adieu Tangier

Had a nice lie-in, and another bath. Then we decided to take our bags to the left luggage at the station – got a petit taxi right away and were there in minutes. Unfortunately, there is no left luggage facility here. Or at any train station in Morocco. Oops LP.

A bit stumped, we took a taxi back to the hotel and asked to leave the bags there. Thankfully, they said yes, though they just had us leave them off to the side in the lobby. But at least we were unburdened.

We set off walking from the hotel along the seafront, turning up into the medina. Had to shake off would-be guides a lot. Just wandering around for a while we came across the Grand Socco, and then dove back in and ended up in the Kasbah. It was a pretty aimless day – we didn’t have any real plans or needs, just wandering around.

We came across a strange viewpoint with a handful of locals – a big rocky expanse with what looked like graves cut out of it. Hard to say. But it was breezy and peaceful.

Then back into the Kasbah, where we stopped for a drink and then laughed when 2 competing tour groups – one Spanish, one German, crowded into the same small square.

Then some more wandering through the medina, an ice cream at the Glacier Igloo on the seafront, and more wandering around town. As I said, a very aimless day.

Highlights: the Restaurant Afrique (where I had my first Moroccan mint tea), the supermarche (so much Laughing Cow cheese!), seeing huge queues of locals outside a giant McDonalds, and – of course! – our strange little visit at Caid’s Bar, the real model for Rick’s Café in the movie Casablanca. Caid’s is in a swanky old hotel, very pretty, and we wandered around for while before going in to the bar and ordering expensive cocktails. (I had a delicious whisky sour, Wil had a gin fizz.) Very nice, very strange.

Now at the train station – we’ve been here for an hour already as we frankly ran out of things to do in this ugly town. Lots of people milling about, waiting. Mainly locals, but a few other tourists. People with huge piles of bags. I’m happy that we have couchettes. Hopefully no shrieking children. Please.