Behind Closed Doors

We are getting near to the end of our bus tour of Morocco. The countryside is lush and green and as near to a paradise as I have ever seen. Some homes and buildings are modern and luxurious on the outside, while others are very crude and primitive.

While walking through the streets of Casablanca yesterday, we were assured that behind the closed doors of the decrepit and ruinlike city buildings we would find beautiful, well-kept and super clean homes. It is almost difficult to believe, since still too many streets and highways are littered with plastic and other debris.

Plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic wrap, plastic trash!

Our guide Abdel said that 30 years ago you would not have seen such garbage. As I remember, 30 years ago the whole world did not use as much plastic as we do today. Can you remember when you first began buying plastic bottled water? Does using plastic packaging give us the right to pollute our environment?

Sorry, I digress from my topic of "behind closed doors." 

On this tour of Morocco, we have seen the insides of mosques. Yesterday we entered on our sock feet the second largest mosque in the world in Casablanca. The structure is large enough to accommodate 50,000 people and is interesting, but not as beautiful as the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. 

We saw the outside of the Hassan II Mosque lit up with lights night before last, and that was a bit more impressive. 

Source of next two photos

Mosque Hassan II, from outside in photo above and inside in photo below.

We have seen the inside of several hotels this week, and most have had charming reception areas but less impressive rooms and restaurants. So what you see is not always what you get.

(We are here at Atlas Targa Resort for the last two days. Our bus has been plagued by illness. At present, I am blogging from the reception area. Hub is sleeping off whatever has infected our German bus companions and him. Hopefully he can enjoy the beautiful sunny weather under the palm trees tomorrow before we head back to winter in north Europe.)

As we are not on a family visit nor will we get to peek beyond the real "doors" of this culture, I guess we will never really know what we are missing.

Oh, by the way, we did have a short stop at a Catholic (there is religious freedom in Morocco) church in Casablanca (Notre Dame de Lourdes church). It is quite modern (1956) with a cement roof with tall vertical cement square wall braces separated by lovely Murano glass beams. And the stations of the cross were all done in more spectaular Murano glass. Lovely structure with the brilliant sun shining through the glass! 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholicism_in_Morocco#/media/File:Eglise_N.D._de_Lourdes,_Casablanca,_Diocèse_de_Rabat,_Maroc.jpg

Far more transparent than anything else I have seen!