I was so excited to see how close and easy it was to get to Morocco from our place in Spain and the excitement increased when I found out one of my former Dubai students was getting married just after we arrived. So we planned to get to Casablanca for the wedding. Best of plans can change as we all came down with heavy colds/chest infections the day after arriving in Barcelona. I haven’t had a cold in quite a few years but this one just wiped me out for a few weeks. So sadly we cancelled the wedding trip but then managed to find a time just last week to pop over for a week. It was very unplanned with no itinerary at all!

Tarifa port and yes that is Morocco in the background!

Our journey started by driving to Tarifa about an hour away and finding a car park to leave the car in for a week. The port one was full but we got a private one that cost about 10 euros a day so not too bad. We bought our ferry tickets and within an hour were boarding the nice ferry for an hour’s journey across the straights. It was only about half full and a relaxing journey. Coming back we were packed in with loads of bus tours but we still found seats thankfully. The only accommodation we had booked was our first two nights in Tangier. We walked out of the port, across the road and climbed up steep stairs to the Continental Hotel, which is apparently an old palace. It backs onto the Medina and overlooks the ocean. It’s an interesting place with gorgeous tiling in the dining area. The people who work there were very nice and let us change rooms to one slightly bigger but the rooms were not exactly luxurious and our shower never would drain easily which meant wet floors plus an unpleasant pong.

We headed out into the Medina for something to eat and were a bit taken aback at such high prices (they capture the tourists well) and the hawkers were pushy and it didn’t feel very relaxing at all. Not somewhere I have much desire to go back to.

The next day we hired a driver to take us all around the local area. Tangier has a new cornice, which looks as if it will be lively in summer. Maybe too lively given the number of discos they seemed to have! We went to the lighthouse where the two oceans meet and the Cave of Hercules amongst other bits. Then it was a pretty drive along the coast to Asilah, which is a small beach town with a pretty Medina and lots of good restaurants. If I came back I think that would be a nice spot to stay for a couple of days.