Well I finally made it to Africa! I’m spending a week on a tour visiting some of the major hot spots of the country. I lucked out and there are only six people on the tour, three Aussies, two Kiwis, and myself. Our first stop was the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. It’s the largest mosque I have been to and boasts the tallest minaret in the world. Fun fact: the word minaret in Arabic means light house, originally they had lights on them to help people navigate from town to town!

The mosque was completed in 1993 so is one of the most modern I’ve been to. The floors are heated in the winter and the ceiling opens to provide air flow when the mosque is busy and hot. The doors are made of titanium to avoid oxidation as the mosque is right next to the Atlantic Ocean.

The rest of the day was a lot of short stops in various places on our way to and through Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Unfortunately, I learned along the way that my job was cut as part of layoffs at my company. But here are some tidbits of what we saw before that news took my headspace away. After I figure out all my severance paperwork I’m determined to go back into full vacation mode.

Here is a view of a the new telecommunications building in Rabat. I love the wetlands below it…hope they don’t build over those…

This is the remains of a mosque that was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1700’s. I love that they turned it into this gathering space, they also added a shrine to Mohamed V who was a King of Morocco.

That’s it for day one, I think today and tomorrow will be particularly interesting. Stay tuned!