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Published: January 3rd 2008
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We woke early to get picked up at 7:05 for our tour of Tangier, Morocco. It was nice to be part of a tour as they bypassed some of the entry and control checkpoints boarding the ferry that everyone has to go through.
The 40 minute ferry ride (catamaran fast ferry) was a bit up and down as the seas were a little rough. However, we arrived in Tangier with no one getting seasick. Whew!
We started with a bus tour of the different sections of Tangier. Tangier was an internationally controlled city for much of the 20th century so that definite sections were historically populated by French, Spanish, English and Americans. We were surprised to learn that several celebrities have second residences in Tangier. There certainly are some large large villas in the nicer parts of the city. The bus made the typical tourist trap stop where you can take pictures of and ride a camel. Mike was the only one to take the bait. The hustlers there have a nice trick as you pay one fellow to take the camel ride and then another one tries to get money as you get off the camel. I was
glad to see Mike hold firm and not pay the second guy.
The bus then took us to the edge of the Casbah (old walled section of town) where we walked through the narrow old streets. The guide was moving us fast to keep us away from the street peddlers. However, once we stopped at a few typical tourist spots, the peddlers were upon us and followed us the rest of the time. Bracelets started out 5 for 10 euro but were 10 for 10 euro by the end of the day!
The rain began to get heavy just in time for us to have lunch at a Moroccan restaurant. We were a bit suspect what the restaurant and meal would be like. However, we were happy to see a very clean restaurant (perhaps cleanest toilettes of our trip!) and the food was pretty good. We started with a plate of bread which we quickly devoured. Then came a very good soup, perhaps with oregano and pepper? Evidently we impressed the restaurant staff with our bread eating capabilities as they brought back a second plate of bread piled very high with bread! Next came what we assume was
lamb on a kebab, which was pretty tasty (especially to the boys). The main entree was a chicken and couscous dish. A mint green tea finished off the meal. We were all full from the meal.
We finished up the day in Tangier with a visit to a couple of shops. Deb made the mistake of asking what something cost and was harassed for the next fifteen minutes by a salesman bartering prices with her. In the pouring rain we headed back to the ferry. Once on the ferry, we waited an hour while more people boarded and finally made it back to the Marriott at about 7pm. We were ready to relax in the unit and Mark made pancakes for dinner (one of our foods brought from home). A few more episodes of Lost on Mike's computer finished the day off.
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