Wednesday June 28, 2017
We enjoyed a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel before going on a tour of the city with Achmed’s father, Daher. We were told that Daher is an old Arabic name that means ‘clean ‘ or ‘ pure ‘ and it is not used anymore by people for naming their children.
Tangier is a multicultural city with many different nationalities represented in certain sections. Americans, English, French, Italian, German and Portuguese are some of the nationalities that are represented. French is one of the more common languages in the area and I was thankful and surprised at how much of my high school French I still remembered. Daher explained the cultural aspects of the town and the marketplace to us.
The marketplace of the medina* is an interesting place.
* According to ‘ The Lonely Planet’,
” The medina, the top attraction of Tangier, is a labyrinth of alleyways both commercial and residential. It’s contained by the walls of a 15th-century Portuguese fortress, although most buildings are actually relatively young for a Moroccan medina. Clean and well lit as medinas go, the place is full of travellers’ treasures, from glimpses of traditional living, to the more material rewards of the souqs.”
During our tour we were shown a fabric shop with a fellow making fabric on a very old-fashioned loom. We were also shown an extremely large store selling different types of rugs and antiques. At the rooftop of this store, there was a beautiful view of the city and the bay.
After our tour we returned to the hotel before going to the popular ‘Grand Cafe de Paris’, which was around the corner from our hotel. Their coffee, snacks and avocado juice were all excellent, the service was very good and their prices were relatively inexpensive.
We had an early flight back to Portugal which was scheduled to leave at 4:40 am, the next morning and we had to leave the hotel at 3 am, so It ended up being a short day for us.
Ralf Hamm 
Always enjoy your travels Ralf. It’s good living vicariously!!