In December 2019 I met up with my father, sister and her husband in Morocco for a little vacation. We all met up in Tangier as our first stop and place to explore. I have shared some of my adventures from Morocco on my blog before, The blue city, Fes, and a small coastal town. I also did a post on the roof top terraces of Tangier. This post will go a little deeper into the Kasbah and Madina, markets and other sites.
We stayed in an airbnb in the Kasbah we got in at night and retired after dinner. After enjoying a little sunshine on the roof top we found this little hole in the wall cafe and had a breakfast. It consisted of some bread, cheese, honey eggs and juice. It was a tasty start to the day.
The narrow alleyways of the Kasbah which is the old interior of the walled city can be quite dark and cold as they are not big enough to let the sunlight get down into from the tall buildings. Most of the houses in the Kasbah have a nice roof top though which serves as the yard and a place that people can enjoy the sunshine. This was the view from the rooftop of our airbnb.
As part of our airbnb we were given a walking tour of the kasbah. This was very necessary as if we would have tried to navigate it ourselves we would get very lost like what happened later when we visited Fes. Here is a little mosque in the middle of the Kasbah.
Here is a larger minnerete reaching up over the buildings you can see how all the narrow pathways convene and even head through buildings and arches.
The doors of Tangier are famous for being beautifully decorated like this one to a mosque the tile work and wood are what sets them apart.
I loved these little mosaic fountains that can be found around. They are colorful and a meeting place in communities because of everyone's need for water.
Even living in cramped concrete quarters some people make the best of their environment and really beautify it with painting and plants. This was a whole little section of the kasbah that was colorful with wall paintings and plants everywhere.
At the edges of the Kasbah are the large old city walls, this particular one in Tangier is up on a hill and it overlooks the rest of the city which can be seen through the break in the big wall here.
Looking back up the wall into the kasbah you can really see the density of the buildings and the rooftop spaces all of them have.
After descending down the hill and out of the old kasbah you reach the madina which is another walled part of the old city but it was not the center most fortification. This place is filled with market stalls and road side eateries.
Tangier actually gets its name from the Tangarine which is a fruit that is grown in abundance in the area. The name stuck and is a variation of it today.
The inner market is full of colorful wares, this stall is selling a dozen different kinds of olives. There are also places selling nuts, and candy and dried fruits.
Moving deeper into the market you get to the meat section with large cuts and dead animals hanging everywhere. Unlike other African meat markets I have been to this one did not kill you with the smell was very clean.
Before emerging out the other side of the market things get a little fishy. This is an inside fish market, it was very clean as they continually hosed the place down but that meant the floor was wet. There were so many different kinds of fish everywhere. If you like seafood this is a dream I can imagine that the prices were pretty good too but I did not venture to ask.
Here is another view of the sky line this is on the edge of the madina looking back up towards the Kasbah which we decended out of earlier.
There were shops with many colorful trinkets yarns, fabrics and threads.
My father was quite happy to find a place to get a fresh brewed cup of coffee. This place was a road side stall but it had everything.
We stopped for a snack at a cafe and they had the most colorful displays of some sort of yogurt or smoothie. I didnt try because I am very weary of dairy products in some parts of the world. But they sure did look good.
If you continue to walk down hill you will eventually make it to the bay side board walk. Here there are hotels, restaurants and apartments lining one side of the street and the beach on the other.
The harbor was filled with sail boats. My dream is to one day take some years and sail around the world. So whenever I see beautiful sail boats it stirs something inside of me.
The hill at the far end of the picture is where we started the day in the Kasbah. We have a long walk back to where we started.
Getting back to the old part of town there are some even older building that have seen better days. Here some trees and shrubs have taken over the building.
On the other side of the kasbah and the hill that it sits on is the Atlantic ocean, cold deep and blue. The wall of the kasbah hugs the hill top along the top of the sea front.
Just as the straight of Gibraltar starts there is a large new fishing port for the local fishing boats. You can see across to the other side which is Spain and Gibraltar.
Thanks for taking another trip with me I hope you enjoyed seeing around Tangier.