When I was first looking at cruises and I selected the cruise we took to Greece in October, I had also seen this cruise. It interested me - Morocco and the Canary Islands: two places which I wasn't sure if/when I would go there, but sounded fascinating to see. Honestly the idea of going to Casablanca really made me excited - I think it was the 16 year old in me. Out of curiosity, I priced the cruise... just to see what it would be. When I priced it out, I found a great deal on a balcony room. This cruise had more "at sea" days, so I thought having a balcony would be nice to have a private "escape," so to speak. The cruise also went during our anniversary, and I suppose I liked the idea of having a trip over our anniversary. Although it seemed a bit indulgent to book two cruises so close together, we decided to go for it.
The cruise left and returned to Barcelona. We hadn't been to Barcelona, and the cruise left on a Tuesday, so I planned to add two days before the cruise to explore Barcelona. When I looked into flights, the prices were the same if we took cheap Ryan Air (as the tickets weren't cheap) or took Lufthansa. With Lufthansa we each got a free checked bag, and knowing the baggage fees on other airlines, this made the extra drive to the Frankfurt Airport worth it (versus with Ryan Air the airport we use is closer). All I have to say is WOW. We were spoiled... or else we have gotten used to flying on the cheap airlines. The plane appeared brand new, and boarding was an orderly thing (which is a huge change from Ryan Air. Normally you are herded on like cattle). After take off, the stewardess came through and was passing out sandwiches. At first I thought these people had bought sandwiches, because, well, any food you get on other flights you have to buy. I was shocked as a sandwich was placed in front of me. I was even more shocked when I was offered free wine or beer to go along with my sandwich (mind you, this is only about an hour and a half long flight). I declined the booze, but asked for a Coke. I was served a Coke with a fresh slice of lemon in it. Seriously? Seriously. Wow. Originally I booked our tickets because of the price and the free baggage, but now I'm thinking it will be hard to go back to the cattle-call flights after experiencing that.
After our "luxury" flight to Barcelona, we took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. Normally I try to find the cheapest way possible to travel from the airport to the city. In the case it would have included a train, and the metro with multiple changes. Again, normally this would be fine, but with two large suitcases I just didn't want to deal with it. For me it was worth the extra money for a taxi to have the convenience. Once we got to our hotel and got checked in/settled, we got a map from the front desk and went out to explore. I had picked our hotel for the location - it was within a few blocks of the Sangrada Familia. The Sangrada Familia is a huge basilica which is still being constructed. It won't be complete until round 2020. The basilica started construction over a hundred years ago and was designed by Antonio Gaudi. In all of my Barcelona research, the one thing I was dying to see was the Sangrada Familia. You have to purchace tickets to go inside of the basilica, and our tickets I purchased in advance were for the next day. I had also bought hop-on-hop-off bus tickets for our time in Barcelona. There was a bus stop right by Sangrada Familia. After walking around the outside of the basilica, we got on the bus.
The next morning we woke up and walked to a local bakery which was a block from our hotel. The bakery had sandwiches as well as breads and pastries. I got a piece of olive bread, while Josh sampled a few different pastries. We then walked back to some of the sites we had seen on the bus yesterday because I wanted a more close-up view and better pictures. It was a chilly, windy morning again, but the sun was shining. I love Barcelona's architecture. There are so many different styles mixed together in the city. I loved the wrought iron balconies on buildings. I loved the mosaic tiles along the street. I loved the unique windows, the colors, the painted designs. I had a lot of fun as we wandered back towards the main sight-seeing area - we were walking without a set plan or direction, which allowed us to see a lot of beautiful things.
As I mentioned earlier, Sangrada Familia was designed by Antonio Gaudi. There are other Gaudi works throughout Barcelona. Our first stop was Casa Batllo and the "Block of Discord." Casa Batllo was designed by Gaudi, and there are a few other buildings on the same block which have contrasting styles. I found it interesting. Gaudi's work is something people either love or hate. I personally loved it - it was completely different from anything I've ever seen before.
We also went past Casa Mila, but it was covered/in the process of having some sort of work done, so Google-ing images of it will probably give you a better idea of what it looks like. You can pay to go inside of both Casa Battlo and Casa Mila. We didn't go into either of them - mainly due to time reasons since our time in Barcelona was limited. However, if/when we go back to Barcelona I would like to take another look and go inside.
After my photo tour, we went to Placa Catalunya, which is a large square. This area is a start of Las Ramblas, which is a pedestrian area full of shops, restaurants, as well a pick-pockets. We only walked through a bit of Las Ramblas on our way to the Barcelona Cathedral. I had found a free Gothic Quarter walking tour online (well, free, but we tipped the guide), which met outside of the Cathedral. I'm glad we had this tour. Our guide was informative about the history and formation of Barcelona. A lot of Barcelona is laid out in clear, well defined wide streets in perfect square blocks. However, the Gothic Quarter is a narrow maze of streets. I'm glad we had a navigator.
Our tour guide pointed out one of her favorite things to eat at a tapas bar, which is what Josh and I did for lunch. This was called "pinchers" or, something close to it. The tapas bar had a buffet of small sandwhiches and sushi-like rolls, and each one had a toothpick in it. You took as many things as you like and just kept track of the toothpicks - at the end they totaled up your bill based on the toothpicks. It was delicious! After our lunch we walked back to our hotel to get our tickets for Sangrada Familia. We had a bit of time to kill before our allotted entrance time, and the combination of the walk and the cold had us feeling hungry again. We found a small cafe near the basilica and tried another Spanish favorite - churros with chocolate. The chocolate is actually listed on the menu as hot chocolate, but it is different from the hot chocolate you have in the states. This isn't something you could drink - it is much thicker with a texture like a very thick syrup. The hot chocolate is served with churros - which weren't like the churros I've had before in the states. The basic premise of the churro was the same - circular, fried, same type of dough - but it wasn't covered with cinnamon/sugar. You dip the churro into the hot chocolate and eat it. It was delicious! I wasn't quite sure what to do with the hot chocolate after my churros were gone, but they provide a spoon to "eat" the chocolate. And ohhhh is it delicious.
Finally it was time for us to enter the Sangrada Familia. I was glad I had purchased our tickets online, because the line for tickets wrapped around the block. Ugh, no thank you. We were able to walk right through the gate and into the basilica. I had seen photos of the exterior and interior of Sangrada Familia, and I was excited to see it in person. I was not prepared. The inside is like nothing I've ever seen before. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I'm pretty sure I took over 60 photos of the interior.
When we left Sangrada Familia the wind was howling and it had started to rain. As much as I wanted to do some more sightseeing, the weather was miserable. We went back to the hotel to nap before we went for dinner.
The next morning I wanted to go one place we had missed out on with the crappy weather the day before. We got our bags shifted around and packed up, and then had our bags stored at the hotel. We took the bus to Parc Guell. Parc Guell was another Gaudi creation. Originally the idea was it was suppose to be an English garden housing area, however no houses were built. The entrance to the park has two buildings which look like gingerbread houses flanking the entrance. There is an upper area which has beautiful mosaic tiles. There is a cost to go into the interior area, but you can walk through the upper area and around the park for free. We chose to go with the free option. It was a sunny day, and we got some beautiful views of the city. Like the other Gaudi places, I really enjoyed it.
After our time in the park, we went back to the hotel, checked out, and called a taxi to take us to the cruise port. We chose a taxi again because of the convenience - the idea of hauling my huge suitcase on the metro and a bus did not appeal to me. As soon as we got out of the taxi at the port there was someone taking our bags for us. There was a huge line to check-in, but we were checked in, through security, and on the ship in 40 minutes. Our room was already available, so we went to drop off our things and then explore the ship. Already I was liking the way Norwegian ran things!
After lunch we spent more time wandering around the ship and seeing what was available for us. When we got back to our room, our bags were already there (fast!). We unpacked and got everything out of the way. By this time it was close to dinner time, so we decided to find some food. The big difference with Norwegian Cruise Line from other cruise lines is they have "freestyle dining," which basically means you can eat whenever you want instead of having an assigned dining time/table. The dining room has a hostess who "checks you in," and then you are seated. That first evening we sat at a table for two. The menu for that night was surf and turf - Josh and I both had steaks and lobster tails with a bottle of wine. Life was rough. After dinner we went to play pub trivia, then saw the show for the night.
The next day was a day at sea. We noticed the ocean was a bit rougher than it had been on our other cruise. On our last cruise, with the exception of one night, you could hardly feel the ship moving. We could feel the ship going through waves - the sea was generally rougher. After a leisurely breakfast, we went to the game room. I had remembered to pack games for this cruise (however, I had forgotten, once again, to pack a clip for the shower curtain. It turns out I didn't need it - our shower had a glass door). We spent the morning playing a new dice game I had bought, which was actually a lot of fun. We joined up to play bingo in the afternoon - we weren't at all lucky, but it was fun. For the afternoon we played some more dice, read books, and relaxed. For dinner than evening we shared a table with others. We met a wonderful older couple from England who were a delight to talk to. We saw them many other times throughout the cruise, and they were fun to chat with. They gave us a lot of advice about our upcoming trip to London, and at the end of the cruise they gave us their contact information, encouraging us to contact them. We also sat with a nice lady who reminded me of what I may have been had I not gotten married - she was single, recently retired, and lived in Seattle with her two cats. We ran into her throughout the cruise as well, and she was always excited to talk to us.
The next morning we arrived in Casablanca, Morocco. We had breakfast and were ready to go for the day, and we were early... I stood out on our balcony and watched as we pulled into port. The sun was rising and was burning off a mist that surrounded the port. I could see the top of the mosque, and the pink of the sunrise was reflecting off of it. It was beautiful. There were many little fishing boats which were headed out for the day. Some of the fishermen waved or blew kisses to us as they went past, others yelled - I have no idea what they were saying. It could have been "Welcome to Casablanca" or "I hate you, die dirty white devils."
I had booked an excursion for us through the ship. I will admit I was a little nervous about Casablanca. It is the most "foreign" place I have been, and although it is one of the most Westernized of the African countries, I was worried. I had also read online that it was best to have a tour guide both for safety, but also to be left alone by other people trying to sell things. Our ship was a bit late clearing customs. We were suppose to wait in the ship's theater for our tour to be called. Even though the ship had stopped moving, I felt like it was still rocking. Sitting inside the theater with no windows and rising heat, I wasn't feeling great. After waiting for awhile, our tour was finally called. We made our way out to our bus and met our tour guide. Being out in the open I felt better.
Our bus went into the city. I was amazed to see all of the traffic - there were cars everywhere, and there didn't appear to be any sort of rules or reason to how people drove. It was chaotic. I was glad we hadn't attempted to walk, or take a public bus. While our tour bus was nice, the local buses looked old and run down with broken windows and ripped seats. There were warehouses and stores everywhere with products spilling out onto the sidewalk - luggage, carpets, fabric, furniture, trinkets, food... Our guide said many of the businesses have two trucks - one which moves the goods, and the other which only remains parked to maintain the parking spot in front of the shop. Once again, I was glad we were on a tour.
Our first stop was the city municipal building. I'll be honest, I don't remember any details at all about this building, but I also wasn't making much effort to listen to the guide. I was only focused on taking pictures - this building was so incredibly beautiful. Like nothing I have ever seen.
After our tour of this building, we were taken across the street to the backside of the prince's palace. This is one area which is open to the public as there is a large courtyard area. Our tour guide wanted to show us two fancy doors to the palace. At the beginning of the tour, our guide had warned us not to take any pictures of the guards or any picture pointed in their general direction as they would be unhappy and would most likely take your camera. Someone in our group didn't listen, and our tour guide got into a yelling match with one of the guards. The person's camera was taken, but I believe they just had to show the pictures they had taken proving they were only taking "tourist" photos and not "spy" photos. It was a bit intimidating to walk past the guards in their military uniforms (so foreign from what I'm used to seeing) with their old, wood guns. Creepy, in a way.
We continued on being led through a residential area of Casablanca. I was fascinated by all of the doorways and decorative tiles. We made a stop at an olive market - two major commodities in Casablanca are olives and dates. We didn't buy any - I was worried about customs, getting them back on the ship, and... I was honestly a bit nervous about eating anything and getting sick.
We continued in our walk before we made it back to the bus. The bus then took us to the Hassan II Mosque. The mosque is right on the ocean, and can hold over 100,000 people. The construction of the mosque was completed in 1995. Our tour guide led us through the mosque and explained in detail different parts of the mosque and outlined parts of the Islam religion (I'm going to be honest - I know nothing about Islam. Our tour guide never specified if he was Muslim or not, but the way he explained Islam lead me to believe he is). The interior and exterior of the mosque was stunning. I definitely came away with a whole new understanding of the Islam religion.
Our group made a quick stop for refreshments, then went to a shopping area. We were taking to one large store where there were all of the traditional Moroccan products for sale - it was a special store which was protected and guaranteed by the Moroccan government to be controlled and safe. In other words, we wouldn't get ripped off. I had been told by many people how cheap shopping in Morocco is. They were right. I got a beautiful painted bowl, a leather book cover, postcards, a small glass, and Josh got a leather coin holder for about 25 Euros. Another reason I was glad we were on a tour - we heard from other people they had been hounded by vendors and followed around by people trying to sell them things. We never had anyone bother us. It was worth it to have the guide.
We got back to port with a lot of extra time as our ship was staying in port late, but we decided we had seen everything we wanted. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. We went for dinner, then saw the show which was a group of Spanish Flamenco dancers. It was fascinating to see. I haven't seen much Flamenco before, and it made me think of a mixture of tango, tap dancing, and ballet, in a strange way. I loved the show. We went for a late night dip in the hot tub before calling it a night.
They made an announcement on the ship that they were going to change the order of our next ports. We were suppose to go to Maderia then Lanzarote, but in an attempt to avoid some weather, so we were going to do it in the opposite order, or Lanzarote then Maderia. It didn't matter either way to us as we didn't have any set tours or plans, and I was all for us attempting to avoid weather. Thus far the seas had been somewhat rough - nothing bad, just rougher than we experienced before. But, the adventure was just starting...
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