Tangier, Morocco

April 26, 2024 - Today we arrived in Tangier just after 7 AM, and headed out for our all day excursion by 7:30. We met our guide Ahmed and did a panoramic tour of Tangier and Tetouan. It was a long but great day as we were the last bus to arrive back at the ship, just 5 minutes before we were supposed to set sail for Lisbon.

We started with a short panoramic drive through the coastal city of Tangier which is a critical link between Africa and Europe. In fact one of our first photo stops was at the point where the Atlantic Ocean and the Strait of Gibraltar/ Mediterranean Sea meet. It is amazing how many of the intersection points on the map we have visited on this trip! In addition to this midpoint along the coast, we had a photo stop by the Cap Spartel Lighthouse and then visited the Caves of Hercules which were just a few miles away. After this hour tour of Tangier we set out for a 90 minute drive to Tetuoan, the former capital of Spanish Morocco, which is most know for its traditional arts and crafts. We began our time in Tetuoan with a visit to the Dar Sanaa school of arts and crafts. It was set-up specifically for students, aged 13+, who did not want to continue traditional studies and instead wanted to learn crafts. There were many different classrooms and we toured the ones for painting - using natural products for color, woodworking and embroidery. As it was a Friday, which is the holy day of the week for Muslims, all classes were not in session, but we did see one young man doing wood carving and several young girls doing embroidery. The craftsmanship was stunning. After the school, we began a walk through the old town, which is called the medina, that had markets, a French section, a Spanish section, a Jewish section, many fresh food and craft markets, a mosque, a synagogue and many private residents all within the walls of the old town on a maze of narrow, winding streets —similar to what we saw in Marrakesh. Again, because it was Friday, not many things were open as people that were open began closing around noon to be in the mosque for prayers from 1 - 2, followed by their couscous meal and then a “siesta.” During our walk we stopped at Palace Bouhlal, a restaurant, for lunch. It was almost the exact same traditional Moroccan meal as in Marrakesh, and they had similar music and this time a man dancing while balancing a tray of votive candles on his head. After we finished lunch, we continued our tour of the old city, including a photo stop outside the Royal Palace (one of the King’s vacation spots) and then were taken into one building were we were given a sales pitch for hand-made rugs. This was the only thing not on the advertised program for the tour, and eliminated any opportunity for free time. But given most things were closed, the maze of streets where we could easily get lost, and the constant complaints from fellow travelers about the amount of walking, and us being very behind schedule due the snail’s pace at which we walked (and the unscheduled rug sale), it wasn’t necessarily the worst thing to miss out on free-time.

As we got back to the ship and set sail from our last port in Morocco, it was interesting to reflect on a few things about Morocco overall:

The expectation was that it would be much more “desert-like” yet it was much greener with more hills than expected
Casablanca is known as the white city, but Morocco overall is much more colorful with the varied paint they use in different areas on their buildings
There is much evidence of the earthquakes that have hit this area over the years, including the most recent one in September of last year. They don’t demolish damaged buildings they leave them standing until they can restore them, as our guide in Marrakesh said, “in the format they were originally intended”.

We are now on our way to Europe — specifically Lisbon Portugal - a true indication this world adventure will soon come to an end. We are in different ports everyday except one over the remaining 10 days, so we won’t have a lot of time for blog updates, and may just put in some bullet points, photos and fill in the gaps when we return.

Lisbon, Portugal

Agadir, Marrakesh and Casablanca, Morocco