And so from Chefchaouen by road through from the mountains and a little over three hours with stops for pictures brings you to the famous city of Casablanca made famous by the Humphrey Bogart film of the same name - who doesn't remember the immortal lines "Of all of the Gin Joints in all of the towns in all of the world she walks into mine".
The road into Casablanca must have been through one of the worst slum areas I have ever journeyed through and I felt quite guilty we would be staying in one of the best 5 star hotels in the city "Le Royal Mansour Méridien" courtesy of staff discount of one of my fellow travellers.
It was also the city where Tammy Sue Kahler-Lane would be leaving us to travel back to the U S of A and in her place we were being joined by Lynn LeBoutilliers sister in Law Rene LeBoutilier.
We would only be staying one night here and we were determined that we would see some of the city and eat a last meal in Morocco with Tammy in "Ricks Cafe" from the film that had been lovingly restored by an ex US Ambassador. Tammy had been a fabulous travel companion and would be missed.
So early we set off to see the local area and find where "Ricks Cafe" could be found and book a table for that night and the task was far from easy as we were about to find out as although the venue is famous around the world very few of the locals had ever heard of it.
As we wandered the streets it was amazing how poor the area looked however every so often you would come across an impressive building that we thought might be Ricks Cafe from the outside and if you look inside the interior is a complete contrast to the area but no luck until speaking to this young lady who only enhanced my opinion of Moroccans - After asking her where it was she spent over 35 minutes stopping and asking people in the street until a man googled it gave her directions and she took us there and refused a drink just said in good English "Welcome to Morocco"
Having found the venue we booked ourselves a table for that evening and decided to make the most of it by having a drink at the bar.
As you can imagine after a walk back through the dusty streets the girls decided to get ready early for the evening out and I took advantage of the pool area before getting ready myself for the evening meal in probably the most famous venue in Casablanca.
The evening in the Cafe was an experience, The meal was very good, Expensive but Good. The atmosphere is great but there is not a "No Smoking" rule in place and the girl on the next table smoked even while she was eating so if your a non smoker as the five of us were it was a bit of a spoiler but how can a man look for any negatives when surrounded by Four beautiful ladies - My very own Charlies Angels.
Tomorrow after seeing Tammy off the four of us will continue down the coast for an overnight in Safi before heading inland to Marrakesh.
