7 April 2017
Still Sailing to Palma, Mallorca (Posting #2)

As promised, I am posting a second blog entry tonight since wifi is amazingly speedy, even uploading photos.  So here are my adventures in Tangier, which turned out to be more interesting than I expected from the reports of others.

6 April 2017
Tangier, Morocco



Arriving at Dock in Tangier

e

Mosque Outside Port Area

My morning shore excursion to the city of Tetouan begins with a one hour bus ride along the seafront promenade in Tangier, passing the outer walls of the Kasbah and a long line of post-modern expensive high-rise hotels.   The road soon begins to rise, however, as we skirt along the foothills of the Rif Mountains westward to the city that is a center of the arts for the nation.

 













 When we reach Tetuoan our excellent guide leads us through the streets of downtown, pointing out the characteristics of the Spanish-Moroccon architecture, which is one of the unique traits of the city.  We pass one of the summer palaces of the King, but tourists are not allowed to enter.  We are allowed to enter the Medina, the wonderful maze of streets and alleyways that is half business and half residential, and the heart of Tetouan.  It is early in the day and many of the shops have not yet opened.  The narrow streets are therefore less crowded than they will be later in the day (when we work our way back through here to reach our coach).  This is much better for seeing things and taking pictures.

 

 

Outside the walls of the Medina is the government-sponsored school of art, certinaly the highlight of this tour.  We get to see students learning and working in various contemporary versions of ancient crafts:  woodwork, painting, decorative stuccowork, weaving, and furniture construction.  The students seem genuinely pleased to let us see their work and invite us to use their tools--I politely decline since my lack of talent would surely mar their work. 

 After winding our way back through the maze of the Medina, our guide takes us to the obligatory but much too lengthy rug showroom sales pitch.  The rugs are quite beautiful (at least some of them are), but there is absolutely no floor space left at North Vista Place in Tucson.  And some of the rugs are very large and would fit only in the garage.

We board our bus for the return journey to Tangier and arrive at the port about 1:30pm.  Since there is still a bit of a walk from where the bus drops passengers off to the ship itself, I decide to save some steps, forego lunch, and walk back into the city and the Medina and Kasbar of Tangier.

I thought that one blog entry would cover my day in Tangier, but I am only halfway done, so I will return to another posting on Tangier itself tomorrow during my day in Mallorca.