Plaza Catalunya, the Ramblas, Passeig da Gracia until we were too tired to walk. In the morning we set out to visit the Sagrada Familia cathedral. It is an unbelievable big, weird structure. After our tour, we trie do take the tour of another Gaudi structure – Casa Batilo – but the line for tickets was too long so we gave up and went to lunch in a very nice and modern Cerveseria Catalunya. We tried to get into it the previous night for dinner, but it was mobbed. We had some great tapas and wine and then walked down the Rambla back to our hotel for a little rest.

Day 16 Leaving Morocco

We left our Novotel hotel and our driver took us to the Hassan II mosque. They claim it is the largest mosque in the world but don’t say that so not to offend the holy mosques in Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It is very large and very ornate. It was built in 7 years completed in 1993. After an hour tour we drove to the beach neighborhood of Casablanca called la Corniche. It’s probably the Beverly Hills of Casablanca. Lots of private clubs right on the sea with pools and tennis courts. From there to the airport. We passed nice neighborhoods with grandiose houses. The airport is very disorganized. Our driver dropped us at terminal 2 and an employee and then information told us we had to go to terminal 1. When we got there, we were told that our flight was in terminal 2 so we had to go all the way back. This was a very interesting trip. We certainly enjoyed traveling with our friends Ed and Sandi Collett. It was nice celebrating their 50 year anniversary with them. There seems to be construction everywhere in Morocco. Roads and buildings being constructed everywhere. Unfortunately, the new developments are not attractive at all – haphazardly placed buildings in the middle of dirt, no greenery, but often lots of garbage around. Many of the new buildings seem unfinished and already sort of crumbling. In southern Morocco, close to the desert, the color of buildings old and new is usually the color of the soil – reddish clay. We encountered dozens of police stops on the roads. We were never detained but we wonder what the purpose is. There are donkey and mule carts everywhere. It seems to be still a predominant mode of transporting goods and people in the countryside. There is a scarcity of western clothing. Outside of Casablanca most women wear the long robes (djallabas), which are in all possible colors. Men also wear djallabas, but theirs are usually brown or dark and have hoods. Prices for tourist goods (crafts) vary greatly from city to city, but bargaining is the general rule.