Roaming Tangiers

It was settled, the next day we would move to Rabat and start procedures for visas while waiting for the ship to dock in Tangiers and the strike to end.

View from roof top

That evening we went walkabout again through the old town where Coen found a place called ‘Les Passengers de Tanger’ found on the top of one of the old buildings. It was relatively more expensive than the other places but the view of the ‘place’ and start of the old town was quite something. They sat having some drinks while the sun was setting.

Passagers de Tanger

We walked briefly through the small market and bought some olives for the train trip. The stalls were varied, some selling the local breads, some dates, some vegetables, all very colourful. The olive stall was quite a sight: mult-icoloured olives in brine, in spices, in herbs etc….

Restaurant Hamadi

For dinner they decided to check out an old place they found the day before, Restaurant Hamadi. This was also on the top floor of an old building. The ground floor was occupied by a bank and one had to really find the entrance to the restaurant – it was in the small side road. It was set up to look like inside of the big nomad tents but there were chairs, we did not have to sit on carpets. The menu was not extensive but it was quite typical local food. Unfortunately the mechoui was off the menu that day, so they chose to share a ‘pastilla’, couscous with chicken and couscous with lamb, while two of them chose the harira. It was ample and tasty, the service was good and there were also some musicians playing live for us.

Dis Mos Mielies!

The walk back to the hotel was as animated as the other evenings: lots of people, whole families and vagrants walking about, enjoying themselves. We also stopped by a ‘mielie’ seller to negotiate for two boiled cobs. We again passed by this fascinating stall with slabs of nougats on it. 

Nougat 

It was past 22h00 by the time they got to the hotel.

Streets at night

The next morning, after breakfast, checking out and gathering the multitude of luggage, we caught the taxis to the station. The one taxi agreed to check on the meter to charge us whereas the rest of them got into a ‘grand taxi’ with the rest of the luggage.

We got a compartment all to ourselves and managed to stack all that luggage in there. There was more than an hour’s wait and they allowed us to wait in a waiting room for a bit. Then we had a long walk to the front of the train to the compartment that was ours for a few hours. It was a dry and sunny day and they just sat in the train, watching the scenery go by.

Travelling First Class - train