Trip to Spain and Morocco
Day 7: departure from Córdoba and arrival at Granada:
After breakfast at our hotel Al Faros we started to gather in the lobby, put the bags in a van and started walk to our bus on main road.
My suitcase’s zip was stuck on my arrival to Córdoba and finally broke when tried to open. Had to buy another one for 85 Euros.
How ever these small incidents are part of traveling!
Here we stayed at “ Five senses “ hotel. The room was good but no drinking water or kettle for tea and coffee was available in the room.
Next day the excitement was on its height as we were visiting Alhambra the famous Andalusian Castle of the Muslim rulers. Our guide was a Muslim convert lady named Mariam.
Before that went to the Tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella ( the archest Muslim enemies). Photography wasn’t allowed!
Granada is a city in southern Spain’s Andalusia region, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It's known for grand examples of medieval architecture dating to the Muslims rule especially the Alhambra. This sprawling hilltop fortress complex encompasses royal palaces, serene patios, centuries old cypress trees and gardens.
Next day when we were shopping on the street, noticed a city tour tram and had a fun tour on it. Granada has many pebbled streets all around. It’s an intricate design since Muslims rule! It was a rough ride over it , still enjoyed the city.
Name and Origin:
The city's name may have been derived either from the Spanish granada (“pomegranate”), a locally abundant fruit that appears on the city's coat of arms, or from its Moorish name, Karnattah (Gharnāṭah), possibly meaning “hill of strangers.” Granada was the site of an Iberian settlement earlier.
Alhambra
This magnificent sight is hard to sum up with a few words: The Alhambra is a palace, castle, summer retreat and enclosed town all in one enchanting place.
It was built during the 1200s and 1300s for the Nasrids, who ruled the the Emirate of Granada in the final centuries of Muslim control in Andalucia.
After the Muslims it also became the royal court of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I and Ferdinand II.
For me it was a proud moment to witness one of the greatest Muslims architecture and heart breaking too. Spend an enthralling day pottering about royal chambers, serene courtyards and divine renaissance and Moorish palaces.
Visited and prayed in two Mosques, one close to our hotel built by Abudhabi ruler Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahian . A beautiful masjid and the area seemed like a Muslim area with Islamic stores, playing recitation of Quran and halal food restaurants. They’re kind enough to specifically open it for us.
The other one was the Grand Mosque or جامع مسجد غر ناطہ . Allah knows his ways, as Islam was totally eliminated in this country!
The travelers !
Trip to Spain and Morocco
Rabat , Casablanca,Madrid and back home!
We have to leave our hotel Dar Bensauda early in the morning at 6 am. Our breakfast was nicely arranged by hotel early in the morning. In the meantime we were quite acquainted with hotel’ friendly and courteous staff.
After breakfast at our hotel, we met our guide and driver and set out to the city of Meknes, where together with our guide saleem we explored the major highlights in about 3 hours. We start with admiring the grand entrance to the city and as well the most beautiful gates in the world - Bab Mansour.
Rabat was a 2-1/2 hour drive from Meknes. A vast lush green landscaping , Olive trees and date palms could be seen on sides of the road.
Rabat, Morocco's capital, rests along the shores of the Bouregreg River and the Atlantic Ocean. It's known for landmarks that speak to its Islamic and French-colonial heritage, including the Kasbah of the Udayas. This Berber-era royal fort is surrounded by formal French-designed gardens and overlooks the ocean. The city's iconic Hassan Tower, a 12th-century minaret, soars above the ruins of a mosque. Here some Royal guards were standing on horses with whom we had pictures!
After Roaming around we arrived at our hotel to spend the night:
After early morning breakfast grabbing the luggage we rode our bus with guide and started for Casablanca!
Casablanca means white palace القصر ابیض
Tour of Casablanca�Welcome to Casablanca - Morocco's largest city and in fact one of the largest and most important hubs in entire Africa!
We were supposed to go to shopping and Saleem warned us about pickpockets in the area to take care of our belongings! Everyone was quite alert.On arrival at Casablanca we went to big white mosque besides Atlantic Ocean build by former ruler Hassan II of Morocco. It is the second largest functioning mosque in Africa and is the 7th largest in the world. Its minaret is the world's second tallest minaret at 210 metres. It was a magnificent mosque we went to see, designed by the French architect Michel Pinseau.
Unfortunately there were no arrangements for us to get inside not even allowed to use the washrooms. Therefore we just roamed around, took pictures, strolled down the shores of Atlantic and came back to the van. Most of the group people were eager to do shopping while I was the only one for sightseeing with no success. All got busy in shopping in the plaza, had some juice and ice cream . We were there for 1-1/2 hour before going to airport and take a flight to Madrid:However three persons were untraceable after deadline and it took another 1/2 hour to trace them. Finally when they return we took a sigh of relief and started our journey to airport. Just had a drive through and a glimpse of city that was all we did in Casablanca.
Saleem and driver bid farewell to us at the airport. As we were checking in,Yasmin Ahmed our tour operator and a co passenger Saba faced some problem with booking. Rest of our group left for Madrid while unaware about their fate.
It was utterly irresponsible of Yasmin that she didn’t contact us to give us guidelines about our night stay at Madrid and departure!
After arrival we ran around the airport to do Covid testing for tomorrow morning departure and find some place to have a night stay. There was no news of Yazmin.Finally Zarina was successful to get the hotel name through her daughter contacting Yazmeen somehow. We hired Taxis arrived at hotel by midnight while half of the group preferred to stay at the airport. Dead tired and exhausted, slept for a couple of hours and early morning at six we again hired taxis and went for Covid testing at a nearby clinic.The clinic charged us 70 euros per person.
After getting our reports again hired taxis and went back to hotel. My flight was two hours earlier than rest of the group. Hurriedly did my breakfast, grabbed my luggage, called taxi and rushed to the airport ( Yasmin Ahmed still has to pay me 40 euros because it was to be reimbursed by her).
I was dropped at terminal two the wrong terminal and the airline counter was at terminal four.luckily got a ready to go shuttle bus and was helped with luggage by some nice boys.After checking in by skipping the long lines through request had to go through train to gate S.
The Aerlingus flight was at time. Totally exhausted slept most of the time up to Dublin. From Dublin to Toronto had a meal service luckily.
After arrival at Toronto, standing till the last moment at conveyor built, my luggage didn’t arrive. Looked at the tags , it was booked upto Dublin.At checking in I told the agent that my destination is Toronto and she affirmed it.
Filed the complaint with Aer Lingus agent there. The luggage finally arrived after a week.
This was the end of the long awaited and exhausted trip.
All is well that ends well!
