For some reason, the countdown to our Morocco trip was especially exciting. "Four weeks from now we'll be in Morocco!" "Eleven days from now we'll be in Morocco!" "Tomorrow we leave for Morocco!" We planned well in advance, catching up on our immunizations, picking up a prescription antibiotic "just in case," and discussing what to pack. Somehow I didn't notice until we got to the airport that this was my husband's stylish footwear selection:
Yeah, I tried to sit a few seats away.
Speaking of the airport, for years LAX has been remodeling the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Believe me, it needed it. It was the ugliest terminal in the world. Now, however, the scaffolding is down, revealing an upscale and interesting shopping area. I think it can hold its own among the world's international terminals. I especially love this video tower upon which various images are projected for twenty or thirty minutes at a time. I call this particular projection "The Monument of Lost Luggage":
We had a very L-O-N-G non-stop flight to Paris (10 hours), and then a very short connection (1.5 hours). All those wonderful French pastries and baguettes in the CDG airport were calling to me but had to wait until our next visit on our return flight. Airport security was especially tight because Paris had been attacked by ISIS terrorists just four months before. We showed our passports when we disembarked from our LA flight. We were routed back through a full security check that required a couple more passport checks. There were long lines everywhere. We showed our passports again to get on the bus that took us out to our plane. Altogether I think we showed our passports four times just for a transfer to a different plane in the same airport. We made it to our connecting flight gate with just enough time for a bathroom stop before catching the bus to the plane and boarding. At least we got to see "Casablanca" on the sign.
Our flight took a bit more than two hours, and we arrived in Casablanca ahead of schedule. I think we got there before the English-speaking driver who was sent by
Naturally Morocco, the tour company we worked with to arrange drivers and tour guides. We wandered around for a bit checking all the signs being held up until one tour guide mentioned to us that there was a second international arrival gate and that we might want to try that one. We did, and we found our driver Yusuf holding up a sign that said "Cannon." Whew.
After we stopped at an ATM machine in the terminal for some cash (Note: This was the best exchange rate we had on the entire trip), we headed out of Casablanca along the Atlantic coastline towards the capital city of Rabat, where we would turn inland towards Fes.
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| Old travel poster: "Railway Companies of Morocco" |
