Stage Manager’s Log
M.S. Prinsendam
Saturday, June 3, 2006
Casablanca, Morocco
Another chance to sleep in today. We are in port until 7-ish so I hade plenty of time to get off the ship. I had another continental breakfast this morning before meeting Olivier, Francois, Jonny, and Mark to go ashore at 1230. We hired a taxi to take us around and give us a tour.
We had lunch at a restaurant in town, couscous for all. There was more couscous than we could eat. We had some with chicken and some with lamb I think and it all came with vegetables. We had local Casablanca beer, and some kind of soup too, though I am not sure what kind of soup. It was good though.
Next stop on the tour was the Hasan II mosque. It is one of two mosques that let non Muslims in to visit. It is also the second largest mosque in the world next to Mecca. They have a Laser that they shoot from the top of the minaret at night that points towards Mecca. In the basement of the mosque there are Turkish baths. They were built along with the mosque (which is relatively new) but have never been used because they were designed to operate independently from the mosque and they have not found someone to manage them yet. It is a beautiful building and area.
We saw a bunch of other places in town, and we walked by the beach and one of the central squares. We had espresso at a little café, and then headed back to the ship. I took a lot of pictures today.
After getting back on the ship we had a quick rehearsal for tonight’s variety show. We only had to rehearse with Bettine Clemen as she is the only one who works with the band. After rehearsal I went up for dinner, then back to the lounge for “Best Joke, Worst Joke” and then the shows.
After the regular shows we had the Indonesian Crew show, that was fun. As soon as that was over I pretty much went right to bed. I didn’t have enough energy to read and there was nothing on TV, though I probably would have fallen asleep watching it. So I went right to bed and it felt really good.
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