20 August: After the 9 hour - 1000 km drive from Barcelona to a small pueblo south of Granada on the foothills of the Sierra Nevada (Durcal), we crashed out in some basic accommodation after knocking back a few cold ones and the kids going nuts making cubbies and playing soccer that did not seem to overly disturb the other temporary inhabitants of the inn (it was a long time in the car so kids had an over-supply of energy to dissipate! Fortunately Spanish culture makes large allowances for noisy children at any time of day/night at any place).
21 August: The next morning I got up early to make the 1 hour windy mountain drive to Capi (near Pampa) from our accommodation in Durcal because we had mistakenly left an important item during our last week's departure from Pampa. The fam sleeped in then had a swim in the pool prior to my return. Afterwards, we headed down to Costa del Sol (near Marbella-Estepona) for a swim and lunch on the beach. Finally rolled into my cousin Marie's pad in La Linea around 5 pm and all us Griswolds were all pretty much COMPLETELY shattered from the previous day-n-half car/travel-related activities. Around 8 pm Paul suggested to me that we go get ferry tickets for the ferry crossing from Tarifa (southernmost point in Spain) to Tangier, Morocco we were planning for the next day. As I was acquiring our tickets, the purveyor of the ferry tickets notified Paul that there were two additional ferries put on for midnight and 2 am (in 4 and 6 hours, respectively). Paul loves to go to his place in Morocco, and immediately saw an opportunity to maximize time spent on the African continent, which manifested itself in a singular goal to get his family of 4 and mine of 5 over to Morocco prior to sunrise the next day. I thought he had nil chance of getting the mandatory approval from Marie and Robin, but his sheer enthusiasm and passion was analogous to a tsunami that brought along everything in its path. By 10 pm the cars were loaded and we had embarked on the 40 minute drive to Tarifa. As it turned out the midnight ferry was cancelled so it was the 2 am ferry for us. To wile away the time, first we had dinner at a nice pizza joint in Tarifa. Here's a pic of the Spaniards that comprised our touring party.
22 August: Well we got on the 2 am ferry. Paul, Mary, Ismael and Tania boarded in their car as they were taking it across to Morocco, they had a car pass that included a family so to save money Sam became part of their family. We left our car in Tarifa as the rental was not valid across the Strait on African soil. Here's a pic of them with the stow-away in their car as they were boarding the ferry.
Paul, Robsie and Luca on the back deck of the ferry around 3:30 am as we near the port of Tangiers.
The ferry had very few folks on board, and I think Paul's car may have been 1 of 5 or so that made the crossing. Apparently the unscheduled additional ferries at 0000 and 0200 were to get people from Morocco back to Europe after the end of holidays (primarily Moroccans returning to their homes in Europe). Our ferry needed to be back in Tangiers to get the next lot back to European soil early in the morning.
Next morning we had a beautiful view from Paul & Mari's balcony towards the azure blue waters of the Atlantic ocean. However, it did take a few cups of coffee to cut through the haze in our heads to truly start to appreciate the view. The accommodation complex has two swimming pools in which the five kids (and 4 adults) enjoyed from morning to evening when not on excursions.
By the way, this stop sign illustrates were 'not in Kansas anymore Toto'...
Somehow we mustered enough energy to get over to the nearby town of Asilah. Asilah is a art-eests mecca with many shops and galleries. First, we had a wander down the main drag, lots of street vendors, shops and general craziness. Luca immediately found an appropriate street stand with all sorts of toys.
The medina (the old walled off section of the town) is classic with narrow winding streets, white-washed building primarily outlined in blue. First thing we encountered there was an amazing portable cart with a myriad of types of nuts. Here's Robsie and the kids selecting types to sample and bartering away.
Here's a shot of several of us taking a bit of a rest during our wandering on this first day in Morocco.
A cool window in the medina...
A cool door in the medina...
An typical example of the white-blue colour city-look thing of Asilah...
A cool mural behind Frankie and me. There was also sorts of great murals all over the place, aka not graffiti but art suitable for the 'pool room'... Asilah was the only place we have encountered so far with such marvelous art work, a la mural style, without any great amount of graffiti. Check out Paul's facebook page as he went crazy photo documenting them.
We made it out to the bit of the medina that juts out into the Atlantic, and there was a bunch of young lads (10-16 years old) doing some crazy dives (I managed to catch one in the act in the pic below). Some of the holes between the rocks these lads were diving into had a very low tolerance for error, 10-15 m drop into a 2 m diameter hole... Fortunately no mishaps over the duration of our viewing.
Frankie in front of the seafood restaurant we went to for lunch, having a look at which fish she wants to be cooked up for the arvo meal.
After lunch kids going nuts in typical Mediterranean style WITHIN THE RESTAURANT... Doesn't matter if your in Spain or Morocco, the populace has an amazing (and refreshing) tolerance to kids running amok! It will be difficult to re-train them to culture-appropriate behaviour when we leave the Med!
Frankie and Sam conversing with some of the inhabitants along the path to the beach for a bit of sunset chilling out in front of our accommodation.
The beach was substantially less crowded and very wide here, and there was the occasional camel wandering down the beach to boot!
23 August: Well that was a lot of activity during the previous day on the heels of our early morning arrival. The next day the kids had a lot of pool action.
Robsie managed to get away for a refreshing dip in the Atlantic sans kids, this is a shot of her returning walking up the path.
All of the cousins in a good mood with the good night's rest!
For the evening meal
we had a fantastic culinary experience at a traditional high end restaurant (#1 in Asilah several years running!). Here's a shot of a typical meal presentation...
And then went for a nice evening shop in the medina of Asilah, which was substantially more comfortable than the previous day's hot afternoon sojourn. Here's Luca having a look at a wide array of shoes.
24 August: Today another lazy morning by the pool and then off to Tangiers. On the drive over Robsie took this shot of young lads (10-14years old) jumping off and on this cement truck. Clearly these boys were young and accustomed to this as a mode of getting around the city, much to the disdain of the drivers of these vehicles. Shortly after the photo these boys were chased off in an unseemly manner by the driver of this cement truck in front of our eyes, which took some explaining to our kids...
Moroccan flag...
Petrol outlet...
Mosque tower...
Cool mural and traditional dress...
All reminders of some of the differences between this northern African country with Spain a mere few kilometres across the Strait. BTW driving was nuts in Tangiers, particularly the busy round-abouts. I didn't get much traction in these seemingly chaotic traffic jungles until I started using the car horn and making wild gestures in a similar manner to everyone else, viz a viz 'when in Morocco, do as the Moroccans do!'. We then had a nice lunch in a seafood restaurant.
Then a quick play and chill out in a nice plaza-park area near the port.
And then made a mad dash back to the beach for sunset camel riding.
25 August: Next day was packing up and a meal at a Moroccan restaurant that served very large portions (most of the restaurants we went to Morocco catered for westerners). I had a look at the salad, and said what the heck, ate it, and all the Griswolds paid the price in regards to toilet matters over the ensuing week or so. As mentioned previously, lots of Moroccans were returning to their homes in Europe after their annual vacations so the ferry from Tangiers to Tarifa was chockers in terms of cars. The Griswolds jumped right onto the first ferry across, had dinner in Tarifa and were back to Paul and Mari's over a couple of hours. Here we are during that dinner somewhat happier than our beleaguered relatives on the other side of the Strait waiting in the car line (we walked on sans car).
26 August: Luckily my tio Paco and tia Marikita were looking after Paul & Mari's house while we were away so they were there (i.e. no house to break into), and we got the kids straight into bed. By the way my Tio and Tia were the one's who cooked that paella on 28 July, and here's a photo of them outside of their apartment (I said I would get their pictures into the blog at some point previously). Also had a chance to say my 'see ya later, until next time' with my tio and two tias before our departure the next day for Madrid the next day before our departure (great catch-up).
Unfortunately for Paul, Mari, Ismael and Tanya they had to wait for the 2 am ferry and did not get back to their house until 3:30 am or so. Early morning start on Thursday and early morning finish on Monday for them...
The kids had a great time in Morocco, and more importantly from our perspective got a small introduction and appreciation to northern African culture. Thanks for taking us over prima and Paul, we had a great time.
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