Burning the Inheritance

Tangier straddles the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea at the Straits of Gibraltar and has, over its long history, been occupied by just about everyone.  Originally a small Berber town, it was then colonized as a Phoenician trading center as early as the 10^th century BC, then the Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, and then Arabs (from where the Muslim invasion of Spain started in the 8^th century).  Portugal invaded in the 15^th century then ceded it to Spain in the 17^th century.  Iberian rule lasted until 1661 when it was bequeathed to England’s Charles II (as part of the dowry of his bride Catherine of Braganza!).  The British struggled and finally destroyed what little was there before abandoning it.  It served as Morocco’s diplomatic headquarters from the 18^th century, was blockaded by the British for piracy, and was bombarded by the French in 1844 as part of the first Franco-Moroccan War.  Its location made it a center for diplomatic and commercial rivalries in the 19^th century. 

In the 20^th century the port was developed and the city grew steadily under French influence.  In 1923, it became an International Zone under the joint administration of France, Spain, and Great Britain and a destination for European and American travelers of all sorts (diplomats, spies, bohemians, writers, and businessmen) and remained as such despite various diplomatic disputes.  In 1956, Tangier joined the rest of Morocco with the restoration of full sovereignty.  Since that time, the population of the city has grown from less than 100,000 to about 1.3 million people largely because of its location, with one of the largest ports on the Mediterranean and a thriving tourism industry due to its proximity to Southern Europe.

Tangier is probably the most international of all Moroccan cities and has, over the last century, developed a bit of a reputation as the Bad Boy of Morocco, a place where the normal rules of this country do not fully apply.  Heroin addict William S. Boroughs, patron saint of the Beat Generation, came here in the late 1950’s and wrote his best-known novel Naked Lunch which was published with the assistance of Jack Kerouac who came here in 1957.  Rolling Stones Keith Richards and Mick Jagger came here in 1967 to reflect and take a pause from pending drug charges in Great Britain, and Anthony Bourdain came here in 2012 to film an episode of Parts Unknown (and said he didn’t imbibe).  And, oh yeah, we (the Sherman Family) had also been here ourselves back in 2011, passing through to catch a ferry to Spain after having ridden the overnight Marrakesh Express (more about that visit later).

We travelled to Tangier on Saturday June 18^th for what was really not much more than a layover.  We took a late afternoon bus from Chefchaouen, Morocco, where we had been for the last four days, and were only staying in Tangier for two nights before catching a flight to Rome.  The 2-1/2 hour bus ride from Chefchaouen was pretty scenic as we wound our way out of the Rif Mountains and saw some real rivers and lakes, and eventually the sunset, as we approached the coast. 

We had arranged for a taxi to be waiting for us and found our driver pretty quickly, but as we entered the city traffic slowed considerably and, as we passed through the Grand Socco (the square at the entrance to the Tangier Medina) it seemed as if everyone in town was out for Saturday night.   From that point on, traffic crept along through the narrow crowded streets and we decided that being in a taxi was maybe not the worst way to get re-immersed in the craziness of Tangier.

Our driver took us through and around the Medina eventually dropping us almost at the door of La Tour de L’air (The Air Tower) where would be spending the next two nights.  La Tour de L’air turned out to be another Trinity Style house with one room per floor – up one flight from the street to a kitchen and living area, then up another for the master bedrooms and bath, and up another flight to the second bedroom which we used as a dressing area.  For what is mostly a pretty flat country, there sure are a lot of stairs, but the payoff here was again the roof deck, a couple of more steps up, which had a pretty awesome view across the Medina, harbor, and beach.

One of the sort of funny things about this booking (Booking.com, but a stand-alone house) was that it included breakfast.  Odd for a stand-alone house, but typical in most of the hotels and riads here, so… At 9:00 AM our first morning in Tangier our host, Larbi, showed up with a large straw basket and laid out a modest breakfast of eggs tajine, bread, coffee and condiments.  Nothing elaborate, but when it’s included in the price of the room, it always feels like a “free” breakfast, and you have to love just about anything that’s free.

With only one full day in Tangier, the pressure was really on in regard to where to go and what to see, but sometimes practical issues have to take precedent and, again sometimes, unexpected pleasures come from dealing with practical issues.  So, on Sunday June 18^th (Father’s Day), with no churches within walking distances, we headed out early for, of all places, a shopping mall which Colleen had located about 30 minutes from the Medina, near the beach. 

We were going to the mall to purchase a couple of items which it had proved difficult to find in any of the small local stores including an SD card for Ritchard’s camera and, of all things, good old Listerine mouth wash. (Full disclosure, we did find a local brand of mouthwash in a store, but Ritchard has become a bit of a stickler about oral hygiene on this trip as the practice of dentistry is still a bit medieval in some of the places we are travelling.)  Our plan was to walk to the mall, make our purchases, and maybe find a place to grab a coffee and maybe a light lunch as we had special plans for dinner.

The walk to the mall took us through the Medina, past the harbor, then along the beach through the Corniche of Tangier.  Perhaps, as we did, you are saying “what the heck is a Corniche?”  After a bit of research, we determined that the word corniche was originally used to describe a roadway on the side of a mountain or slope but has come to more generally mean an elevated walkway or roadway, usually where the adjoining ground is higher on one side and lower on the other.  

We discovered that the Corniche of Tangier is what we would call a promenade (or a “boardwalk” back in New Jersey) – a wide pedestrian walkway elevated but running along the length of the beach. As it turned out, it was actually kind of interesting (at least in concept) with a grid of modern light standards punctuated by glass towers containing elevators and stairs leading to a lower level facing the beach with shops and storefronts.  Unfortunately, it appeared that glass towers do not fare very well in this particular environment and all but one of the elevators appeared to be out of service, which was probably OK as most of the most of the storefronts appeared to be either closed or vacant. Unfortunately, in the blazing sun and heat, kind of another dead modernist urban space. (Probably a much better during place to be in the winter.) Nonetheless, later on our way home we noted that there were quite a few people enjoying the beach (because of the blazing sun and heat).

So, we made our way down the Corniche, found the mall, made our purchases (they had 3 flavors of Listerine to choose from!) and then looked for a place to have a coffee.  (This is where the unexpected pleasure part comes in.)  We spotted what looked to be a pretty nice place called Café Novel, actually sat inside because it was so hot and humid already, and looked over the menu.  After a minute, Colleen looked up at me and said “I’m having gaufres” and, forgetting what little French I had learned, I said “Excuse me?” to which she replied “I’m having waffles!”.  At this point I realized, uncharacteristically for Morocco, the menu included both waffles and pancakes, at which point I of course made up my mind that if she was having waffles, then I was having pancakes.  While they had waffles and pancakes, they did not have maple syrup so I went for the fruit compote while Colleen, in a display of true decadence, went for the caramel syrup on her waffles.  Not to be outdone (on Father’s Day at least), I asked for a side of crème fraiche with my pancakes.

What followed was the classic effect of what many of us call “comfort food”.  It was so nice to have a familiar taste of home and was even a bit reminiscent of going out for breakfast after church with my Dad on Father’s Day (less the church part).  We took our time, enjoying each bite, and found that there was more than we could eat (perhaps because of that first breakfast) which was just fine as we both felt we had eaten as much as we wanted and walked away both physically and mentally sated.  We then took a nice slow meandering walk back to our place where we planned on having a quiet afternoon before dinner. 

Perhaps because it was Father’s Day (OK, definitely because it was Father’s Day) we were able to get all three of our kids on a call at the same time, despite their disparate and demanding schedules.  Morocco is five hours ahead of the East Coast U.S., so an easy 1:00 PM afternoon call for us is a 10:00 AM Sunday morning after a probably very late Saturday night call for at least some of them.  Enough said. It was a really great Father’s Day present from each of them to have everyone on the call together.

As I mentioned earlier, we had some special plans for dinner that evening.  As it was Father’s Day, Colleen had given me carte blanche on where and what to eat and I requested that we dine at Restaurant Soveur de Poisson, a place that Anthony Bourdain visited here in 2012.  On the way there, we passed through the Petit Socco, a small square that was once (and maybe still is) the place to hang out if you were/are hip.  Not to say that we are hip, but we had actually been here in 2011 (before Bourdain) and had lunch at the Café Tingis which our son knew about as it was apparently a favorite hangout of William S. Boroughs and Paul Bowles among others.

The Restaurant Savior de Poisson, as its name (Taste of the Fish) suggests, is a place that specializes in seafood and is reputed to be the best place for it in Tangier.  The funny thing is that, despite the Bourdain thing, the place is so innocuous that you can easily walk by it without even knowing that it is there.  It is a very small place (literally a hole in the wall) with seating for only about 25 (an no apparent means for making online reservations), but we were lucky enough to find an empty table when we arrived and were seated immediately.  The menu is prix fixe ($25 per person) and you get 5 courses as well as unlimited refills of their own special house juice which is made of figs, raisins, strawberries, and some local herbs which are reported to make you “strong” (you know what I mean).  It sounds a bit odd, but it really was a quite tasty alternative to an beer or wine and really complemented the meal. 

We were served by the owner Mohammad Boulage, who also served Bourdain although at that time his father, the chef who created the place, ran it. He seemed genuinely pleased when Ritchard said he recognized him from the Parts Unknown episode and responded with a fist bump.

Our first course was appetizers – fresh-baked bread, olives, roasted nuts, and a red pepper dipping sauce which definitely scratched the itch Colleen had been having for something hot and spicy (thankfully accompanied by the house juice.  The second course was a delicious fish stew served in hot earthen ware bowls with some pretty rustic wooden spoons (all of the flatware was of this variety which actually added quite a bit to the whole experience).  The third course was a tagine which included a variety of seafood all slow roasted in an incredibly aromatic sauce.  The fourth course was a whole roasted fish with a small side kabob of swordfish (kind of one of their signatures).  For dessert we had a warm compote of fruit and nuts and fresh watermelon which, with as much of it as we have seen, was the first we had actually tasted here – very sweet and delicious.  Mohammad delivered each course with an explanation of what it was and stopped by regularly to top of our juice glasses.  Everything was delicious and this was definitely one of the most unique and memorable meals of our trip thus far.

On the way home we did a bit of window shopping in the Medina which seemed incredibly crowded and we actually managed to get lost for a bit, but we did eventually find our way to our last stop, a place called Café Baba, just around the corner from La Tour de L’air.  Anthony Bourdain also visited Café Baba in 2012 at which time it was known for its tea and coffee but was also reputed to be a regular hangout for local hash smokers.  We saw none of this (probably because we were there) but the clientele appeared to be more than up to the task, so who knows what happened after we left?  We had a couple of nightcap teas before taking the short walk up the hill to our place knowing we were back on the road the next day and kind of wishing we had allowed more time for Tangier.

Like our first trip here in 2011, we treated Tangier (our last stop in Morocco in both instances) as more of a layover than a destination and, while it certainly felt like we had made the most of the time we had here, we left feeling like there was a lot more to see and do. (I don’t think we were even here long enough in 2011 to realize that.)  So, Tangier probably needs to be added to the list of places to return to in the future. 

Au Revior Morocco

We spent a total of 30 days traveling around Morocco and saw quite a bit of the country during that time and got a pretty good sense of what a beautiful and diverse country it is.  We visited a total of 7 cities (Marrakesh, Essaouira, Taghazout, Sidi Ifni, Fes, Chefchaouen, and Tangier). We saw deserts, mountains, and beaches and some of its largest and most intense cities, but we also saw and experienced some very small and very remote places where we were pretty much the only tourists.  

While not nearly enough time to see and do everything, 30 days did feel like a long time to be immersed in a culture which is so rich and so different from the one we are used to (whatever that is after six months of travel).  It remains to be seen what the lingering effects of this experience will be, but we feel pretty certain that there will be some.  And, while we are very much looking forward to some of the changes Italy will bring (with food and wine high on the list!), we are also feeling a little sadness at the prospect of leaving Morocco. 

We are also (painfully?) aware that, unlike our transition into Moroccan culture (which, with the luxury of time, was slow and gradual), our transition out is going to be very quick and abrupt and will require us to make adjustments in our daily outlook, expectations, and routines.  I think that times like this are some of the most challenging we have on the road, when there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty other than the fact that you know pretty much everything (except your travel partner and luggage) is about to change. 

But, there is also a tremendous amount of anticipation in the prospect that the next place will be even better and some faith that it usually is in some way.  I should probably add that one other thing we are actually certain of is that there will be a lot about Morocco that we will miss.

And so, with even more mixed emotions than usual, we say “Au Revior” to Morocco (French – not English – is still the most commonly spoken language there other than Arabic) and again say “Buongiorno” to Italy.