A Trip to Tangier
Tangier, positioned at the gateway to the Mediterranean has been fought over and controlled by many different counties over the centuries. It's a city of trade with a reputation for intrigue.
As all visitors should, we wandered through the medina many times but only visited the central food market once (you need a strong stomach for the sights in the meat market and the smells in the fish market); we climbed to the Kasbah palace (Dar el Makhzen) and almost bought a carpet on the way down; visited the American legation, originally residence of the American ambassador it now houses a fascinating museum (including a collection of miniature soldiers, forever at war with each other) and a cultural centre; we called in at the Cafe de Paris—there was no alcohol, no lunch and not a double agent in sight!
We ate at Villa Mabrouka—a house that had belonged to Yves Saint Laurent, and more recently has been converted into a boutique hotel by Jasper Conran. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens offering wonderful views. However it is so secluded that it proved a challenge for the taxi driver to find. We ended up walking the last part directed by a helpful local—we obviously weren't the first who needed to be shown the way.
We travelled on an open top bus over a mountain (the engine struggled a bit but made it) to Cap Spartel where a lighthouse marks the point where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic.
A day in El Minzah hotel: a massage, pummelling muscles into submission, skin scrubbed clean in the Haman, lunch by the pool, drinks in the piano bar, dinner in wine bar. Mind and body were left with no option but to relax and enjoy.
A few observations:-
Like any modern city, traffic is constantly heavy. Crossing the road involved walking across up to 6 lanes of speeding traffic looking straight ahead trusting your life to a higher being. (He’s obviously keeping an eye on everyone because seatbelts and crash helmets were optional extras for drivers and passengers). There are crossings but as there is no obligation for vehicles to stop they are merely a suggestion that it may be marginally safer.
Taxis in Tangier are turquoise, cheap, plentiful, often shared and invariably battered.
The overall impression is of a thriving city, expanding in all directions judging by all the cranes and building sites. Public spaces are well looked after. It's a city that is changing with the times but protecting its past.
The gap between rich and poor is huge, segregation of the sexes is obvious but lines are blurred.
Beggars are fewer than any English or French city I have visited and shop keepers don’t hassle you to buy. It was busy and bustling but somehow calm. Perhaps it's different in the heat of the summer.
The majority cafes and restaurants don’t serve alcohol but a significant number do, smoking is still allowed inside many buildings, it's not a place where anything goes but it's certainly more accepting than I imagined.
We felt safe and welcome everywhere—no one batted an eyelid when, on going into a packed bar, I increased the total number of women to three (and one of those was the cleaner).
I hope there is the opportunity to visit again, I feel we have only scratched the surface.
A huge and unexpected bonus of being in Tangier was that in the moments I wasn’t sightseeing, I completed my manuscript for Hidden 2 It's now ready to go to volunteer readers who will make sure it makes sense, before I send it to the editor to be beaten into shape.
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