“Round up the usual suspects…”

Day 12/16 Viking Vesta “Malta, Morocco and the Mediterranean” cruise

March 24, 2026

Casablanca, Morocco

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As yes…Morocco! Another exotic North African port on the Mediterranean! Except our port of call today is Casablanca which meant that we had to sail in the rough Atlantic Ocean overnight to get to the port of Casablanca, which is one of the top 5 busiest container ports in Africa. Our tour guide said it was the 2nd busiest after Durban, South Africa, but he was wrong. Fact checking guides is a habit since they like to make their city bigger and better than it is!

Morocco was under the French mandate as a protectorate from 1912 to 1956. During this time the Sultan of Morocco remained on the throne but a authority was shared with France. After 1956 Morocco gained independence from France. French is largely spoken throughout Morocco and much of Morocco’s architecture hails from the Moors or French colonial period.

Casablanca is Morocco’s largest city with 3.22 million people in the urban area and 4.27 million in Greater Casablanca. Morocco has a population of 32 million. Morocco is about 7.4% larger than the Province of Alberta in Canada, but yet has a much larger population.

Morocco is made up of 65-80% high areas including the High Atlas, Middle Atlas, Anti-Atlas and Rif Mountains. Morocco is a very arid country with desert like conditions across over 75% of the country.

Morocco’s economy is based largely on agriculture (26%) where olives, citrus fruits (clementines) and wine grapes are grown and watered is suppled by artesian wells for these crops. Morocco is fairly self sufficient in its production of wheat and other grains with 2/3rds of the grains grown domestically for consumption. Unreliable rainfall and drought is a chronic problem though for the agricultural industry.

Morocco is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of cannabis and much of the cannabis is processed into hashish and smuggled by criminal groups to Europe as well as Algeria via weak points in Algeria’s closed border. This illicit activity represents .57% of Morocco’s GDP.

We had elected to take the included tour of Casablanca today, which again meant sitting on a bus with glimpses of city of Casablanca’s from the bus windows. Our aged guide had a helper with him today as our guide suffered from glaucoma.

Hassan II Mosque dominates the skyline of Casablanca as it was built right on the water, according to the writing in the Qur’an which says “the throne of God was upon the water” and to invite believers who go to the mosque to remember the greatness of God who created the sea and the sky.

The first stop on our tour was to see The Hassan II Mosque which is the 2nd largest mosque in Africa and one of the largest mosques in the world. The minaret is the worlds 2nd tallest at 689 ft. The mosque was completed in 1993 and was designed by Michel Pinseau under the guidance of King Hassan II. The minaret is 60 stories high and stands on a promontory looking out to the Atlantic Ocean. The minaret has a laser light on top which is directed towards Mecca. The mosque has a capacity of 105,000 - 25,000 inside the mosque’s hall and 80,000 on mosque’s outside ground.

Hassan II, who the mosque is named for, ascended to the throne of Morocco in 1961 when his father, the King died. He also inherited the position of Prime Minister of Morocco. In 1962 he and his aides wrote Morocco’s first constitution defining the kingdom as a social and democratic constitutional monarchy, making Islam the state religion and creating the title of ‘Amir al-Mu’minin’ and “supreme representative of the nation’ for the king whose person was defined as ‘inviolable and sacred’. Hassan II had thousands of dissidents jailed, killed and exiled or forcibly disappeared from the periods 1960’s to 1980’s which were labelled as ‘years of lead”. It is only after strong international pressure and condemnation over Morocco’s human rights record, that Moroccos’ human rights have improved modestly and significantly since Hassan II’s successor, his son, Mohammed VI took power.

Mohammed VI is the present King of Morocco and took office in 1999. When he became King he introduced reforms and changed the family code to grant more rights to women such as the right to choose a spouse, the right to divorce, the right to education, the right to retain wealth, the right to inheritance and financial independence.

A street sign with Arabic, Berber and French languages on it. Morocco recognizes all 3 official languages.

Mohammed VI has also modernized the economy and military forces and promoted non-sectarian Islam and Berber culture recognizing Standard Moroccoan Amazigh (Berber) as an official national language alongside Standard Arabic language.

Mohammed VI is Morocco’s richest businessperson. He is estimated to be worth $5.8 billion. He owns land in Morocco which is used tax free for agricultural production. He is also a part owner in a company called ‘Les domaines’ which also owns and runs the 2nd oldest golf course in Morocco - the Royal Golf de Marrakech golf club! His palace’s daily operating budget is reported to be $960,000 which is paid for by the Moroccan state with much of it accounted for by the expense of personnel, clothes and car repairs!

Royal Palace of Casablanca

We visited the exterior of the Royal Palace of Casablanca which was built in 1920 in the very chi chi neighbourhood of Hubous. This is not where Mohammed IV actually lives, just where he stays when he comes to visit in Casablanca. The King actually lives in the capital of Morocco which is in Rabat approximately 1 hour or 87kms away.

Church of Notre Dame of Lourdes.

After wandering around the exterior of the Royal Palace with our guide, we hopped back on the bus for a drive to the Catholic church “Church of Notre Dame of Lourdes”.

Stained glass windows of the Church.

The Virgin Mary.

Richard lighting a candle for his father.

Grotto of Mary

I really think the reason we stopped here was there were free bathrooms and the guide knew the bus could park right outside the church. Regardless, we went inside to see the stained glass windows and Richard lit a candle in the Grotto of Mary after purchasing the candle for 1 euro.

Our tour then ended up at United Nations Square where our Guide walked everyone to the ‘Government’ tourist store for anyone who wanted to purchase fixed price souvenirs. Since we didn’t want to stay with the tour and take it back to the ship, we gave our guide his $5USD tip and headed towards the Old Medina of Casablanca.

Hyatt Regency, Casablanca, Morocco, overlooking the Old Medina.

Old Medina and gate of of the Medina across the street from the Hyatt Regency and The Cafe de Paris.

I was familiar with this area of Casablanca after having staying in the Hyatt Regency hotel overlooking the Old Medina in 1997. The area now has a tram system as well as an underground passage to go under the busy street, to avoid the crazy traffic.

Back in 1997 at this very spot in Casablanca is where I realized that traffic lights are ‘just a suggestion’! No one obeys the lights - pedestrians or drivers. Drivers also drive in the lanes indicated on the roadways as well as ‘on the lines’. So 3 lines of traffic can turn into 5 lanes of traffic pretty quickly. I was glad to see the underground passage to the Old Medina instead of having to try and cross the street. Although having survived Saigon and Hanoi with 12 lanes of traffic and motor scooters and cars driving right at us, Casablanca seemed pretty tame after Vietnam.

Traditional Moroccan Mint Tea which is drunk by all of the locals.

Real mint leaves in the tea pot.

But first….we had to stop for some Moroccan mint tea! We found a corner cafe called “Cafe de France” where we ordered 2 mint teas. Along with the mint teas we were given 2 bottles of water at no extra charge or included in the price. We weren’t sure. Regardless, the mint tea with fresh mint, a sugar cube, in the small glasses was a delightful pause to our hectic, early morning on our tour. Visiting a cafe also meant access to clean restrooms which were located up the staircase in the restaurant.

As we crossed under the street in the underground passageway I saw that there was a photo exposition going on under the street. There were definitely some interesting photos of Morocco which showcased Morocco’s Art Deco history on some of the architecture.

The Old Medina of Casablanca was just starting to come to life when we arrived around noon time.

There were many vendors who were slowly opening their stalls and as we wandered through the narrow streets of the souk,

I remember the last time I had visited this market and what I had purchased while I was here.

We wandered into the food market section of the souk by mistake and that sure was a shock to our system! The live chickens in their cages, fruits and vegetables lined up for sale by their vendors. What got me though was the smell of the fresh fish, and fresh chicken out in the sun, with lots of flies and other bugs flying around the food. I couldn’t face going any further into the food market area of the souk as the stench was making me nauseated. We quickly turned around without buying anything and headed back to the more civilized section of the souk.

The last time I was in this souk I was followed and a man kept trying to take me to his

stall so I could buy silver. Today’s vendors were a lot tamer and no one followed us or tried to push us to visit their stalls. There were some “come and look…nice scarf” or “Hey Canada - come and take a look”. Nothing overly pushy frankly and nothing we couldn’t handle.

I spent quite a bit of time at a shoe/leather store and ended up negotiating for some leather sandals, slippers and purses. Whatever the guy was trying to sell me the items for I immediately cut the price in half, then pulled out the US cash I was willing to negotiate with and then started to walk away. As he bagged up the purchases, I knew that I had a fair deal and so did he. If he took my money, he must have been happy with the price I paid!

We stopped and looked at some jewellery and were able to negotiate a great price on a Rolex watch for someone who had asked us to buy them a fake Rolex. The vendor even changed the watch battery for us in the ‘Rolex’.

It was getting on 2pm and neither one of us wanted to eat in Casablanca, so we headed back to United Nations Square where we knew the Viking shuttle would be waiting to take us back to the port. The port in Casalanca has a naval base attached to it, and therefore we couldn’t walk back to the ship on our own. As soon as we boarded the shuttle, the Excursions Manager Leon also boarded and then the doors closed and we headed back to the Vesta.

The new cruise port terminal in Casablanca. It was built in 2024.

Luckily Viking had kept the World Cafe open on one side for those who had been out and about in Casablanca, so we grabbed some lunch, sat and ate outside on the Aquavit Terrace on Deck 7, overlooking the container ships in the port.

While Richard napped, I decided to go to the gym and have a big workout, then use the steam room, therapy pool, hot tub, snow grotto, sauna and cold plunge pool. I finished up with a shower and hair wash down in the women’s locker room. I really do enjoy this amenity on Viking. There is hardly anyone ever in the gym or using the spa area and I really appreciate not having to pay extra for the spa. Other cruise lines like Holland America can charge up to $80 USD a day to use the spa. The benefits of the gym and spa area are immense especially after all of the walking we have been doing on rough, uneven terrain.

We had a quick dinner with David and Julie in the World Cafe and then Richard, David and I went up to Deck 7 Explorer’s Lounge at 8pm for “Name that Tune” Motown Team Trivia. We ended up 18/30. Not good enough to win with one group having 25 correct answers!

Richard has found that doing laundry at night is the best time to get a washer and dryer, so after Team Trivia he did 2 loads of laundry while we watched another 2 episodes of a TV drama we have gotten hooked on while on the Vesta.

The days are full onboard and while we have enjoyed visiting the ports in North Africa, we are looking forward to visiting Spain and Cadiz awaits tomorrow.

“Round up the Usual Suspects” is a line from the 1942 movie Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The movie was about a cynical expatriate American cafe owner in WWII who struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco, Our visit to Casablanca and Morocco had the usual suspects - the cafe owner serving us mint tea, the hawkers in the market trying to sell us goods, the shoe shine vendor with his wooden box of rags and polishes going from table to table looking to shine shoes, the blind guide making a living as best he could with the assistance of his helper. “All the usual suspects” in a cosmopolitan, busy, African port city trying to make a living and doing the best they can with what they have. I’m sure the city did not appeal to some people because its edgy and different than North American cities, but the undercurrent of wealth in the City made us realize, there is more to Casablanca and Morocco than meets the eye. Definitely a country to come back to on a guided tour, with more time for exploration in more places, but not the top of my bucket list!.