Tangiers

Position: 35°47’07.7″N 5°48’38.9″W

Morocco’s ancient port of Tangiers is changing. Since Carol’s last visit 11 years ago, the city has expanded significantly. Hotels and a brand-new international marina now line the bay to the east, while apartment blocks and wholly new neighbourhoods stretch towards the hills south of town. Wide boulevards, sharp angles and lots of glass all shout modernism! And a burgeoning middle class.

Tangiers old city is as good a representation of what a Moroccan medina should look like as you will find anywhere in the country. That’s not to say every other medina in the country isn’t worth visiting, far from it. But, built as it was on the escarpment overlooking the wide, natural harbour, Tangiers’ adds a verticality that gives it a unique charm. Steep streets and alleyways weave in and out of the densely packed buildings. From a distance the medina looks like a cubist’s fever dream of deconstructed houses flowing across the back of a Mobius strip. Or, if that simile didn’t work for you, one giant, crenelated block of buildings with hundreds of upper floor windows competing for daylight.

Lost

Head inside and you find a literal maze of shops, restaurants, and apartments all stuccoed and whitewashed. Look up and you might see a sliver of blue sky or a set of wooden rafters supporting a building five stories high. In places the gap between buildings looks no more than a shoulder’s width apart.

Signage is good. Most intersections are named and labelled. If you had a paper map the signs might mean something. Google maps prioritises navigation by automobile. For pedestrian places like this, it is perfectly useless. While your phone’s GPS might help, you’ll need a clear view of the sky for it to locate you accurately.

In Tangiers, at least, going downhill means you will inevitably wind up on the beachfront. Head uphill and you will eventually reach one of the plazas at the top of the rise. Once out of the tangle of streets, Google will fly to your aid. Of course, you can always talk to someone and ask for directions (so last century, I know), but people are very friendly in Morocco.

Take me to the Kasbah

Turn right at the top of the hill and you’ll find the Kasbah, Tangiers’ 17th century citadel and mosque. Friday evening after couscous families head out for a walk. Kids play blind man’s bluff while tourists take photos of the fishing harbour just below.

Head a little further west on along the seaward edge and you’ll eventually come to the last vestiges of the Roman Empire’s occupation, the necropolis. If you’re leaving for the afterlife and you’re a sailor, this is a nice area overlooking the strait. Over time your remains will vanish, dust to dust after all, and your hallowed crypt will eventually become a sunny spot for a marmalade cat to warm itself. Right around the corner sits Café Hafa. There you can buy hot, sweet, minty Moroccan tea that warms you as you watch the sun settle into the horizon.

Bourne Again

Jason Bourne had no trouble finding his way through the medina, unless you count chasing a would-be assassin across rooftops, smashing through windows, and strangling him to death as trouble. That frenetic scene in the Bourne Ultimatum gives you a good idea of how close together people live in the medina. And people still live there. Who knows if the young will all debunk to the suburbs and abandon their parents to their ancestral homes? But the medina’s slow conversion to an Airbnb ‘experience’ locale seems, sadly, inevitable.

Adieu Lauren & WAde

After a couple of days exploring Tangiers, and suffering through long nights of disco music at the marina, we bid farewell to Lauren and Wade. It was a real pleasure having them back aboard and doing some real sailing with them. To date their experience of our cruising life was nothing more than sleeping on Aleta for a few nights in the early days of the Covid pandemic. The rest they had to take on faith. That or accept this blog isn’t a complete fabrication.

This time around we managed some gentle sailing, a little motoring, and a muscular crossing to Africa. Having lived together for as long as we have, it took all of five minutes for us to fall into our easy routine of shared responsibilities. Close friends unconsciously mesh like that, no matter how long you’ve been apart. In all we covered three countries and two continents together. Not bad for a 12-day cruise. Thanks for coming guys, it was lovely to see you! Come back soon!

Photos

Here are a few more photos from our exploration of Tangiers:

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