Time goes by quite nicely at oasis of relative calm

Thanks to Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, the very mention of the word Casablanca comes loaded with impossibly romantic connotations. The reality is a bit different: with more than four million inhabitants, the famous Moroccan port is a grimy urban metropolis, vibrant but dusty and dirty and clogged with traffic, and beset with an unfortunate reputation for poverty and crime.

With Arab influences fighting for air alongside western-style shopping malls, Casa resembles a busy southern European city like Marseille more than its African counterparts – albeit a Marseille with its own Rick's Cafe recreated in the walls of the Old Medina where the pianist does indeed play As Time Goes By.

The largest city in the Maghreb (formerly known as the Barbary Coast) also has its own racecourse in the beguiling shape of Anfa, a green oasis of relative calm located just west of the centre in the poshest, most westernised sector of town. The green comes primarily from the nine-hole golf course in the middle of the track; all of Morocco's racecourses race exclusively on dirt (or sand), lack of water offering a major disincentive to more verdant ambitions.