December 6, 2008: Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
	December 4, 2008: Casablanca, Morocco
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Docking in Agadir

We sailed from Casablanca late on Thursday afternoon, cruising out into the Atlantic and paralleling the coast of Morocco until we arrived in Agadir early on Friday morning, December 5.

Where Casablanca was overcast and grey when we arrived, there was bright sunshine when we awoke the next day, still somewhat north of Agadir. As we sailed southward, we could see the African coast in the distance. Since it was still early, we went and had breakfast at a brunch that took the place of the buffet; it was in the dining room and quite good. When we got back up on deck after breakfast, we were just nosing in to the harbor. There were lots of folks up on deck watching the docking procedure as we came into the harbor, including Fred and myself.

As we came in to our dock, we could look southward and see the city of Agadir in the distance and, across the harbor and very close to it, we could see a mountaintop fortification, which we later learned was called The Casbah (and which we visited later in the day).

We took a few more good pictures as we came into Agadir, and if you will click on the thumbnail images below you can have a look at them:

I made this movie as the ship was coming into the harbor at Agadir, Morocco.

An Orientation to Agadir

During medieval times, there was only a fishing village here- Agadir el-arba. In 1505, the Portuguese established a trading post named Santa Cruz do Cabo de Gué, under a governor. In 1541, the city came under Wattasid control and in 1572 a stronghold was built on the top of the hill overlooking the bay, the Kasbah. Agadir became prosperous for two centuries.

In 1911, the arrival of a German gunboat (the Panther), officially to protect the local German community, triggered the Agadir Crisis between France and Germany which allowed France, in 1913, to occupy nearly the whole kingdom of Morocco.

At 15 minutes to midnight on February 29, 1960, Agadir was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake that lasted 15 seconds, burying the city and killing thousands. The death toll is estimated at 15,000. The earthquake destroyed the ancient Kasbah. On its front gate can still be read the following sentence in Dutch: "Fear God and honour thy King".

On seeing the destruction in Agadir, King Muhammad V of Morocco declared: "If Destiny decided the destruction of Agadir, its rebuilding depends of our Faith and Will." Reconstruction began in 1961, two kilometers south of the earthquake epicentre, and continues to this day. Agadir is a vacation and port city for southern Morocco. Since almost all of the city has been built since 1960, it is much newer than Casablanca, as we learned during the day. There are also still tracts of land in the center of the city that have not yet been rebuilt.

On the aerial view above, I've traced our path as near as I remember it; we were in a taxi, so it is difficult to be sure of the route, although from the aerial views available on the Internet, I can be sure of the locations of the three stops we made.

Touring the City of Agadir

Disembarking in Agadir

Almost all of us decided that we would cooperate on an individual shore excursion today. The two Jims from Palm Springs just wanted to ride into the city, do a bit of shopping and come right back, so they went on their own.

The rest of us came down the gangway to the dock (neatly bypassing the local greeters), and then tried to decide just how we would work things. There were seven of us- Greg, Fred, myself, Tim, David, Pat McGraw and Pat Alexander. This was too many for one taxi, so what we ended up doing was hiring two taxis for the day (I think it worked our to around $25 a person for about four hours). Having made that decision, we piled into our taxis and headed off into the city. Just outside the port, the highway passed below the Kasbah, and there was also a mosque on the slope above us.

Riding into Agadir

The ride into town was pretty quick; I think it is only about three miles between the city and the port. The city looked somewhat like Casablanca, except newer and with fewer tall buildings (perhaps because of the earthquake danger). We snapped a few pictures on the way, including a billboard advertising couscous, and a small sandwich shop. We also took a few pictures of street scenes as we passed along; some of them will be shown below in a recap of our city drive, but you can see a couple more here and here.

At the Market

The taxis brought our group to a souk, or market, since a few of the guys had asked to be taken to where they could do some shopping for gifts to take home. Apparently, it was some sort of holiday today in Morocco, and only a few shops like the one we came to (which catered to tourists) were open today. In any event, I think the guys were happy with what they found here. There are a couple of pictures that we took here that are among the best of this part of our Agadir tour, and they are included below in the recap. But Fred also wanted a few more pictures of the market building itself (which was certainly worth the pictures), and I've put thumbnails for them below. Just click to view:

While the guys were shopping and Fred was taking his pictures, I wandered around the neighborhood south of the market. There was a big open area I had to cross; I imagine that at some point the area will be built up, but now there is just an enclosed athletic area and some vacant land. Some of the pictures I took are in the recap below, but I've put thumbnails for some other below. Just click on the thumbnail images to view:

I made this movie while I was waiting outside the market for the other guys to finish their shopping. You can hear the muezzin in the background as I pan around the neighborhood. Something was recently demolished in the big open area, but I have no idea what.

Lunch at a Local Agadir Restaurant

From the shopping mall, the taxi drivers took us across town to a local Agadir restaurant. I would have liked to include an aerial view of the area where the restaurant was, but I can't find a map with enough detail to allow me to zero in on the street (even though I know its name).

Neither Fred nor I really were hungry, so while the other guys were ordering their lunch (actually, the two taxi drivers did all the ordering as none of us spoke Arabic, and they got their own lunches out of it), we went to the street outside to just wander around and see what we could see. The restaurant seemed to be in a nice neighborhood; a closeup view of some of the apparently residential buildings in the area once again brought together the old and the new. Fred thought this picture of some of these residences was interesting, and I found a streetside mural that I thought was worth a picture.

We went back into the restaurant to find that the guys were just getting their lunch. Tim and David had settled on what appeared to be a safe dish of chicken and fries and vegetables, while everyone else seemed to have opted for what turned out to be not only something of a national dish but the specialty of this restaurant. It was chicken and some lamb with figs, eggs and onions all cooked slowly in a special container. You can see a picture of one of these dishes at left. The taxi drivers gave us to understand that the restaurant cooks a large number of them beginning early in the morning, and when they're gone, they're gone- kind of like donut shops.

Anyway, the lunch was pleasant (and Fred and I did taste the specialty dish and found it quite good), and after we'd finished we headed off to the Kasbah.

Driving Towards the Kasbah

From the restaurant, our taxi drivers took us over to the Kasbah, and, on the way, Fred took three pictures of roadside scenery that you'll find interesting. Just click on the thumbnail images below to view them:

Recapping our City Trip in Agadir

Since we are heading out of the city of Agadir now, this would be a good time to recap our visit. Below are thumbnail images for some of the best pictures we took here in Agadir. Click on them to view:

We Visit the Kasbah

To get to the Kasbah, the taxis headed back out towards the harbor, and then turned off on a relatively new winding road that goes up and around the hill on which the Kasbah is situated, entering the hilltop complex from the north.

On first impression, the Kasbah looks uncannily like a fortress. In fact, that is exactly how it started out. In the 16th century, when the Berbers and Arabs were trying to drive the Portuguese out of the Agadir, they captured the fortified granary on this site and converted it into an artillery fortress from where they could shell the Portuguese fort. The views down to the town and bay are the best around. From the parking area, with his zoom lens, Fred got an extreme closeup of Agadir's finest beach- only about two miles away. As another example, you can look all the way down the main highway into Agadir.

Now, we did not notice it at the time, and no one pointed out to us, but down below the kasbah, someone had cleared patterns in the scrub vegetation- kind of like crop circles. I noticed it when I went to Google Earth to get an aerial view of the hilltop fortress, and you can see these cleared areas in the aerial view at left. Obviously, when you look down from above, you can see that the cleared pattern is actually Arabic writing. Curious about it (Was it advertising? The Arabic equivalent of "Kilroy was here"?), I did some investigation. I couldn't find out who or what organization made the pattern, but it spells out three Arabic words: "God, Nation, King".

There was a surprising amount to do up here at the Kasbah. One thing you could do but we didn't, was ride one of the camels; there were about five or six of them up here. There were also some other animals that you could, for a fee, have your picture taken with. Back at the end of the parking area is one of the old entrances into the granary, and when you walk up the stairs you pass the ruins of a tower, and you can get up onto a higher plateau where most of our pictures were taken. You can see all the way past the Bay of Agadir and the highway into the city and down the African coast past the city itself. This was such a good spot for pictures that we took a lot of them, including pictures of Fred and myself.

We took a number of excellent pictures at the Kasbah, and you can just click on the thumbnail images below to look at as many of them as you wish:

We took some good movies here at the Kasbah, and you can use the players below to look at them:

This movie, taken at the highest point I could get to on the hill, begins with the dock area and our ship, and then pans southwestward across the oceanfront and the city of Agadir, then takes in the Casbah itself.

I made this movie as I was walking through the ruins up onto the top of the mountain where the Casbah is located.

I made this movie from the front seat of the taxi as we drove down the new road up to the Casbah. I thought the work that went into the guard walls was incredible, and the views as we drove weren't bad either.

Returning to the Ship

After spending some time at the Casbah, we piled back into the taxis and headed off down the road towards the main highway, taking some pictures as we went. I should note that the reconstruction was done very well, and the road rivals anything you might see in a National Park. We got back to the ship in plenty of time, and we took a few pictures there. You can click on the thumbnail images below to see the pictures we took on the way back to the ship and at the dock:

Once again, when we got back on board, we went to the Islands Cafe for a snack, and then did our usual thing at the gym before heading on down to the dining room to meet the guys for dinner. While we were at the gym, the ship began to make its way out of the harbor, heading for our next stop- Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands.

You can use the links below to go to another photo album page.

	December 6, 2008: Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
	December 4, 2008: Casablanca, Morocco
	Return to the Europe/Cruise Trip Index