Remrandt Tangier

... a few days.

We got the 7am
train, which would be 3 hours before arriving at Casablanca, Nicks stop, and a
further 4 to Fez, where Milli and I would get off. We found an
empty carriage, and thought we would be lucky and have it all to ourselves, but
it turns out the train was quite packed and we soon had a full house. A woman
came on with her husband or father, who said farewell to her, joked with Nick
for a bit, then left, leaving her with us. She was very ...

... we have. Libraries are funded by the government, and people canc check out materials with a library card for free. They did not have a children's section, which I thought would be present. From what I understood, the section does not exist, because they don't have to right people to manage it. I told our tour guide, the chief of services, that I would send him pics of children's areas in our ...

... were greeted by Moubarak at the Hotel Maamoura. Our room was ready, we arranged for transport to the airport the next day, had a quick meal and then collapsed, happy with the prospect of heading back to civilization the next day.

The next day was fairly uneventful as we got up on time, paid up, took the large minivan to the hotel along with a couple of Italian tourists, went through the easy passport control before loading up onto the plane and heading back.

... each night when there is more prayer and the daily fast is broken. All the stores shut, food stores open, fruit drink tables set up and everybody eats like beasts shoving fried sardines, olives, prunes and bowls of lentil soup down their throats then the stores open up again. They pray then eat again then repeat this again. Also, no music or live entertainment, no smoking, no alcohol and no sex allowed. You can be arrested for drinking or selling ...

... finally arrive at Tangier - what an exotic and evocative name. From the 1920s to 1956 it was an 'international city' administered by European powers, separate from the rest of Morocco. An incredibly diverse range of people live and visited there - spies, writers (Paul Bowles, Jean Genet, Tennessee Williams, William Burroughs, etc), musicians, Barbara Hutton the heiress, Malcolm Forbes of Forbes magazine, and so on. I have great fun asking directions - ou est le Kasbah? as my ...

Our alcohol supply is running low, so we are rapidly heading north back to Spain. I haven't driven at all in Morocco, but now that Mum has gone, suddenly I am allowed back behind the wheel. So we shared the driving today, actually I did the majority, because I was allowed to do the easy empty motorway bits and Dad took over when it got slightly tricky, for example, navigating ourselves around Rabat ...

... t much with which we might entertain ourselves. The ferry did not leave for an hour or so, but we were not the only ones there early. We went to the port police station to get our passports stamped and then waited. An extraordinary number of people got off the ferry before we could get on. Two veil-clad young women tried to engage a porter to carry their luggage, but all went catawampus when he tried to, apparently ...

... the entire city for future tourists. He drove us to the French version, and we randomly got out on a busy looking street. We couldn't find a tourist information place, but we did find a hotel for 75 dirhams a person (about 10 dirhams to the euro). Our backpacks stored, we went wandering down the street. If you were wondering how long two unclaimed and clueless dollar signs could go without getting snapped up, the answer is about two blocks. "Americans!" he called and waved ...

... to take another overnight train into the centre of Marrakesh and emerge bleary eyed into another unfamiliar city (plan A).  Instead we had a leisurely morning at the hostel, and caught a bus to Assilah (one hour further south along the coast) where we are now (plan B). Assilah is much more laid back.  We have even had a whole (very pleasant) conversation with one of the locals that did not involve any attempt to sell us accomodation, food, goods, a ...