Marvelous Morocco: A Whirlwind Tour of a Magnificent Country

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MARVELOUS MOROCCO: A WHIRLWIND TOUR OF A MAGNIFICENT COUNTRY

     Llew and I had visited Morocco very briefly in 2002–yes, 17 years ago, on a driving tour of Southern Spain, we had crossed the Straits of Gibraltar from Tarifa by taking a ferry that brought us to the fair-tale coastal town of Tangier. There we had spent a brief two days on a lighting visit of a fabled city that was packed with a medina, a labyrinthine kasbah, the minarets of mosques that dominated the skyline and interesting people whom we remember as really attractive (especially the young women). We had sworn then that we would return soon...but we only finally made that wish a reality during Thanksgiving break his year. This time, we decided, we would see as much of the country as we could in the short time that was available for our leisure. After much debate, we resolved to join a conducted package tour that would originate in Marrakech and wind us around the highlights of this fascinating country.  Accordingly, we made bookings and were off. 

Thursday, November 21, 2019: New York-Casablanca

Getting to Morocco

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And our journey began in Connecticut in the morning as we called for a cab to take us to Fairfield Station from where we took our regular train to the city as it was going to be a working day for both of us. We each had a small stroller bag and a back pack. Our cabbie arrived late (as he could not find our house), but we got to the station on time and made our train.

In Manhattan, I accompanied Llew to his office building so that I could leave my case with him. I would return there in the evening to pick it up before we made our way to the shuttle bus to Kennedy airport. The plan worked well.

At 3.30 pm, I left Washington Square, after teaching my last class, took the subway, met Llew who had just finished a late meeting and together we took the 5.00 pm shuttle that left from outside Grand Central Station. Traffic was horrendous and it took us an hour and a half to get to the airport—primarily because the driver did not take the Midtown Tunnel. We were a bit worried because although we had checked in and had our boarding passes, we did want to check in our bags.

We need not have worried. Check-in was very swift and very smooth and the traffic assistant whose name was actually Bridget Jones (I kid you not!), very kindly changed our aisle seats to a window and an adjoining seat. We had the middle seat vacant—so that we were actually able to stretch out and get some sleep as we were on a red-eye flight. We were both drowsy by the time they served dinner but we did awake to enjoy it. Llew had red wine while I had a beer; he had the chicken while I had the salmon with thick noodles in a tomato-red pepper-olive sauce (which was terrific). There was also a tuna salad which was very good and chocolate cake with whipped cream. I saved the bread roll with the cheese and decided to eat it for breakfast the next morning. We were sleeping and we missed the actual breakfast service—sadly.

  After a really comfortable flight, we arrived at our destination (the city of Casablanca where we had a brief layover), but it was already the next morning as a new day had dawned.

     A Bientot!