Just like all of our other adventures since last year, Tangier is uphill (luckily only in one direction this time). The Medina (the old walled part of town) is a maze of alleys and streets that perpetually confuse both me and Google Maps (I’m earning my nickname of DoubleBack every day here).
The weather is warm but dry so we can wander for hours. In one gate, down and around some alleys, and out another. Shops and vendors are everywhere and your senses are overwhelmed quickly.
Playing tourist is hard work, so we stop for mint tea and coffee at the Hotel Continental, now a historic landmark overlooking the port.
Tangier as an overall city is not particularly attractive (the parks are beautiful but the modern architecture is boring and ugly), but we’re consistently pulled back to the buildings behind the original gates when it was a walled city and reinforced to defend against invaders.
We head a little bit out of the Medina to visit the Phoenician tombs. These graves, carved directly into the cliffs overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar, are some 3,000 years old. All of the remains have long been plundered, but the preciseness of the carving is remarkable to view. And then it’s time for more coffee. This time at the terraces of Cafe Hafa. Open since 1921, it has hosted the likes of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, William S Burroughs, and Paul Bowles, all of whom smoked hash here. We did not, though Trip has been offered several times.
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