On Wednesday, I made my first (and hopefully not last) trip to Morocco. I had ordered a taxi to the ferry port in Algeciras and arrived early. There are a lot of large ferries and the terminal is much like a modern airport terminal.
While waiting for the tour company representative to arrive, I saw an elderly gentleman I had seen Tuesday at the hotel. It turns out that 89 year old Tom from England had the room next to me at the hotel in La Linea and signed up for the same tour, but through the hotel rather than online as I had. After two years of Alzheimer disease, Tom's wife of 64 years had died nine months ago and so he was visiting southern Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco. He had met another man, 69 year old Jim, who was also on the tour. Jim emigrated from Australia to England at age 18 but kept his Australian citizenship. So the trio of Tom, Jim and Tom were part of the group going to Morocco.
We were met by Jorge, the Flurnia Company rep, as schedule. He took the passports from about 20 of us to get our ferry tickets. Jorge speaks Spanish and French but less English than I speak Spanish. He was quite the character, jokingly saying he was President Jorge Bush. After getting our tickets and passports back to us, we proceeded through the check in process and on to the ferry - very clean and modern, much like a modern airliner.
As schedule, at 9:30 a.m. the ferry set off to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. Spain has two exclaves in Northern Africa - areas that are geographically separated from the rest of Spain on the Iberian Peninsula (as well as the Balearic Islands to the east of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands to the west of Morocco - Western Sahara border in the Atlantic Ocean). Melia and Ceuta are surrounded by Moroccan territory but are good sized ports on the Mediterranean Sea.
As we left the Port of Algeciras, I could see just how big and busy the port was, as well as seeing Gibraltar disappear in the distance behind us.
Ahmed took our passports - and they were kept by the Moroccan authorities. All we had was a one page computer printout kept by Ahmed. At first, I was concerned about not having my passport - but then I realized that I could not lose it to a pickpocket and the governments of Spain and Morocco were sure that I would stay with the tour company and return to Spain at the end of the day.
After
dealing with the Spanish/Moroccan border authorities, we set out for
the 30 minute ride to Tetuan, a city of nearly a half million people. I
and the other people on the bus were surprised that Morocco was much
more developed and nicer than we expected. In fact, it was more lush and in better condition than much of what I saw in La Linea in Spain.
Our destination was the medina or the old city, where some of the walls still exist.
We entered through the Bab Okla Gate.
In the old city, it was more like we expected - narrow, crowded walk ways with merchants wares set out for sale and walking sales people haranguing us where ever we walked.
After exploring the medina for about 30 minutes, we finally ended up at a carpet market. The men said they were a cooperative - the rugs were woven in villages and mountains in Morocco but marketed and sold here in Tetuan. They really pushed to sell us hand woven carpets - they were all beautiful and they loved to negotiate. After showing Tom, Jim and me about 30 rugs of three different varieties, we were asked which we might be interested in. We said "waha" (yes) or lah (no) as they put the rugs back. The one I said waha to was beautiful and they started with an asking price of 700 Euros. I repeatedly said I could not buy it without my wife to help choose. He repeatedly lowered the price to 200 Euros, but I said that was more than I wanted to spend. I eventually bought a small Berber made carpet for 500 MAD (Moroccan Dirhams - about 50 Euros or $58 US) - a nice souvenir of my day in Morocco.
We had to see the 800 year old fig tree.
Much like the medina in Tetuan, the casbah in Tangier was a warren of narrow alleys and walkways. We got to see the place where Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) jumped in the Bourne Identity movie.
Even in the medina and casbah, I was surprised to not see the jumbles of hundreds of electrical wires seen in cities like Katmandu, Nepal, Lima, Peru, and La Paz, Bolivia. But the walkways were narrow and you could easily get lost. The good thing about them, especially where the buildings were three or four stories tall, was that they were cooler than the more modern streets in the 90+ degree sun we had all day.
We were all tired and hot, so when the tour guide brought us to the spice market, no one was in the mood to have sales people pushing their wares on us. So everyone ended up going to a cafe across the street. For about 30 minutes we enjoyed coffee or cold drinks in the shade of the awning - I had a bottle of cold water and a large glass of fresh squeezed orange juice with ice.
Then back on the bus for the two hour drive back to Ceuta. This time I was prepared as we drove by the Fortaleza de Hocha and was able to snap a couple of photos as our bus drove by.
We went through the border without incident, our passports were returned and we were back at the Ceuta ferry port, with their older tiled artwork about the door and more futuristic sculpture out front.
We had to surrender our passports again to Jorge to get our ferry tickets, but they were returned without problems and we boarded the ferry for the trip back to the Port of Algeciras on the Iberian Peninsula. As we left on the 8:00 p.m. ferry, I could see the crescent moon over the mountains of Morocco.
Forty five minutes later, we could see the Rock of Gibraltar and the Port of Algeciras come into view.
While waiting for the tour company representative to arrive, I saw an elderly gentleman I had seen Tuesday at the hotel. It turns out that 89 year old Tom from England had the room next to me at the hotel in La Linea and signed up for the same tour, but through the hotel rather than online as I had. After two years of Alzheimer disease, Tom's wife of 64 years had died nine months ago and so he was visiting southern Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco. He had met another man, 69 year old Jim, who was also on the tour. Jim emigrated from Australia to England at age 18 but kept his Australian citizenship. So the trio of Tom, Jim and Tom were part of the group going to Morocco.
We were met by Jorge, the Flurnia Company rep, as schedule. He took the passports from about 20 of us to get our ferry tickets. Jorge speaks Spanish and French but less English than I speak Spanish. He was quite the character, jokingly saying he was President Jorge Bush. After getting our tickets and passports back to us, we proceeded through the check in process and on to the ferry - very clean and modern, much like a modern airliner.
As schedule, at 9:30 a.m. the ferry set off to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. Spain has two exclaves in Northern Africa - areas that are geographically separated from the rest of Spain on the Iberian Peninsula (as well as the Balearic Islands to the east of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands to the west of Morocco - Western Sahara border in the Atlantic Ocean). Melia and Ceuta are surrounded by Moroccan territory but are good sized ports on the Mediterranean Sea.
As we left the Port of Algeciras, I could see just how big and busy the port was, as well as seeing Gibraltar disappear in the distance behind us.
 | |
| Bye, bye, Gibraltar! |
After landing in Ceuta, since it is still part of Spain, there was minimal interference in getting off the ferry. We were met by another tour company rep and then walked to the bus, where we met Ahmed, our tour leader for the day, and Altman, our bus driver.
As we drove through the enclave of Ceuta, we passed the Fortaleza de Hacho, a large fort and castle that has been in continuous use for centuries, including during WWII.
Ahmed took our passports - and they were kept by the Moroccan authorities. All we had was a one page computer printout kept by Ahmed. At first, I was concerned about not having my passport - but then I realized that I could not lose it to a pickpocket and the governments of Spain and Morocco were sure that I would stay with the tour company and return to Spain at the end of the day.
Our destination was the medina or the old city, where some of the walls still exist.
We entered through the Bab Okla Gate.
a
In the old city, it was more like we expected - narrow, crowded walk ways with merchants wares set out for sale and walking sales people haranguing us where ever we walked.
 |
| Ahmed, our tour guide for the day |
After exploring the medina for about 30 minutes, we finally ended up at a carpet market. The men said they were a cooperative - the rugs were woven in villages and mountains in Morocco but marketed and sold here in Tetuan. They really pushed to sell us hand woven carpets - they were all beautiful and they loved to negotiate. After showing Tom, Jim and me about 30 rugs of three different varieties, we were asked which we might be interested in. We said "waha" (yes) or lah (no) as they put the rugs back. The one I said waha to was beautiful and they started with an asking price of 700 Euros. I repeatedly said I could not buy it without my wife to help choose. He repeatedly lowered the price to 200 Euros, but I said that was more than I wanted to spend. I eventually bought a small Berber made carpet for 500 MAD (Moroccan Dirhams - about 50 Euros or $58 US) - a nice souvenir of my day in Morocco.
We then went to a Moroccan restaurant for lunch of vegetable soup with a few small pieces of skewered chicken on the side with soft, round Moroccan bread for the first course; a dish of couscous, vegetables and chicken as the second course; and then a date filled pastry with mint tea for dessert - a very pleasant lunch.
After lunch, it was back on the bus for the hour long drive to Tangier, a city of about one million people. Again, we were impressed by how prosperous and lush the area appeared to be. In fact, except for the medina in Tetuan and the casbah in Tangier, Morocco seems less third world and more first world than some European countries. They are building a high speed train (Tres Grande Vitesse) scheduled to open next year, and investments of Arab oil countries like Dubai and Qatar make the country seem very modern - yet trying to keep some of the history of the cities and country, with a blend of Muslim, Jewish, Christian and secular activities and facilities.
We had to see the 800 year old fig tree.
Much like the medina in Tetuan, the casbah in Tangier was a warren of narrow alleys and walkways. We got to see the place where Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) jumped in the Bourne Identity movie.
Even in the medina and casbah, I was surprised to not see the jumbles of hundreds of electrical wires seen in cities like Katmandu, Nepal, Lima, Peru, and La Paz, Bolivia. But the walkways were narrow and you could easily get lost. The good thing about them, especially where the buildings were three or four stories tall, was that they were cooler than the more modern streets in the 90+ degree sun we had all day.
We were all tired and hot, so when the tour guide brought us to the spice market, no one was in the mood to have sales people pushing their wares on us. So everyone ended up going to a cafe across the street. For about 30 minutes we enjoyed coffee or cold drinks in the shade of the awning - I had a bottle of cold water and a large glass of fresh squeezed orange juice with ice.
Then back on the bus for the two hour drive back to Ceuta. This time I was prepared as we drove by the Fortaleza de Hocha and was able to snap a couple of photos as our bus drove by.
We went through the border without incident, our passports were returned and we were back at the Ceuta ferry port, with their older tiled artwork about the door and more futuristic sculpture out front.
We had to surrender our passports again to Jorge to get our ferry tickets, but they were returned without problems and we boarded the ferry for the trip back to the Port of Algeciras on the Iberian Peninsula. As we left on the 8:00 p.m. ferry, I could see the crescent moon over the mountains of Morocco.
Forty five minutes later, we could see the Rock of Gibraltar and the Port of Algeciras come into view.
As an added bonus to the day, we had met a young British couple on the tour, Asher and Gabriela. they had left their three year old twin daughters with Gabriela's mom who lives in Gibraltar. Instead of taking a taxi or bus back to La Linea, they had their family's Land Rover and offered us a ride. For the thirty minute drive, we all had a great time joking and talking. Their satellite navigation in the car was not working properly, so I used google maps on my phone and we were able to easily navigate back to the hotel which is only a little more than a mile from Gibraltar and only one block off the main road they use to get back to Gibraltar.
This tour was a great intro to Morocco and makes me feel comfortable enough to travel there independently in the future. They are able to to deal with tourists, and even though Arabic is their first language, most people have French as their second language and English and Spanish as their third and fourth language. I certainly hope I can return.
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