Mohammedia (Casablanca), Morocco, 21.07.2009
I know, I know, long time no see,.. Sorry for writing no reports for now 4 weeks, but you must know, I am here for work and not for holidays. The weeks are sometimes really exhausting and busy, so I didn't want to spend also the weekends and my spare time in front of the computer. Although we worked hard, there was not as much progress as we expected, but I don't want to talk about that now, because much more interesting is, what we did the last few weekends. So enjoy the pictures!
BBQ at the "Manesman Beach"
With a beautiful sunset,..
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The core team of the previous month (except the dog)
Playing with the camera,...
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May the force be with you...
BBQ on our roof top one week later,..
Dark night,... On my original you still can see the stars clearly on this picture!
Moonrise at night,..
Rabat: The next weekend we spend a day in Rabat. Actually Rabat seems to be more nice than Casablanca to me. The old city is more nice, the Medina more clean, the beach is bigger, the harbor has nice cafes, only we couldn't check the nightlife there.
The Kashba of Rabat,..
Inside of the Kashbah
Two strangers,...
This whole part of the Kashba is like this. Really beautiful small roads with blue and white paintings,..
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The kashba from outside,..
and from a cafe in the harbor,..
Shady shopping in the medina,..
not so shady places in the Medina,..
handmade perfume,..
and a moroccan taximeter in a petit taxi. Actually it is really cheap to take a taxi here (if they are not cheating)
An old city, which was originally build by the Romans some 2000 years ago,..
Anyone pregnant?
We really saw hundreds of those graceful birds,..
and they had their nests everywhere,..
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The old city walls,..
Enough sightseeing, so we went to the beach in Rabat, but this was not a good idea. It was overcrowded that sunday.
and it is located behind the cemetery and all the crowds where walking through the graveyards,.. 
taking the train in Morocco is also an adventure. We kept the door open because there was no Air con in this train.
but the sight is interesting,..
and it is also an adventure for the kids, which where jumping on the back of this train, which exceeds some 130 km/h
Trip to Marrakech!
Yes, right, last weekend we made a longer travel to Marrakech. The train ride takes from Mohammedia about 4 hours.
But the view is nice. Well, at least in the morning,..
We strongly recommend to take the train early in the morning or late at night. At least in the summer, because the temperatures in Marrakech hit 55 deg Cel these days.
We where "lucky", that we just had to experience some 46 degrees Cel, but I must say, that the air is really dry and 30 deg Cel in Shanghai feels more hot than this.
And we recommend to stay in shady places like Berat here.
Street view from the train station
Camel view from a city tour bus,..
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Donkeys are everywhere in Morocco. Actually they can run much faster than I thought.
A souvenir shop in the Medina of Marrakech
The most famous place in Marrakech. Here you can find people, who present the monkeys as toys and cruel snake masters. Whenever those guys saw me with my camera, they almost forced me to shoot pictures of them. The monkeys and cobras where treated like no being should be treated like. Monkeys where lifted by the rope around their neck to present them to the tourists, the snake masters hit the cobras to show that they are not made of rubber,..
Actually one guy came to Dejan, put him a snake on the neck, while Dejan didn't even agree to that. He called me to shoot a picture of them and then he asked for 100 Dirham (ca. 10 Euros).
The "guides", vendors, salesmen or whatever where really bugging us. After hundreds of them asking, where we come from, we didn't answer anymore and we heard a new question: "French? English? Racist?"! The taxi drivers where asking us to play more than twice the normal price and when paying a 10 dirham trip with 20 Dirham, the say thank you as if you are not expecting any return. Another time, when we where dropped by the taxi close to our accommodation, several people wanted to take our luggage (we had small backpacks) and one guy told us to follow him. We didn't want his help, but he insisted to do so. Without knowing the way and leading us to two wrong places, after less than 10 minutes walking, he was asking for 100 Dirham (ca. 10 Euros) and when we refused to pay that much he really got loud in the hotel lobby. The less tourists are at one place, the more friendly and helpful are the locals.
Also what I recognized in Marrakech was the smell. Yes, it often smells like horseshit. No wonder, the horse or donkey cars are everywhere,..
But don't misunderstand me, Marrakech is a really nice place. But better to go there in spring and also not to the most touristy places.
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Even too hot for the camels,..
We encountered a nice surprise in a restaurant at night. After having great food and some wine, belly dancers sweetened our night.
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and after a great evening we returned to our accommodation in the old part of Marrakech.
Actually my most favorite place there was the pool. Can you imagine to swim alone at night after a hot day and an even hotter evening?
The night view from the roof of our Accommodation>
and the day view,..
breakfast on the roof, and later returning to Mohammedia again.
The return with the train was quite exhausting. It was hot, no air con, not much wind,.. we have been suffering quite much in the train. Next weekend we plan to do a BBQ and some sports around Mohammedia. One week later I will be in Turkey for a short week. So it will again take some time for the next report.