April 7: Casablanca

We stayed one night in Casablanca, specifically to see the gleaming new Hassan II Mosque (and secondarily the enjoyable Sacre-Coeur Cathedral). We aimed for the 11am guided tour on Sunday, April 7.

We got a little lost on our way to the mosque. We had assumed it couldn't be too hard to just head for the tallest minaret in the world, but the streets twist and turn and buildings often blocked our view. We ended up coming through a poor and dusty part of town, with no other foreigners in sight and piles of garbage everywhere.

The humble scene was a stark contrast to the gleaming marble mosque up ahead, as well as our digital cameras. But despite their poverty and our evident comparative wealth, no one approached us. Indeed, Casablanca was the only Moroccan city in which we were nearly always ignored - it was wonderful.

When we finally arrived, the abundance of cream-colored marble combined with the hot Moroccan sun was nearly blinding! The size, expense and artistry of the building were also extremely impressive, just as King Hassan II intended.

Our tour began in a downstairs area just outside the mosque, in a cool marble room with large and clean bathrooms. We bought our tickets from the counter (there's a small gift shop, too) then waited by a sign for the tour in English. When the tour began, we removed our shoes at the entrance to the mosque and were given plastic bags to carry them in.

The guided tour was excellent. It took about an hour and was led by a young woman who spoke excellent English. She pointed out all the notable features of the mosque, including where the speakers are cleverly hidden in the prayer area, and told some of its history. She made many jokes throughout - such as the need for shoe holders in each prayer rug to avoid searching through 50,000 pairs of shoes after prayer, and that Americans and Germans always want to know how much the mosque cost.

April 5: Tarifa and Bolonia, Spain

After our adventures in Gibraltar, we took advantage of our rental car and spent the rest of the afternoon driving along the coast towards the west. The scenery was beautiful after we passed Algeciras - lots of rolling hills and trees. Most of the hills were covered in windmills, which was so impressive. Apparently it is one of the biggest wind farms in Europe.




Our first stop was Tarifa, a port town where we had planned to stay instead of Algeciras, but the hotels were all booked. It is a fairly small town but has boomed in popularity in recent years for its excellent windsurfing conditions (which also means poor sunbathing conditions) and as an alternative port for Morocco. Tarifa has been a fairly major port for centuries and it is said the word "tariff" is named for it.

We parked at the ferry port and hoped not to get towed, then wandered around the harbor and town a bit.




The main attraction of the town is the port and the beach, but there is also a historic castle:


Tarifa Castle (left) and ferry boat to Tangier. In the far distance you can see windmills on the hill.

Tarifa Castle dates from the early 13th century, I believe. Its main claim to fame is as the site of a famous episode that took place in 1296, shortly after Tarifa was conquered from the Moors (Muslims). Don Alonso Pérez de Guzmán was put in charge of the city, but his rebellious brother Don Juan (no, not that Don Juan) sided with the Moors and they tried to retake Tarifa.

Don Juan had Guzmán's infant son and threatened to kill him if Guzmán did not surrender Tarifa. From the castle, Guzmán is said to have shouted back, "I did not beget a son to be made use of against my country, but that he should serve her against her foes. Should Don Juan put him to death, he will but confer honour on me, true life on my son, and on himself eternal shame in this world and everlasting wrath after death." Guzman then threw his own knife down for the besiegers to use in killing his son, and went back inside.

Sadly, the argument was not persuasive: Don Juan killed the infant. But the Moors were horrified at Don Juan's atrocity and gave up the siege. Guzmán's decision has been regarded in Spain as a great act of heroism and sacrifice, and he is known as Guzmán El Bueno, "the Good."

There is another castle-like monument near the beach, but I haven't been able to identify it yet:



We looked for something to eat in town but as usual it was an odd hour (3:30 or something) so no restaurants were open. We settled for an ice cream cone instead, which we ate at outdoor tables protected by hefty plastic walls that whipped in the wind. The ice cream was delicious.

Then we headed back to our car, but before leaving we drove down a pier that looked interesting, and we were glad we did! It gave us the opportunity to stand between the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, which was great cheesy fun.

What was really interesting, though, was just how different the two sides were. The Med looked like it always does - blue and peaceful - and so did the Atlantic - rough and cold.


The pier, with the Atlantic on the left and Mediterranean Sea on the right.


The Mediterranean outside our window.


The Mediterranean Sea.


The Atlantic side.

The beach at Tarifa is all on the Atlantic side and is large and wonderfully sandy, but the fences and windsurfers indicate how windy it is! So not a great place for sunbathing, but on a clear day you can see Morocco from here!



From Tarifa we continued our scenic drive west, with improving weather.



Our next stop was Bolonia, a tiny seaside (Atlantic Ocean) village out in the middle of the countryside with ancient Roman ruins. To our great sadness, the ruins were closed for the day. But we still got to peer over the fences and get a general idea of the site. What a beautiful location!






This Roman city was called Baelo Claudia and it flourished from about 200 BC to 200 AD, based on the fishing industry. It especially did well with its fish sauce, which was a popular delicacy all over the Roman world.


The beach was nice, too, and a little less windy than Tarifa.


The restaurants here were also closed until Spanish dinner time - 7 or 8pm. But we did get to use the nice bathrooms of one of them.

Then we headed back to our hotel in Algeciras, where we had another nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and got ready to go to Morocco!

April 5: Gibraltar

The little country of Gibraltar was quite a bit different than we expected. We imagined it to be a wealthy little British community, all quaint with red phone boxes and changing of the guard at a palace. The expectation of affluence came from what we'd read about how expensive it is to live there or even get a hotel due to lack of space.

But Gibraltar turned out to be larger than we thought, not quaint, not wealthy, and generally just not that impressive. Everything looked rather rundown and like it hadn't had any real attention since the 1970s. It did look kind of British, but the less attractive side of Britain - the "High Street" with its standard shops and pubs. It was still a unique and interesting experience, though - not least because of the walk across an airport runway and the monkeys everywhere.

We drove our wonderful little rental car from Algeciras to Gibraltar, then parked in the city of La Linea, the last city in Spain before Gibraltar. After driving in circles for a bit we found a parking garage that worked quite well. Then it was about a 15-minute walk to the border in the cold wind. Why oh why couldn't the weather cooperate? But as usual we had fun anyway.


The border crossing - look both ways for airplanes before you cross the road! The way into Gibraltar crosses an active airport runway, although it looks like there's only a flight or two each day. We had to show our passports at the border but sadly got no stamp.


A view down the runway and out to sea.


The two ends of the runway, as seen from the Rock.


Gibraltar Airport. We popped in on our way out of the city, and it was like a little train station except with no crowds.

Some city scenes:



Marks & Spencer, just like back home. We didn't investigate to see if it had the same good food.


Gibraltar's mosque. It looks so sad after the glories of Cordoba! But the cathedrals of Gibraltar aren't all that fancy, either. This is the Anglican cathedral, which is pretty but humble compared to most:





And this is the Catholic Cathedral:


It didn't take us too long to walk through most of the city and we were thinking we were about ready to head out when we spied a driving tour up to the top of the Rock. We were already debating about going up there, but I didn't like the looks of the cable car and neither of us really cared about the sights anyway.

But the driving tour actually sounded like a good option and after some debate and good persuasion from the tour salesman, we decided to go for it. (On the right is the cable car station, with me and tour guide salesman on the lower right.)

The tour drives you up on top of the Rock and stops at all the major sights: siege tunnels, a cave, good views and of course monkeys. It was on the expensive side and none of the sights were spectacular, but the tour guide was very good and in the end we were glad we did it. Before too long, a nice German family had also been recruited and we were on our way.


Here's our tour van, with monkeys climbing on it whenever we come to a stop.


View across the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain. In Roman times this was known as the Pillars of Hercules and it was the end of the known world, or so the signs say.


A monkey hanging out on a vertigo-inducing cliff.

Our first main sight was St. Michael's Cave, a natural cave full of stalactites that is now used as a concert hall. It was different!


I think I'd be worried to attend a concert here - looks to me like those stalactites could come crashing down in the vibration of the music!

Outside the caves, we waited for the rest of the group by a little gift shop and cafe. There were a couple monkeys hanging around and looking into the shop.

Then, for just a moment, someone in the shop opened the lid of a large freezer of ice cream treats. Quick as a flash, a monkey ran into the store, jumped up on the side, grabbed what he could and ran back out.

He dropped a Cornetto (a Drumstick-type cone) in his haste, which I returned to the freezer. But he had held onto his other one, and sat up on the awning outside the shop, expertly peeling it and eating it just like a human would. Cheeky monkey!

From there our driver took us up to the top of the Rock, where we got out for some scary views down to the ocean and the opportunity to be sat on by a baby monkey. Our tour guide seems to have an arrangement with them, and they know that if they climb up on his arm and then jump to a tourist's shoulders, they'll get a treat. Here our German bus-mates try it out:



Despite the fact they're sitting on your head, you are instructed not to touch or pet them or they could bite. Interesting. I had no interest in having a monkey on my back (ha) but David tried it out and had a good time while I snapped some photos.

The good time ended, however, when the monkey got tired of just sitting on David's back and decided to unzip his photo backpack. Now, I had seen the monkey in action with the ice cream and I knew that David had his PDA/sat-nav device in there along with other valuables, so I immediately attempted to shoo the monkey away.

He completely ignored me and continued unzipping, so I had no choice but to break the golden rule of no touching and gently pushed him down on his back. And he did jump down - but not before grabbing onto my arm with both hands and biting down hard. Fortunately I was wearing a thin sweatshirt so the bite wasn't bad enough to draw blood, but he did scrape off the skin and left a bruise that throbbed for the rest of the day. I had red teeth marks in my arm for well over a week, and I did worry that people might think David had bitten me! :)

I would still do it all over again, though, because I just know that little furry menace would have run off with everything in David's bag! But after he scampered off I did casually ask our tour guide if the monkeys up here might have rabies. He said no, definitely not, but that he would get me some antiseptic spray at the next stop. Based on the research David did later (he was very concerned, which was so nice) this was a good thing since although rabies doesn't seem to be an issue, monkey bites from Gibraltar have been known to get infected.

After that little adventure, our final sightseeing stop was the Great Siege Tunnels. The Great Siege (1779-83) was when the French and Spanish tried to get Gibraltar from the British and failed. There are extensive networks of tunnels inside the Rock built to withstand this siege and only a mile or two are open to visitors. The rest are still used by the military and their dimensions and uses are unknown.




It was from outside the tunnels that we had the nice views of the runway seen earlier in this post. After that it was a short ride back down into the city, with some more history and culture info from our driver. We learned that lots of rich foreigners have bought up the houses up on the Rock, depriving the native Gibraltarians (of whom our driver is one) of affordable property. David and I both had the same thought: why would you choose to live here? It's not that bad, but it's no Monaco! And then we got our answer: having property in Gibraltar acts as a tax shelter, and the people rarely even visit their houses here.

At the end of the tour we bid Auf Wiedersehen to our tour buddies and headed back across the border to our car. We then spent the rest of the afternoon visiting a couple other stops along the coast which were much more beautiful, but that will have to wait until the next post...

There are a few more assorted photos of Gibraltar here on Flickr.