3rd March
An interesting day today. We started with a tour of Algeciras
looking for fuel and water, which we found eventually before arriving at the
port an hour prior to departure time. After some time we passed through to the
dock side and lined up for what we thought was our boat. Suddenly, we’re directed
through to another vessel further down the quay, which was a relief as the 1st one had welding being done to a "watertight" door! Slowly, more and more trucks
disappeared on board, reversing into position. Then the deck was raised to the
lower deck and the cars, us included, went down inside. So far, so good.
Departure time came and went and more trucks seemed to arrive and back in. An
hour after the scheduled departure time we finally left for Tangier-Med. An
hour and half later we arrive into the outer dock of Tangier-Med and stopped.
Thirty minutes after that we started to dock after the harbour police had been out
and boarded the boat. I watched as the crew very leisurely tied the boat up and
lowered the ramp. Eventually we were called to our cars. All in al, the
crossing that is scheduled to take 1.5 hours had in fact taken closer to 3.5!
Luckily we were not in a hurry. Then the next bit of fun started – getting through
customs. I had already prepared a customs form from their website and had the
required documents to hand. What was not clear was where I was supposed to stop
as I had a load of customs officials running after me to stop, which I did. The
next 20 minutes was spent with some bored, but officious customs officers as I
walked through the process. As one point I woke up a snoozing officer as I
needed to go through another hoop as I’d not been to Morocco before. He rather
grumpily did his job and immediately put his head phones back on, shut the door
and presumably went back to sleep! All that was required was another officer to
take a cursory look in the back of the Freelander before giving me the temporary import document I needed to be
on my way.
Faded grandeur of a bygone era |
We found the hotel Rembrandt after a bit of messing around caused
by the sat nav dropping us just short of the target. Tamsin and Hanna got out and found it on foot
after I had managed to squeeze the car into a space. Having checked in we
decided to go and have a look around. A gentleman that had been helpful to
Tamsin and Hanna when they were looking for the hotel popped up and said that
he would take us around as he was killing time before he started his barman job
later on – we should have been suspicious then.
Abdul took us into the Medina
area which was very interesting in itself with all the shops, hustle and
bustle. En route to the Medina, we passes the Gran Teatro Cervantes, which in it's heyday had been the largest theatre in north Africa, but is sadly now in declne. We visited weavers shops, where they turned out amazing clothes and
what looked like makeshift looms, market stalls crammed full of locally grown
fruit and veg, shops selling argan oil, herbal remedies, spices etc (I picked
up something that is supposed to cure snoring) and a carpet/clothes shop.
At the last place we were treated to mint tea whilst being dressed as Berbers complete with head dress, taken through all the types of material used for rugs, throws, blankets and coats (sheep wool, camel hair, aloe fibre, silk, cotton and agave fibre).
Cherif (the owner) did a good, slow sell job as I ended up bartering for a small rug for my bedside that I was looking out for. On the way back we stopped for dinner at a nice Moroccan restaurant. I started with a salad and Tamsin and Hanna had the soup. The salad was spot on and tasty and I have no idea about the soup as it disappeared before I could try any. The next course was pastilla, which is chicken with a pistachio surround all in a filo pastry – yum! We finished the meal chicken kebabs with couscous, which again were very tasty.
s |
Spice Shop |
At the last place we were treated to mint tea whilst being dressed as Berbers complete with head dress, taken through all the types of material used for rugs, throws, blankets and coats (sheep wool, camel hair, aloe fibre, silk, cotton and agave fibre).
Cherif (the owner) did a good, slow sell job as I ended up bartering for a small rug for my bedside that I was looking out for. On the way back we stopped for dinner at a nice Moroccan restaurant. I started with a salad and Tamsin and Hanna had the soup. The salad was spot on and tasty and I have no idea about the soup as it disappeared before I could try any. The next course was pastilla, which is chicken with a pistachio surround all in a filo pastry – yum! We finished the meal chicken kebabs with couscous, which again were very tasty.
Who is this? |
On the way back we discovered that Abdul wasn’t really
killing time, but was an unlicensed tour guide. A bit annoying, but we did get
to see lots of the city that we never would have without him.
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