A house with mix of styles

This house belongs to someone who isn't afraid to mix styles. It's a traditional village house in Andalucia, reformed and re-styled a couple of years ago. The furniture is a mixture of English, Spanish, French and Moroccan, all of different vintages. Decoration is a mixture of Spanish and Moroccan.

I love to see the effect of natural materials used in the houses here!
Rich, dark wooden furniture looks stunning on terracotta tiled floors, knarled and wiggly original ceiling beams against white walls and ceilings, huge old olive jars used as plant pots for palms, stained glass lamp shades, hand woven rugs, and often handmade ceramic tiles on walls and amongst the floor tiles.

What a beautiful eclectic mix it all makes!

Tarifa to Tangier - Part 2 - The photographs

Tangier- All photos are clickable to enlargeMy new best friends, Tangier, Morocco

Where were we? Ah yes, it's coming back to me!

I left the hostal at 8am to catch the 9am ferry to Tangier. This is all very straightforward, just a short walk to the ferry terminal, buy the tickets and board the ferry.

The time zones are interesting in that Spain is European time while Morocco is London time. This means that you arrive the same time as you set off. In my case the 8am ferry from Tarifa arrives in Tangier at 8am. It's a journey where you go back in time in more ways than one.

There were no incidents on the ferry, the crossing takes less than an hour and by the time I had a coffee, a bite to eat and a stroll around the deck we were approaching the harbour at Tangier.

My overriding memory of sailing into Tangier is that it reminded me of Wales, or Ireland. The hills surrounding the port are very green and there's a lot of sheep grazing. I could have been sailing into Dun Laoghaire or Hollyhead except is wasn't raining as it always is in Ireland and Wales.

It took a few minutes to tie up and lower the gangplank before we disembarked onto the quay side. You then have a short walk to the passport control office, but before you are asked for your passport you are welcomed by several men who claim to be officials, who ask if you are visiting or resident in Morocco (although it's usually pretty obvious). They then offer themselves, or arrange 'official' guides for you. If you resist the offer, they'll tell you that "there are dangerous areas of Tangier and you won't be safe".

These "touts" are a nuisance and they're persistent, but they're harmless. It's a pity that this becomes your first taste of the country and it puts a lot of people off Morocco. This is sad because I found Tangier to be very friendly and safe!

Once through the passport control office, you can get a taxi or take a 20 minute walk into Tangier. On the way out there's a shop where you can change your euros for the local currency, the dirham.

Tangier has lots of toursit attractions but I can't tell you what they are. I don't consider myself a typical tourist, when I visit a city I like to go local. I want to eat in local cafe's, wander around ordinary shops and meet local people, all of which is very easy in Tangier. The city is compact, built on a hill, and perfect for a good walk.

First the Kasbah. This is partly covered pedestian only, and the streets get narrower the deeper you go in. And the deeper you go - the better it gets. My advice is, just keep going! It's a thriving community of families, cafes and shops. I visited a couple of cafes for drinks and loved the atmosphere, I managed to watch 15 minutes of English football (Manchester United) in one bar.

The Kasbah

Next I walked away from the commercial centre to look at local housing. Very French, like you'd find on the French Riviera. There's a nostalgic feeling to the housing. This used to be a very racy place before it was reclaimed by Morocco in 1956. Tangier played host to Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, Ted Morgan, Timothy Leary, William Burroughs, Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, you get a feeling of decadence and decaying glamour.

Apartments, Tangier

Finally a late lunch at a hotel near the seafront before heading back to Spain. There's a very good choice of food, French, Moroccan even a McDonalds and plenty of restaurants to choose from, there's also a good selection of wines.
So there you have it, a whirlwind guide of Tangier. I loved the people (except the touts), if you catch their eye, they'll give you smile. I found them intelligent and witty. I also loved the architecture and colours. There is more to say about this unique place, but for now, I hope my photographs fill in the gaps. I'll be going back soon, maybe next spring for a week, to visit the Atlas mountains region.

Kasbah

Kasbah

Kasbah

Egg seller

Entrance to the Kasbah

Re-cycling bottles

Theatre

Tarifa to Tangier, Breakfast in Europe, lunch in Africa

Visiting another country is wonderful, but visiting another continent is on another level, it's wonderful squared. To have breakfast in southern Europe and lunch in north Africa is not that difficult, as I'll show you, but it sounds impressive.

I made this journey in May this year, driving from Granada down to Malaga and along the coast, past Marbella and Gibralter to Tarifa. I set off around 2pm and after a couple of stops arrived at Tarifa at 7pm.
Driving into Tarifa you could be forgiven for thinking "this doesn't look right". The fact is, Tarifa is hidden by modern concrete apartments, which is a pity because the old walled town itself is a little jewel.

So my first piece of advice to you, is do not judge the town on first impressions. Find the ancient gateway to the old town and you enter a totally different place.
I booked into a small pension which cost 40 euros for a double en-suite room, then went for a stroll around the town.

I could be happy living in Tarifa. For a start there are old pubs, like there used to be in Britain. The pubs have a good atmosphere, they're very friendly and full of travellers from all over the world.

Then there's the food! Tarifa has exceptional restaurants with truly international menu's. The best meal I've had in Spain was in a restaurant in Tarifa, you can't go wrong.
There are quite a few other attractions to Tarifa, a very good little art gallery and that beach, but for me it's an early night as I have to catch a ferry to Tangier in the morning.
Join me on Monday for lunch in Morocco