Single Step

Does the name Pepi la Pew ring any bells? I remember him as an animated and enamored skunk, in perpetual chase of a cat he mistakenly thought was another skunk. His famous quote, “Come to the Kasbah with me, and we shall chew bubble gum together,” has been a dip-kissing line since our early romancing days. Never did I imagine my man actually would. Take me to the Kasbah that is…until Tangier.

The old city’s centre is called the Medina, the Grand Succo and the Petit Succo are where much of the action takes place, the Souk (market) and the oldest, narrowest, highest and most protected neighbourhood of Tangier is the Kasbah or fortress. It’s where we stayed with all the comforts of a sultan and well-earned after a long day of touring the rough and tumble Moroccan Mediterranean.

It was Easter Sunday and the Berbers made the trek into the city from farms to sell mint and all manner of veggies. We slipped into a garden, out of the bustle of the Souk and followed the lush pathway to an English-speaking Anglican service so we joined in.

A full day in N. Africa’s gritty city of Tangier and richer for it.

In the few hours we spent in the UK on the Rock of Gibraltar, we did all the English-y things that seemed right for the setting. We ate luncheon at the pub, took the tram to the crest of the Rock, photographed the famous Barbary macaques, which are technically apes but look a lot like tailless monkeys, I bought my UK Country Living Magazine at a newsstand and we listened to English all day long. We didn’t shop at Marks & Spencer but could have.

The summit rises 1,400 feet high and is the thing of legends, the only place from which you can see two seas and two summits (the other on the North African side) from one place.

Late in the day, we rode the red double-decker bus, crossed the ‘frontier’ back into Spain, picked up our car and headed for Tarifa, a trendy surf-town buzzing with the young, tanned and fit and bought tickets for our ferry ride to Tangier the next day.

Maybe it was the season or maybe Spain’s countryside is naturally green and gorgeous. Whatever the case, our drive felt pastoral and therapeutic in every sense. The topography is varied and that adds dimension to the traveler’s experience of place. Hill towns show off ingenuity and sheer tenacity of spirit because many are literally built onto and into a cliff-side. Such was the case in southern Spain.

It is our practice to stay close to the culture in order to interact with locals as much as possible. One effective way of doing that is to sleep and breakfast in locally-run inns. A converted convent served our purposes well in Arco and so we parked the car at the bottom of the hill in the public car park and took a 7 minute taxi up narrow, winding streets to our waiting hosts. A stunning view, if you don’t mind heights, a typical European breakfast of cheese, bread, fruit and yoghurt and next morning we were on our way to see the rock everyone talks about.

Okay, there are some things worth repeating and Seville is definitely one of those. Semana Santa added a dimension we were unprepared for, and yet, as we reminisce it is the highlight of the trip, hands-down.

It is our habit on an initial visit to a city to take a short walking tour to get our bearings and discover a hard-to-find eatery, or a piece of obscure history the books fail to mention, or sample local wines. It’s also a terrific place to meet other travelers and share stories over a late dinner date.

Our schedule for Seville included a tour of the majestic Cathedral and Giralda Bell Tower but it soon became clear that we would have better luck shaking hands with the Pope. Next time. We remind ourselves that it’s important to keep a malleable day plan and go with the flow. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the kind folks at Coco Seville did their best to direct us out of the congestion on our arrival so we popped back to see them the next day, Canadian chocolates in hand as a small thanks. It’s these kinds of connections that make our trip. The lively conversation lasted an hour and meandered through topics such as running an artisan business to EU politics.

We loved Seville, the people, the food, the strange language that I have no ear for. Seville has class and we hope to return someday.

Prince Henry the Navigator: visionary, explorer, patron of discoveries. He instigated a good deal of venturing out by sea, conquering parts of Morocco and weakening the Muslim hold. A quiet, thinking man working behind the scenes to further Portugal’s territory as a soldier-monk, looking to spread the Christian Kingdom beyond the Sea of Darkness.

We stayed beachside in quaint Salema and did some exploring ourselves, visiting what once was thought to be the end of the world.