Welcome to Tangier, Morocco

     Our last north African country on this trip was Morocco. We spent almost a week there. In addition, Vicky and I stopped in Tangier, Morocco back in February, 2019 on an Iberian Peninsula ship tour. I never posted that trip, so I’ll add Tangier to our two other Moroccan stops from this trip.  

     This first post is from our stop in Tangier. We spent just over half a day there.      These are photos from Tangier, Morocco.

     The first photo is similar to other major cities right on the Mediterranean. They needed a big wall for protection and security from invaders. Tangier was founded in the fifth century BC and has been invaded by everyone that invaded all the other north African locations.

     Tangier is quite the modern city in certain areas. This view shows that.

     The third photo is typical, with modern buildings mixed with older buildings and a strong indication that this is an Islamic country.

     We ate lunch at the Hotel Continental. We were in the green area right in the middle of the photo, with a fabulous view of the Mediterranean.  

     The last photo shows an old canon and a modern yacht harbor area. It also shows how narrow the western entrance is to the Strait of Gibraltar. It’s only about eight miles wide. That gives a great sense of just how strategic this area is and has been throughout history.

The Kasbah and Medina

     We spent some of our time in Tangier in the Kasbah, or fortress, or military garrison, per our local guide. He also said that “Come to my Kasbah” means “Come to my house.” The Kasbah was built by the Portuguese, early in time, for the protection of the town. We walked the Tangier Kasbah and saw some famous homes including some owned by Americans plus some parks and landmarks.   

     After lunch, we spent several hours in the Medina or market. It was many narrow, winding streets with lots of different sections and lots of shops and crowds. It was not that much different from other medinas, so I’ll limit this post.

     The first photo is Vicky in the Medina. It was the usual array of people, goods for sale, and bargaining.

     The people were friendly. These kids, along the Kasbah wall, were anxious to try out their English with Vicky. They were pretty good at speaking English. 

     The third photo is just to show that you can be in the Kasbah of a city with a million people in north Africa and still run into a wandering goat. 

     Narrow winding medina roads do not seem to interfere with any and all forms of transportation in Tangier.  

     The goods for sale were endless and expected. I thought this was a pretty typical store for Tangier.

Arriving in Marrakech and our Riad

Our next Moroccan city to visit was Marrakech. The area has been inhabited by Berber farmers since Neolithic times. The city was founded in 1070 as the capital of the Almoravid Empire. Much of the construction uses red sandstone and the city nickname is sometimes the “Red City.” The city has a long history going both up and down over the centuries.  Today it’s a major African economic center and a major tourist destination.   

     We arrived in Marrakech after dark. Every other time on this trip, we arrived at our hotel and were right in front of it, be it a hotel, a tent, or a raised platform. Not in Marrakech. Our housing was a Riad, which is a large traditional house built around a central courtyard and often converted into a hotel. As such, they are not often located where you might find a hotel.

     The first photo was the street where our bus dropped us off. That is, the bus dropped us off at a main street, and this was a side street off the main street.

     After a walk of more than a hundred yards, we turned left onto this street. It seemed nice since it was neat and clean. 

     Then we turned left again on this next street, which was even narrower. We started to wonder how many more street turns we were facing.

     Next came a right turn onto yet an even narrower street. Our guide said we were almost there.  

     The last photo is the front door to our riad. We were lucky as it was the only green door on this street

Marrakech

     Marrakech was our favorite city that we visited in Morocco. We saw far too many sights to post them all. This post will be sort of a highlight post of our time and visits in Marrakech.   

     The first photo is the courtyard inside our Riad (hotel). From my previous post, you will remember that a riad is a converted large house built around a central courtyard.

     This was a courtyard in the Bahia Palace on the southern end of the medina. It was built in the latter part of the 19th century. Its architecture shows influences of both Andalusian and Moorish. The intricately carved cedar wood ceilings, marble floors, incredible tiles, graceful stucco, and ornately landscaped courtyards and gardens were all incredible.

     Getting around Marrakech was a challenge at times, but not terrible. We took two trips using horse and carriage conveyance and those were my two favorite trips around Marrakech. I called it the “Marrakech Express.”

     The next stop was the Le Jardin Secret or Secret Garden. The complex dates back 400 years but was redone more recently. The gardens and buildings are outstanding examples of Islamic art and architecture. It was a very pleasant place to be on a very warm day.  

     The last photo is at the Dar el Bacha Museum. It’s a 1910 palace that served as the residence of the pasha or governor of Marrakech. It has beautiful tile, incredible carved woodwork, and a great courtyard. Some of the illustrious guests who visited here include Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill. They also sell coffee from something like 150 countries. We arrived at the museum as it opened and the wait to be seated for coffee was already two hours. SO, we opted to go into their store and purchase some coffee, which we did. Even that was an experience, but not a cheap one.

Jemaa el-Fnaa

     The Jemaa el-Fnaa is one of the highlights of Marrakech. It’s a sprawling open-air square and marketplace that is part of the Marrakech medina. The medina is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Jemaa el-Fnaa is a vibrant, pulsating, and lively place. We visited there twice and still probably only saw a small fraction of all the action. It was a bit of a spectacle. Medieval and modern are mixed together in this square. It has music, dancing, games, and a huge food area with endless restaurants to choose from. We walked here one morning and again another afternoon and evening and the action never ceased. 

     The first photo is on our arrival here one morning. It looked to be quiet to me but as we walked, music was constantly blaring, people were dancing, vendors were enticing, restaurants were recruiting, and we saw all we could.

     This was one of the many music groups and they also had dancers with them.

     The snake charmers were spread around the square. If you look close, the cobra’s head is quite near me but it can be hard to see as its head is the same color as my pants. He looked ready to rumble.

     Vicky had to go and show off…but hey, that was one of the smallest snakes.  

     The last photo is the square at night. We were up on a rooftop having a drink before dinner – on another rooftop. Most of the square is to the left of this photo but the well-lit section is the restaurant area. It got incredibly crowded by the time that we finished our dinner. In fact, the whole square got incredibly crowded.

Vendor Stops

We had many stops in the Marrakech medina or market, but I’ll just post here about the two longest stops that we made. The first was a Herbalist store and it was my favorite visit in the medina. It had spices, dried plants, oils, minerals, lotions, and more. The woman helping us gave us endless smells, dabs, treatments, and advice. We all happily made purchases here.  

     The second longest visit was to a slipper/shoe store. I made the mistake of saying, “Sorry but I doubt you have anything in size 15.” They did. It took me a long time to try them on and in their measure, I’m a size 49. Yikes! The slippers felt odd to me though, so I didn’t buy any, much to their disappointment.

     The first photo is the Herbalist store. You can see Vicky in the center paying for our purchases.

     We were taken up two flights of stairs and given a room all to ourselves. The entire store was full of all sorts of containers, bottles, baskets, cans, spray bottles, and everything else.

     This was our own Herbalist. She must have had us try a sizeable percentage of everything they sold. She would say what it was, explain what it did, dab a little on our wrist, give us a smell, or somewhere else. She even had a helper and one of our fellow travelers said her leg was sore and kazam, he had her leg up giving her some herbalist treatment.

     The fourth photo is a slipper or shoemaker hard at work in the shoe/slipper store. There were many of these workers spread all around the store.  

     The last photo shows a very small sample of the slippers for sale. They also had all sorts of other shoes and related goods.

Andre Heller's Magic Garden

This stop was outside Marrakech on a drive up into the Atlas Mountains. The Jardin Anima or Andre Heller’s Magic Garden was a fantastic stop. It’s a whimsical and wonderful hidden garden. It was mysterious and entertaining. The art works were very interesting and the plants were widely varied in color, texture, size, and type. The gardens had shady strolls, lots of flowers and fragrances, sculptures, pavilions, water features, and occasional views of the snow-capped Atlas Mountains with peaks over 13,000 feet.    

     The gardens are five acres. We spent an hour here but I would have liked to have had more time to just sit in certain places and contemplate life and the art and the scenery.

     The first photo was one of the many sculptures in the garden and the first one we came to.

     The walking path goes right under and between the eyes. It was highly entertaining.  

     This was just a sitting area that we passed. 

     Next came a contemplative area or at least that’s how we interpreted it.   

     I really liked this particular piece of garden art.

    Don’t throw stones if you live in glass houses. Vicky didn’t even think about it.

     This was another of the many stopping or resting areas in the garden. Each of them was fun and unique.  

     The masks might indicate something special but I don’t know what. 

     Next came one really big mosaic mask and one of my favorites pieces of garden art.   

     The last photo is Vicky walking the largest of the labyrinths. It’s round but there’s a square one right behind it.

Atlas Mountain Village

We stopped at a small village in the Atlas Mountains. That was the entry point for a hike in the mountains up to our local hosts home and another homemade lunch. This small village was very active and while small, it seemed to have everything one might need to maintain life.   

     In the first photo, we just left the main mountain road and are walking into the village. The photo shows most of the market area.

     The second photo just shows a booth or two but I mostly loved the woman’s baby carrier.  

     This is a restaurant and the place smelled wonderful and the food looked good too. 

     We learned that the door where the man in blue is entering is the village health care facility. We didn’t go inside.   

     This was another restaurant and they had their food on display. It was mostly fish and vegetables and everything looked good to me.

     Once more showing that this small village had most everything: a two-man mule shoeing operation, right next to crates of pomegranates.

Home-hosted Meal

     From the village, we had to hike across a small creek and then up the other side of the mountain to get to our home. It was very steep going down the hillside to the creek and both our travel companions fell down on that stretch of hike. Vicky and I managed to stay upright but it was steep. At the creek edge, we were supposed to cross the creek on a bridge. The bridge, however, was closed for repairs when we arrived. I checked it out but it was boarded off and they were working on it. So we had to hike down the creek and find another place to cross.   

     Our host was named Hassan and his family included his wife and two daughters. The area included some terraced hillsides, olives and other trees, and various small-scale agriculture. It was a steep mountainside where they lived.

     These are photos of our home-hosted lunch visit.

     We hiked down river until we found this small bridge and a narrow stream to cross. I had been advocating to cross on the rocks up river but Vicky seemed very happy to have reached another bridge.

     The next photo is Hassan’s home. It’s mostly made of cement bricks. There is some garden to the right and the vines hanging and hiding the house are grape vines. Things were a bit overgrown at this point in time.

     The third photo is behind the second photo. It’s a terrace or gazebo of sorts. We were served tea, nuts, and dates for snacks. It was a very pleasant place to sit and we exchanged phone photos to make up for our language barriers.

     This daughter was baking the bread for lunch. You can see two of the pots for lunch on the left but there were more than what you see in this picture.   

     The last photo was taken from near the cooking area or outdoor kitchen. The house was two stories. On the first story were cows, four of them. Outside to the right were ten sheep and many chickens. The garden had fruit trees, grapes, and many other vegetables. Hassan is on the right in the yellow shirt. We went up and down the stairway and while it was very solid, I sure would have liked there to be a handrail. It was steep with narrow steps.

Indiana Jones Bridge

     Has everyone seen the movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?” If you have, there’s a scene near the end of the movie where Indiana Jones crosses a bridge that, to say the least, is a little skeptical on its integrity. The bridge that we were supposed to cross from the village to our home-hosted lunch got re-opened just as we reached it on our way back to the bus.    

     I had already asked if I could walk across it and was told no by our guide when the bridge repair guys said the repairs were all finished and the bridge was now open. I didn’t even wait for our guide, I headed straight for the bridge and was the first person beside the repairman to cross it. It was quite an experience.

     The first photo was on our way to lunch when the bridge was closed. I took this photo and you can see the missing boards so I wasn’t surprised that the bridge was closed.

     The next two photos are ones I took walking across the bridge on the way back to the bus. Our guide kept yelling at me to hang onto the cables and quit taking photos. Of course, sometimes I can’t hear very well so I kept taking photos.  

     These photos should give you some idea of how bad the boards were that they replaced. 

     You can notice Vicky and the others keeping their heads down to watch where they made each step.   

     Vicky is showing the proper technique for crossing this bridge: head down, hands on the cable rails, and not taking photos.

Dar Zellij Restaurant

Our second night in Marrakech, we ate dinner at the Dar Zellij Restaurant. Our guide said it was a local hangout. It was busy with good music and great ambience. We had a great meal and a great time here.   

     The first photo was the main dining room, or at least the dining room where we ate our dinner.

     Salad included sixteen plates of eight different vegetables: olives, pumpkin, zucchini, cabbage, beets, peppers, cauliflower, and cucumbers. There was only five of us at dinner.  

     The next photo is someone’s main dish. The shape was that of the tangini crock it was cooked in. It’s is basically a pile of couscous with vegetables and meat. I think the meat was lamb and it had a sauce on top. 

     My main was chicken tanjini but it was served differently for some reason. It was very good.   

     Dessert was a giant pomegranate pie of filo dough, sweet cream, and pomegranate seeds. WOW!!! It was one of my best desserts ever!

Moroccan Food

     I’ll post some more food dishes from our week in Morocco. We enjoyed the food very much.    

     The first photo was at our home-hosted lunch in the Atlas Mountains. We had a tomato and onion salad with olives and oranges. On the table were lamb, potatoes, peppers, green beans, peas, zucchini, carrots, and couscous plus a sauce. We were also served whey, or sour milk, plus fruit and tea for dessert.

We had quite a few really spectacular salads in Morocco and the other countries we visited.

     This was a beef dinner main course and it was delicious. 

     This was part of lunch in Marrakech.  Salad was three small dishes of eggplant, peppers, and lentils. The main dish plate included lamb chops, beef, sausage, and chicken. Our guide called this typical Moroccan food. 

     The last photo was a lunch salad in Casablanca.

Tunisian QUIZ

     We are finished with Tunisia but I thought I would offer a Quiz for those of you who like my quizzes. This will be my longest quiz ever. Feel free to try your luck and hopefully, you will learn some things.  

     These are quiz photos from Tunisia, plus the first one from Algeria. Some of the answers have been covered during my posts, but not all of them.

1.  This is in a very old palace in the Kasbah in Algiers. Question: What was the arched area along the back wall originally?

2. The photo below is a section of the Abu Zaman al-Balwari mausoleum. This couple are taking their baby to an Islamic ceremony.

Question: What is the child being prepared for in this ritual ceremony? (good luck with this one)

3. Below is an old well in the central courtyard of an old madrassa in Tunis.

Question: What made the indentions along the wall of the well?  

4. Below, at the Sbeitla Roman ruins, the amphitheater was built right next to the river.

Question: Why was the amphitheater built right next to the river

5. The bird below came to visit us at our hotel room in Tozeur.

Question: What kind of bird is it?

6. At a museum in Tozeur, the curator dressed me up as you see in the photo below.

Question: What ceremony would I have been dressed up for back in the 16th century?

7. Below is a home in the Tataouine area of Tunisia.

Question: what do the locals call the white paint around the windows, doors, and fencing?

8. Below was at our hotel in Djerba Island.

Question: what game are these people playing?

9. Our restaurant lunch is in the photo below. I had the spaghetti with meat.

Question: What was the meat on my pasta?

10. The photo below is at the El Djem amphitheater.

Question: WHERE in the amphitheater was this photo taken?

11. These cactus below were growing right along the road out in some farming country.

Question: What are the three uses that the Tunisian farmers make of cactus?

12. Below is at the Antonine Roman Baths in Carthage.

Question: What is Vicky looking for in this photo?

Tunisian Quiz Answers

     These are the answers to my Tunisia Quiz for those brave souls that gave it a try.  I found many of these questions quite interesting which is why I included them. And certainly, before I went to North Africa, I wouldn’t have been able to answer most of them either.

     These are the Quiz ANSWERS.

1.     This is in a very old palace in the Kasbah in Algiers. Question: What was the arched area along the back wall originally?

Answer: “A multi-burner stove.” 

             This was the kitchen and it had a fire under each arch with something different cooking atop each one of them.

2.     The second photo is at the Abu Zaman al-Balwari mausoleum. This couple are taking their baby to an Islamic ceremony. Question: What is the child being prepared for in this ritual ceremony? (good luck with this one)

Answer: “Circumcision”  

     I was quite surprised at all the similarities between Jewish and Islamic customs

3.     This is an old well in the courtyard of an old madrassa. Question: What made the indentions along the wall of the well?

Answer: “ropes,” from being pulled up with buckets full of water and a lot of weight, over and over again.  

4.     At the Sbeitla Roman ruins, the amphitheater was built right next to the river. Question: Why was the amphitheater built right next to the river?

Answer: “to take advantage of the sound reverberating off the wall of the other side of the canyon and back out to the audience”
 

5.     This bird came to visit us at our hotel room in Tozeur. Question: What kind of bird is it?

Answer: “a Guinea Fowl” 

6.       At a museum in Tozeur, the curator dressed up as you see in the photo. Question: What ceremony would I have been dressed up for back in the 16th century?

Answer: “my Wedding” 

7.       This home is in the Tataouine area of Tunisia. Question: what do the locals call the white paint around the windows, doors, and fencing?

           Answer: “The George Lucas effect” 

8.       This is at our hotel in Djerba. Question: what game are these people playing?

           Answer: “Petanque”    (Remember, the French were here recently, not the Italians)

9.       Our restaurant lunch is in the photo. I had the spaghetti with meat. Question: What was the meat on my pasta?

           Answer: “Rabbit”       (This was the only time I ate rabbit on this trip…and yes, it tasted just like chicken)

10.   This photo is at the El Djem amphitheater. Question: WHERE in the amphitheater was this photo taken?

           Answer: “Beneath the very center of the arena”    (there were horse stalls, drainage lines, water lines, chariot storage, etc.) 

11.   These cactus were growing right along the road out in some farming country. Question: What are the three uses that the Tunisian farmers make of cactus?

           Answer: 1. “the Fruit”, 2. “Animal feed” when they couldn’t get anything else, and 3 “Cover for rabbits to breed” and then they would hunt and eat the rabbits.

12.   This is at the Antonine Roman Baths in Carthage. Question: What is Vicky looking for in this photo?

           Answer: what else, “A good seat at the 80-seat public toilet amphitheater with mosaic floors, music, and a view of the Mediterranean”

Welcome to Casablanca

     Our last Moroccan city to visit and the last stop on our north African trip was Casablanca. It’s the largest city in Morocco and the country’s business and economic center. It’s on the Atlantic coast and is Morocco’s chief port. The city has around four million people and also hosts the primary naval base for the Royal Moroccan Navy.    

     I was a bit disappointed to learn that there never was a “Café American”, as run by Humphrey Bogart playing Rick Blain in the movie “Casablanca.” But that wasn’t my only disappointment. I thought that Casablanca was my least favorite stop on our whole north African vacation. Oh well. It’s a really big city without a lot for tourists to enjoy.

      The first photo was just a street scene. Lots of white buildings and palm trees in Casablanca.

     This building in the Harbor area was quite historic but I can’t remember the details about it. 

     The next photo I took from the balcony of our hotel room. I think we had one of the best views in Casablanca.

     We ate lunch at a restaurant right on the coast. I just thought Casablanca needed an ocean photo.  

     I’m pouring my own tea at the Café Imperial in the Harbor area, trying my hand at pouring like the locals. It was actually very easy.

Hassan II Mosque

     This was our first stop on this day in Casablanca and it was easily our best stop in all of Casablanca. The Hassan II Mosque or the Grand Mosque of Hassan II is the third largest mosque in the world behind those in Mecca and Medina. It’s considered a masterpiece of Arab-Muslim architecture. The prayer hall can accommodate 25,000 believers while the plaza in front of the mosque can hold 80,000 worshippers for a total of 105,000 people. The mosque is built on an outcropping that looks out over the Atlantic Ocean. The roof is retractable and can be opened to see the stars at night or let out the heat from 25,000 believers. The minaret rises 656 feet and our guide said it was the tallest in the world.     

     While the mosque was spectacular, my photos are not. I was having focus problems but I’ll input a handful of them anyway.

     The first photo is the mosque but far back so you can see part of the plaza that holds 80,000 worshippers.

     The prayer hall photo is bad but the prayer hall itself was spectacular. The size, the elaborate decorations, and the incredible craftsmanship were something to see. The delicately carved intricate patterns in the fragrant cedar wood was very special. The gates were made of brass and titanium. Other than some chandeliers and a few other things, the rest of the materials were all from Morocco.  

     As much as the big pictures show the grandeur, the details of this mosque were really spectacular such as the granite floors in the prayer room. 

     The prayer hall was on the ground floor. In the basement were the ablutions fountains, shaped like huge lotus flowers. They were all made of white marble from Agadir on the southern Atlantic coast. As you can see, they can do a lot of ablutions and the tile work, arches, and all the details from ceiling to floor were truly spectacular.     

     This is one last look at the mosque to help see the size and scope of it from the outside.

End of my North Africa Trip

     We have finally come to the end of our trip to North Africa. That included Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.  We learned a lot and had many interesting adventures and experiences. It was well worth the effort to find out about a part of the world that we knew very little. While much of what we experienced was expected, much of it was unexpected, and that’s why we travel.    

      These photos will be from all three countries and are just my way of wrapping up our trip. Thanks for coming along with me.

I also want to thank my son, Andrew, for all his technical support. I had problems with my camera, computer, software updates, and power outages. I’m not sure I would have managed to stay with it without Andrew’s help and encouragement. 

The photo below was at the Sidi Fredj Seaport in Algeria. The harbor was completely lined with fisherman, but the only one that I saw who was really paying attention to the end of a fishing pole was orange.

     The photo below was at the top of Chenini in the Tataouine District of Tunisia. Our Tunisian guide is on the left and our local Berber guide is in the middle. The mountain behind us on the left is a famous landmark in the Star Wars movies.

     I haven’t been including any cat photos, but cats were everywhere in north Africa. They were part of the fabric as it were. 

     Our tour included stops at five Roman ruins this trip. Each was interesting and unique.   

     Buying gifts for the grandchildren was somewhat costly but we enjoyed their faces when we gave them their gifts.

     Vicky and I managed to take some time to just enjoy being in north Africa, with its own special ambience.

     Here’s the angel that I travel with, and she’s just as game as I am on these trips, as you can see.

     I’ll end with sunset in the Sahara Desert which was a treat to experience.