Trip Report--Spain & Morocco in late March 2004
Apr 4th, 2004, 03:39 PM
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Trip Report--Spain & Morocco in late March 2004
Trip to Spain, March 2004
Thanks to all the Fodorites for your help in planning what became a wonderful trip to Andalusia and Morocco in late March 2004. We traveled to Seville, Granada, Ronda, Marbella and Fez. The trip had a somber subtext due to the recent horrific bombings in Madrid. We considered canceling the Morocco segment of the trip following the bombing, but ultimately determined to stick to the original plan and go to Fez. The following is an account of the first leg our travels. Over the next few days, we hope to be posting the accounts of the remainder of our trip.
Saturday, 3/20
We arrived in Seville in the morning on an uneventful Iberia flight from JFK, although it took some major hauling to make the connection in Madrid to the Seville flight given that we had only a 55 minute lay-over. We took a taxi from the airport to the Hotel Alfonso XIII which was a set price into the city--about 15 Euros, I think. The hotel was very accommodating to our early check-in, but said that we could be given a much nicer room if we waited about an hour, so we crossed the street and went to the Coliseum Cafe for breakfast. After some initial communications difficulties, we were able to get a decent breakfast from the overworked waiter, but it took heroic efforts to get the check.
When we returned from breakfast, the room was still not ready, so we walked through part of the historic district. The cathedral and Alcazar (royal palace) were just a few blocks from the hotel but there was quite a line to get in both of these sites, so we just walked around the outside and into the quaint Santa Cruz district. Throughout the city trees are blossoming, perfuming the air. Orange trees are filled with ripe and ripening oranges. In the quaint little parks, the benches are covered in beautiful, vibrant ceramic tiles. We relaxed on one of the benches for awhile, maintaining an attentive eye for falling oranges. After a bit, we wandered back to the cathedral area and were caught up in a big anti-war demonstration.
We headed back to the hotel and were able to check into our room, which turned out to be a tremendous and gorgeous suite. My wife had worked her hotel magic again and we had a corner suite with a huge sitting room, two bathrooms and various foyers, in addition to a luxurious bedroom. The entire room had 13 foot ceilings, walls covered in beautiful silk damask, and spectacular marble floors. We heard some noise outside and saw that the demonstration that we had seen earlier had now made its way to our hotel. After that quieted down, we took a nap for a couple of hours.
At 7:00 pm we met Jose, from the tour company recommended by Fodorite Maribel, Paseando Por Sevilla, and went on a tour of tapas bars. Jose is a Seville native who is passionate about his city. He even loves the yellow soil of Seville, and explained its importance to the bullfights and other aspects of Seville life. The first tapas bar he took us to was near the St. Esteban church and had a lot of religious and farming imagery, an odd combination, particularly for a bar. Altogether it made for a quaint indoor setting for a couple of drinks and selection of meats and cheeses The second tapas bar was the Taberna Coloniales, on San Pedro Square, also known as the Plaza Dona Carmen. This was a bit less atmospheric but the tapas were more interesting and the sherry was excellent. As with many of the tapas bars that we would visit, we noticed that the Coloniales was patronized by people of all ages, including families with children. The third and final tapas bar was "El Rinconcillo" which is supposedly the oldest tapas bar in Spain (1670). This is a wonderful place where gruff old waiters tabulate your bill in chalk on the wooden surface of the bar. Dried pork legs hang from the ceiling and we try some tasty fried cod and the best gazpacho that we've ever had. I would give anything for the recipe. It doesn?t taste like there is any cream or other dairy in the soup, yet it is smooth and thick and its bountiful taste makes one think that the very best of the garden is contained in every spoonful After our last sips of Rioja, we parted from Jose; he onto more tapas with friends, we to our hotel for the night.
Sunday 3/21
After becoming fairly certain that breakfast was not included with our room tariff (we actually had the room for free, after all under the starwood spg program) we returned to the Coliseum cafe for breakfast, but ordered it at the bar, in order to expedite the process. This was the quicker, and cheaper, way to go, but it still took a little effort to get the check. After breakfast, we continued on to the waterfront. We stopped by the ancient Torre del Oro but did not go in. We did, however, take some slightly lopsided pictures of it which make it look like the leaning tower of Pisa--my first real foray with the digital camera. We walked along the banks of the Guadalquivir River for awhile and saw many people rowing and kayaking on the river?a slightly lopsided river when I was behind the lens. After walking by many interesting but semi-deserted structures left over from the 1992 Expo, we turned into the city and happened upon the Museo des Belles Artes. This is Seville's largest art museum, which is housed in a beautiful converted convent. It would have been well worth the 7 Euros or so admission price that we thought was posted by the entrance, by when we tried to pay at the ticket booth, we were given two tickets and our 20 Euro bill back. Apparently our money was no good here--either that or the museum doesn?t charge admission on Sundays, which is also a possibility. The art was mostly medieval and renaissance religious painting and sculpture. We tagged along with a British tour group for a bit to hear about the art. Even hearing about the art in our native English was a little over my head. Have to brush up on my Spanish art history. The architecture of the building was a delight, with several charming courtyards and a tremendous domed ceiling in one room. We only visited the museum for an hour or so and then headed back out, anxious to enjoy the sunny day. There was a fairly large arts and crafts show in the square in front of the museum.
We left the museum area and headed back toward the historic center of town, stopping at the Alicantina cafe in the Plaza Salvador for lunch. The lunch was fairly good, we had some tender swordfish and tangy gazpacho, with some nice chilled red wine. I found that the sun was quite intense for such a relatively cool day (probably high 60s to low 70s) and I had to keep moving my chair to stay in the shadow of the umbrella. After lunch we walked to the cathedral, but found that it was closed to tourists for the day. We continued onto the Alcazar (royal palace) which, unlike the previous day, had no line. The Alcazar was a real treat. It is filled with fantastic Moorish arches, fountains, tiles and highly detailed wall and ceiling carvings. The gardens of the Alcazar are very extensive and are filled with delightful fountains. There we met our first couple of fellow tourists, anxious to have their picture taken with both of them and offering to do the same for us in return. Hope their picture turned out better than ours.
After the Alcazar, we returned to the hotel for a bit and then went for an evening carriage ride through the charming Parque Maria Luisa, which is filled with fanciful pavilions from the 1929 Exposition. Although the movie is set in Paris, the carriage ride felt just like we rode into the set of Gigi. After thanking our horse and driver for the ride, we walked over to the bullring area and had dinner while watching a fantastic flamenco show at El Arenal. The flamenco dancers' energy and talent are bested only by the tremendous clapping abilities of the older dancer who was in charge of keeping the rhythm.
Monday 3/22
We decided to try a different cafe for breakfast and were generally pleased but somehow ended up ordering ham sandwiches for breakfast. Good, though, I guess my 9th grade Spanish is not as reliable as I thought! We met up with tour guide Jose again and walked across the river to the Triana district. This is a fascinating neighborhood filed with flamenco academies, ceramics shops and fervent religious devotion. Holy week ("Semana Santa"
is coming up and each parish parades its holy images to the cathedral in elaborate floats. Jose was able to get us in to look at the stunning silver float in the Sailor's chapel that will be used to carry the Triana church's image in the parade. The importance of Semana Santa to the people of Seville can not be exaggerated and everywhere, including the bars, is filled with pictures of the sacred images and the parades. I must admit that at first the white conical hood and robes that are worn during Semana Santa took me back a bit, but after awhile they seemed a bit less intimidating. After visiting Triana, we cross back into Seville and Jose took us to another great tapas bar near the bullring. This bar is filled with bullfighting accoutrements and has a tremendous array of tasty tapas. We say "adios" (see, I do know some Spanish!) to our wonderful guide Jose and head back to the hotel.
My wife had some work to do, so I went for a walk around town on my own. I explored some areas of the charming Santa Cruz district that we had missed before and then continued on to the less touristy Macarena district. Towards the north end of this neighborhood are the only remaining segments of the impressive medieval city walls. Also in this area is the church where the image of the Virgin of Macarena is kept in a fantastically ornate baroque church. This is the most celebrated of the Semana Santa images.
I returned to the city center and did some shopping at the large and fancy El Corte Ingles department store. My wife called me on the cell phone (which actually worked somewhat to my surprise) while I was in the store to tell me that her work was done. I returned to the hotel and, soon after that, we both went to the hotel bar to meet Jeryl and William, two other Manhattanites whom we met on the Fodors website. They were a delightful couple and we chatted for about an hour and briefly met their lovely children as well.
Although it was only about 9:00 pm, far too early for the locals to eat dinner, we were hungry and set out to find some tapas. Our first stop was the Robles bar, not far from the cathedral. This was a nice place but we made the mistake of ordering a mixed plate of tapas. While still good, we had the feeling that the portions and selections were geared more to tourists. After our tourist selection, we left the Robles bar and returned to our favorite tapas bar, El Rinconcillo. We got there, the old wine barrels that served as standing tapas tables were full and so were all the good spots at the bar. Not to be deterred, we managed to get a solid one and a half side-ways standing spots at the bar, which we were able to soon convert into a full frontal two spots. We both ordered the fantastic gazpacho and a selection of other treats, all of which were noted in chalk on the surface of the wooden bar. After this, we walked across the river to Triana in search of a flamenco bar recommended by Jose, but we could not find it. It was getting late and chilly, so we caught a taxi and returned to the hotel.
Tuesday 3/23
Under the Byzantine hotel arrangements that my wife made, breakfast at the Alfonso was included on this day only. The breakfast was very nice, with a fine selection of meats, cheeses, breads and fruits, as well as delicious cafe con leche and made-to-order omelettes. After breakfast, we packed up and checked out of the hotel, but left our bags with the bellman while we did the tourist wrap-up of Seville.
First stop was the cathedral, which we had not been able to visit until this time. The cathedral is vast and sprawling. Its layout is very unusual and it is rather dark inside. We climbed the cathedral tower and took in some great views of the city. On the way back down, we were surrounded by swarms of screaming, running children, who seemed to be without any supervision. However, when they returned to the cathedral itself, at least some of them assumed prayerful postures, muttering "Ave Maria" between suddenly angelic clasped hands.
We next headed to the Casa de Pilatos, the palace of a renaissance nobleman designed in sumptuous Moorish style. The tile work in here was the most vibrant and dazzling that we saw in Spain. The gardens and courtyards were harmoniously designed. There is a second floor which can be visited, but a separate ticket is required for that and it had limited opening times. We were able to climb the grand staircase and see a bit of the second floor, which was very impressive, particularly the golden dome atop the staircase.
We returned to the nearby Coloniales bar where we had tapas on our first night with Jose. This time we sat outside. There was no umbrella, but it was a fairly cool day so the sun felt good...at first. The sun in Spain has a way of being much stronger than it initially seems and after a half hour, I was being baked. Unfortunately, it was not all that easy to leave, because, as with many of the cafes here, about a dozen tables were tended by one very capable (but frantic) waitress. Getting the waitress's eye to get ask for the check is no small feat in such circumstances. As any seasoned traveler knows, by paying the wait staff a decent wage, the Europeans reduce the need for tipping and make table service a decent job. However, the down side is that, because the cafe owners are paying the waiters a good salary, the waiters are often very busy because there is relatively less staff than there would be per customer in the US. Of course, this is typical throughout Europe, but it seemed to be even more extreme in Seville, where almost every dining establishment had overwhelmed waiters dashing from one table to another. This generally made getting a check even more difficult than is typical on this side of the pond.
While sitting at the cafe getting sunburned and vainly flailing our arms about in the international "check" gesture, we watched the people passing by and discussed two significant fashion trends that we had noticed during our time in Seville. The first trend was tourists, particularly (but not exclusively) older men, wearing safari vests with twenty or so pockets, ready to dash off into the Serengeti. The second trend was locals of all ages and both sexes wearing red pants. Not just any red pants, but tomato red pants.
After lunch, we attempted to buy some pastries from nuns at a nearby convent, something for which Seville is famous. It seems like we knocked on every door and window off San Pedro square (where we thought the convent was located), but we were not successful. After another bout of shopping at El Corte Ingles (my wife broke down and had to buy a hairdryer and curling iron), we hopped into a taxi and went to the train station to rent a car from Hertz. We had previously been told that Hertz was at a temporary location, but we did not imagine that they would literally be operating out of a small van. After some discussion of our limited car choices we ultimately drove away with a mini diesel Mercedes. Although very tiny, this car had plenty of pep and could keep up with the often challenging Spanish traffic.
We drove back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and were soon on the highway with a surprising minimum of difficulty. As I already have enough gray hairs, my wife agreed to do most of the driving, so she took us eastward to Granada. To be continued...
Please let me know if anyone needs any information, logistical or otherwise, abou any of the things mentioned in this posting.
Thanks to all the Fodorites for your help in planning what became a wonderful trip to Andalusia and Morocco in late March 2004. We traveled to Seville, Granada, Ronda, Marbella and Fez. The trip had a somber subtext due to the recent horrific bombings in Madrid. We considered canceling the Morocco segment of the trip following the bombing, but ultimately determined to stick to the original plan and go to Fez. The following is an account of the first leg our travels. Over the next few days, we hope to be posting the accounts of the remainder of our trip.
Saturday, 3/20
We arrived in Seville in the morning on an uneventful Iberia flight from JFK, although it took some major hauling to make the connection in Madrid to the Seville flight given that we had only a 55 minute lay-over. We took a taxi from the airport to the Hotel Alfonso XIII which was a set price into the city--about 15 Euros, I think. The hotel was very accommodating to our early check-in, but said that we could be given a much nicer room if we waited about an hour, so we crossed the street and went to the Coliseum Cafe for breakfast. After some initial communications difficulties, we were able to get a decent breakfast from the overworked waiter, but it took heroic efforts to get the check.
When we returned from breakfast, the room was still not ready, so we walked through part of the historic district. The cathedral and Alcazar (royal palace) were just a few blocks from the hotel but there was quite a line to get in both of these sites, so we just walked around the outside and into the quaint Santa Cruz district. Throughout the city trees are blossoming, perfuming the air. Orange trees are filled with ripe and ripening oranges. In the quaint little parks, the benches are covered in beautiful, vibrant ceramic tiles. We relaxed on one of the benches for awhile, maintaining an attentive eye for falling oranges. After a bit, we wandered back to the cathedral area and were caught up in a big anti-war demonstration.
We headed back to the hotel and were able to check into our room, which turned out to be a tremendous and gorgeous suite. My wife had worked her hotel magic again and we had a corner suite with a huge sitting room, two bathrooms and various foyers, in addition to a luxurious bedroom. The entire room had 13 foot ceilings, walls covered in beautiful silk damask, and spectacular marble floors. We heard some noise outside and saw that the demonstration that we had seen earlier had now made its way to our hotel. After that quieted down, we took a nap for a couple of hours.
At 7:00 pm we met Jose, from the tour company recommended by Fodorite Maribel, Paseando Por Sevilla, and went on a tour of tapas bars. Jose is a Seville native who is passionate about his city. He even loves the yellow soil of Seville, and explained its importance to the bullfights and other aspects of Seville life. The first tapas bar he took us to was near the St. Esteban church and had a lot of religious and farming imagery, an odd combination, particularly for a bar. Altogether it made for a quaint indoor setting for a couple of drinks and selection of meats and cheeses The second tapas bar was the Taberna Coloniales, on San Pedro Square, also known as the Plaza Dona Carmen. This was a bit less atmospheric but the tapas were more interesting and the sherry was excellent. As with many of the tapas bars that we would visit, we noticed that the Coloniales was patronized by people of all ages, including families with children. The third and final tapas bar was "El Rinconcillo" which is supposedly the oldest tapas bar in Spain (1670). This is a wonderful place where gruff old waiters tabulate your bill in chalk on the wooden surface of the bar. Dried pork legs hang from the ceiling and we try some tasty fried cod and the best gazpacho that we've ever had. I would give anything for the recipe. It doesn?t taste like there is any cream or other dairy in the soup, yet it is smooth and thick and its bountiful taste makes one think that the very best of the garden is contained in every spoonful After our last sips of Rioja, we parted from Jose; he onto more tapas with friends, we to our hotel for the night.
Sunday 3/21
After becoming fairly certain that breakfast was not included with our room tariff (we actually had the room for free, after all under the starwood spg program) we returned to the Coliseum cafe for breakfast, but ordered it at the bar, in order to expedite the process. This was the quicker, and cheaper, way to go, but it still took a little effort to get the check. After breakfast, we continued on to the waterfront. We stopped by the ancient Torre del Oro but did not go in. We did, however, take some slightly lopsided pictures of it which make it look like the leaning tower of Pisa--my first real foray with the digital camera. We walked along the banks of the Guadalquivir River for awhile and saw many people rowing and kayaking on the river?a slightly lopsided river when I was behind the lens. After walking by many interesting but semi-deserted structures left over from the 1992 Expo, we turned into the city and happened upon the Museo des Belles Artes. This is Seville's largest art museum, which is housed in a beautiful converted convent. It would have been well worth the 7 Euros or so admission price that we thought was posted by the entrance, by when we tried to pay at the ticket booth, we were given two tickets and our 20 Euro bill back. Apparently our money was no good here--either that or the museum doesn?t charge admission on Sundays, which is also a possibility. The art was mostly medieval and renaissance religious painting and sculpture. We tagged along with a British tour group for a bit to hear about the art. Even hearing about the art in our native English was a little over my head. Have to brush up on my Spanish art history. The architecture of the building was a delight, with several charming courtyards and a tremendous domed ceiling in one room. We only visited the museum for an hour or so and then headed back out, anxious to enjoy the sunny day. There was a fairly large arts and crafts show in the square in front of the museum.
We left the museum area and headed back toward the historic center of town, stopping at the Alicantina cafe in the Plaza Salvador for lunch. The lunch was fairly good, we had some tender swordfish and tangy gazpacho, with some nice chilled red wine. I found that the sun was quite intense for such a relatively cool day (probably high 60s to low 70s) and I had to keep moving my chair to stay in the shadow of the umbrella. After lunch we walked to the cathedral, but found that it was closed to tourists for the day. We continued onto the Alcazar (royal palace) which, unlike the previous day, had no line. The Alcazar was a real treat. It is filled with fantastic Moorish arches, fountains, tiles and highly detailed wall and ceiling carvings. The gardens of the Alcazar are very extensive and are filled with delightful fountains. There we met our first couple of fellow tourists, anxious to have their picture taken with both of them and offering to do the same for us in return. Hope their picture turned out better than ours.
After the Alcazar, we returned to the hotel for a bit and then went for an evening carriage ride through the charming Parque Maria Luisa, which is filled with fanciful pavilions from the 1929 Exposition. Although the movie is set in Paris, the carriage ride felt just like we rode into the set of Gigi. After thanking our horse and driver for the ride, we walked over to the bullring area and had dinner while watching a fantastic flamenco show at El Arenal. The flamenco dancers' energy and talent are bested only by the tremendous clapping abilities of the older dancer who was in charge of keeping the rhythm.
Monday 3/22
We decided to try a different cafe for breakfast and were generally pleased but somehow ended up ordering ham sandwiches for breakfast. Good, though, I guess my 9th grade Spanish is not as reliable as I thought! We met up with tour guide Jose again and walked across the river to the Triana district. This is a fascinating neighborhood filed with flamenco academies, ceramics shops and fervent religious devotion. Holy week ("Semana Santa"
is coming up and each parish parades its holy images to the cathedral in elaborate floats. Jose was able to get us in to look at the stunning silver float in the Sailor's chapel that will be used to carry the Triana church's image in the parade. The importance of Semana Santa to the people of Seville can not be exaggerated and everywhere, including the bars, is filled with pictures of the sacred images and the parades. I must admit that at first the white conical hood and robes that are worn during Semana Santa took me back a bit, but after awhile they seemed a bit less intimidating. After visiting Triana, we cross back into Seville and Jose took us to another great tapas bar near the bullring. This bar is filled with bullfighting accoutrements and has a tremendous array of tasty tapas. We say "adios" (see, I do know some Spanish!) to our wonderful guide Jose and head back to the hotel. My wife had some work to do, so I went for a walk around town on my own. I explored some areas of the charming Santa Cruz district that we had missed before and then continued on to the less touristy Macarena district. Towards the north end of this neighborhood are the only remaining segments of the impressive medieval city walls. Also in this area is the church where the image of the Virgin of Macarena is kept in a fantastically ornate baroque church. This is the most celebrated of the Semana Santa images.
I returned to the city center and did some shopping at the large and fancy El Corte Ingles department store. My wife called me on the cell phone (which actually worked somewhat to my surprise) while I was in the store to tell me that her work was done. I returned to the hotel and, soon after that, we both went to the hotel bar to meet Jeryl and William, two other Manhattanites whom we met on the Fodors website. They were a delightful couple and we chatted for about an hour and briefly met their lovely children as well.
Although it was only about 9:00 pm, far too early for the locals to eat dinner, we were hungry and set out to find some tapas. Our first stop was the Robles bar, not far from the cathedral. This was a nice place but we made the mistake of ordering a mixed plate of tapas. While still good, we had the feeling that the portions and selections were geared more to tourists. After our tourist selection, we left the Robles bar and returned to our favorite tapas bar, El Rinconcillo. We got there, the old wine barrels that served as standing tapas tables were full and so were all the good spots at the bar. Not to be deterred, we managed to get a solid one and a half side-ways standing spots at the bar, which we were able to soon convert into a full frontal two spots. We both ordered the fantastic gazpacho and a selection of other treats, all of which were noted in chalk on the surface of the wooden bar. After this, we walked across the river to Triana in search of a flamenco bar recommended by Jose, but we could not find it. It was getting late and chilly, so we caught a taxi and returned to the hotel.
Tuesday 3/23
Under the Byzantine hotel arrangements that my wife made, breakfast at the Alfonso was included on this day only. The breakfast was very nice, with a fine selection of meats, cheeses, breads and fruits, as well as delicious cafe con leche and made-to-order omelettes. After breakfast, we packed up and checked out of the hotel, but left our bags with the bellman while we did the tourist wrap-up of Seville.
First stop was the cathedral, which we had not been able to visit until this time. The cathedral is vast and sprawling. Its layout is very unusual and it is rather dark inside. We climbed the cathedral tower and took in some great views of the city. On the way back down, we were surrounded by swarms of screaming, running children, who seemed to be without any supervision. However, when they returned to the cathedral itself, at least some of them assumed prayerful postures, muttering "Ave Maria" between suddenly angelic clasped hands.
We next headed to the Casa de Pilatos, the palace of a renaissance nobleman designed in sumptuous Moorish style. The tile work in here was the most vibrant and dazzling that we saw in Spain. The gardens and courtyards were harmoniously designed. There is a second floor which can be visited, but a separate ticket is required for that and it had limited opening times. We were able to climb the grand staircase and see a bit of the second floor, which was very impressive, particularly the golden dome atop the staircase.
We returned to the nearby Coloniales bar where we had tapas on our first night with Jose. This time we sat outside. There was no umbrella, but it was a fairly cool day so the sun felt good...at first. The sun in Spain has a way of being much stronger than it initially seems and after a half hour, I was being baked. Unfortunately, it was not all that easy to leave, because, as with many of the cafes here, about a dozen tables were tended by one very capable (but frantic) waitress. Getting the waitress's eye to get ask for the check is no small feat in such circumstances. As any seasoned traveler knows, by paying the wait staff a decent wage, the Europeans reduce the need for tipping and make table service a decent job. However, the down side is that, because the cafe owners are paying the waiters a good salary, the waiters are often very busy because there is relatively less staff than there would be per customer in the US. Of course, this is typical throughout Europe, but it seemed to be even more extreme in Seville, where almost every dining establishment had overwhelmed waiters dashing from one table to another. This generally made getting a check even more difficult than is typical on this side of the pond.
While sitting at the cafe getting sunburned and vainly flailing our arms about in the international "check" gesture, we watched the people passing by and discussed two significant fashion trends that we had noticed during our time in Seville. The first trend was tourists, particularly (but not exclusively) older men, wearing safari vests with twenty or so pockets, ready to dash off into the Serengeti. The second trend was locals of all ages and both sexes wearing red pants. Not just any red pants, but tomato red pants.
After lunch, we attempted to buy some pastries from nuns at a nearby convent, something for which Seville is famous. It seems like we knocked on every door and window off San Pedro square (where we thought the convent was located), but we were not successful. After another bout of shopping at El Corte Ingles (my wife broke down and had to buy a hairdryer and curling iron), we hopped into a taxi and went to the train station to rent a car from Hertz. We had previously been told that Hertz was at a temporary location, but we did not imagine that they would literally be operating out of a small van. After some discussion of our limited car choices we ultimately drove away with a mini diesel Mercedes. Although very tiny, this car had plenty of pep and could keep up with the often challenging Spanish traffic.
We drove back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and were soon on the highway with a surprising minimum of difficulty. As I already have enough gray hairs, my wife agreed to do most of the driving, so she took us eastward to Granada. To be continued...
Please let me know if anyone needs any information, logistical or otherwise, abou any of the things mentioned in this posting.
Apr 6th, 2004, 05:53 PM
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This is part 2 of our the report on our recent trip to Andalucia and Morocco.
Tuesday 3/23
As noted in our previous posting, we checked out of our hotel in Seville and did a wrap up of the sites before renting a car and heading out of town toward Granada. It took a little over 2 hours to make the trip from Seville to Granada. The A92 is a very nice highway that has the convenience of a major road but which also provides many scenic views. There are a few pretty white towns along the way, but it is mostly farm and pasture land. The terrain around Seville is fairly flat, but as one approaches Granada the Sierra Nevada mountains loom dramatically ahead. Because my wife was driving, no stops were permitted. Apparently the same rules apply whether it?s the Jersey Turnpike or the A92.
Although, in retrospect, the highway signage in Granada was fairly clear, at the time we found it a bit confusing. Here?s a tip for future drivers: do not, do not, exit the highway until the purple sign for the Alhambra indicates that you should do so. We exited from the highway following signs for the city center and followed signs to the Alhambra throughout the city. However, after snaking through many neighborhoods, the signs put us back on the highway. After a bit more navigational effort, we found our way to the Alhambra. We drove our car almost into the heart of the Alhambra and parked at the Parador de San Francesco. The Parador is one of the hotels run by the Spanish government and is situated in a former monastery in the midst of the Alhambra. The Parador is set in charming gardens with many bubbling fountains. We checked in and found that we had a nice room with all of the modern amenities that had a view of the Generalife, a palace with extensive gardens connected to the Alhambra complex. It was after 8 pm, so we made our way down to the Parador restaurant and had a very tasty multi course meal (25.30 Euros per person, prix fixe). This was our first real sit-down dinner of the trip, aside from the Flamenco show dinner. We each had some great local specialties and an excellent bottle of Albina 1997 Rioja Reserva. After dinner, tired from our day of travel and the Rioja, we called it a night.
Wednesday 3/24
We woke up to find that tourists visiting the Alhambra were on the path just below our window. Luckily living in New York had prepared us for that. After a bountiful Spanish breakfast at the Parador we set out to the find the main gate of the Alhambra. Although our Parador is right in the middle of the Alhambra, we had to walk the equivalent of several city blocks to find the main gate, which is at one end of the Alhambra. We had reserved tickets to see the Nasrid palace at 6 pm and again at 10 pm. No, those times were not our first choice, but the 6pm (daylight) ticket time was a last minute reservation after we realized that we were toast without the record locator for the 9 am tickets we originally purchased for that day. Note: some people also said that we would need our original credit card and passports to get the tickets, and although this was not the case with us, I would recommend taking them under the theory of better safe than sorry.
The rules of the Alhambra are that you can visit the other areas only during the session (morning, afternoon or nighttime) during the time set for visiting the Nasrid palace. Therefore, we could not actually visit the Alhambra until the beginning of the afternoon session, even though we were staying right in the middle of it.
We decided to walk to the Albaicin neighborhood by following a path that starts near the main gate and leads between the Alhambra and the Generalife. The walk to the Albaicin is down a fairly steep hill. There is a stream at the edge of the Albaicin neighborhood and many outdoor cafes are situated nearby. After being baked by the sun the previous day in Seville, we skipped the outdoor cafes and chose to have some tapas in an indoor bar that looked like it might appeal more to locals than to tourists. I had some very tasty fried anchovies and my wife had some excellent fried calamari. The Spanish are very good at tempura-like fried dishes. After eating too much tapas, we went to a nearby convent and were finally able to get some of the celebrated pastries made by nuns. The nuns are not seen by the visitor and there is a difficult process of ordering, putting the money on a big lazy susan turntable and receiving a box of pastries in return. The pastries were worth the trouble and we gave a few a way to two guys from Barcelona who had helped us with the process. Actually, without them we would never have managed to figure out that we had to buzz the nuns to give them our order or stopped giggling in embarrassment. We continued walking through the charming whitewashed Albaicin neighborhood and watched cats and ducks in an uneasy coexistence along the banks of the stream until we came to the main plaza of Granada and the cathedral area. Granada has an inviting small-town feel which my wife compared to San Remo, Italy. We enjoyed walking around, but it was time to head back up the hill to the Alhambra.
It was more difficult getting back up the hill than it had been coming down but we made it and, after a brief rest stop in the Parador, we presented our tickets and visited the Generalife. This moorish palace is on a separate hill from the Alhambra but is connected to the latter by a bridge. The Generalife is set in the midst of a series of gardens. Unfortunately there was a fair amount of reconstruction work going on this area so it was difficult to get a proper feel for the place. The Generalife has great views of the Alhambra and Granada. However, the sun was in that direction, so many of our pictures suffered from high contrast.
After visiting the Generalife, we crossed the bridge to the main part of the Alhambra and made our way to the Nasrid palace. This is the most famous area of the Alhambra and it certainly lived up to its reputation. The delicate and graceful courtyards and fountains are incredibly well preserved. Many of the ceilings are decorated with amazingly intricate honeycomb-like carvings. The only aspect that was even slightly disappointing (as noted by kaudry in her wonderful trip report on fodors) was that the tilework was not as brilliant as what we had just seen in the Casa Pilatos and the Alcazar in Seville. After the Nasrid palace, we wandered through the extensive gardens and then took in the Alcazaba, or fortress. This was very impressive in its own right but is not as unique as the Nasrid palace in that it is similar to other fortresses in Europe.
We returned to the Parador for another great dinner and the went back to the Nasrid palace for the night tour. Again, these were timed tickets that my super-organized wife had reserved weeks in advance. This was a great way to see the palace because the absence of bright outside light enables the visitor to really appreciate the intricate design of the wall and ceiling decorations. The fountains and courtyards were particularly charming at night.
Thursday 3/25
After a final splendid breakfast spread, we headed back to the room through the elegant cloister courtyard and packed up. We checked out of the Parador and got on the road, avoiding our previous navigational mistakes but still having trouble with the signage. We drove west on the A92 highway towards Ronda. To be continued...
Tuesday 3/23
As noted in our previous posting, we checked out of our hotel in Seville and did a wrap up of the sites before renting a car and heading out of town toward Granada. It took a little over 2 hours to make the trip from Seville to Granada. The A92 is a very nice highway that has the convenience of a major road but which also provides many scenic views. There are a few pretty white towns along the way, but it is mostly farm and pasture land. The terrain around Seville is fairly flat, but as one approaches Granada the Sierra Nevada mountains loom dramatically ahead. Because my wife was driving, no stops were permitted. Apparently the same rules apply whether it?s the Jersey Turnpike or the A92.
Although, in retrospect, the highway signage in Granada was fairly clear, at the time we found it a bit confusing. Here?s a tip for future drivers: do not, do not, exit the highway until the purple sign for the Alhambra indicates that you should do so. We exited from the highway following signs for the city center and followed signs to the Alhambra throughout the city. However, after snaking through many neighborhoods, the signs put us back on the highway. After a bit more navigational effort, we found our way to the Alhambra. We drove our car almost into the heart of the Alhambra and parked at the Parador de San Francesco. The Parador is one of the hotels run by the Spanish government and is situated in a former monastery in the midst of the Alhambra. The Parador is set in charming gardens with many bubbling fountains. We checked in and found that we had a nice room with all of the modern amenities that had a view of the Generalife, a palace with extensive gardens connected to the Alhambra complex. It was after 8 pm, so we made our way down to the Parador restaurant and had a very tasty multi course meal (25.30 Euros per person, prix fixe). This was our first real sit-down dinner of the trip, aside from the Flamenco show dinner. We each had some great local specialties and an excellent bottle of Albina 1997 Rioja Reserva. After dinner, tired from our day of travel and the Rioja, we called it a night.
Wednesday 3/24
We woke up to find that tourists visiting the Alhambra were on the path just below our window. Luckily living in New York had prepared us for that. After a bountiful Spanish breakfast at the Parador we set out to the find the main gate of the Alhambra. Although our Parador is right in the middle of the Alhambra, we had to walk the equivalent of several city blocks to find the main gate, which is at one end of the Alhambra. We had reserved tickets to see the Nasrid palace at 6 pm and again at 10 pm. No, those times were not our first choice, but the 6pm (daylight) ticket time was a last minute reservation after we realized that we were toast without the record locator for the 9 am tickets we originally purchased for that day. Note: some people also said that we would need our original credit card and passports to get the tickets, and although this was not the case with us, I would recommend taking them under the theory of better safe than sorry.
The rules of the Alhambra are that you can visit the other areas only during the session (morning, afternoon or nighttime) during the time set for visiting the Nasrid palace. Therefore, we could not actually visit the Alhambra until the beginning of the afternoon session, even though we were staying right in the middle of it.
We decided to walk to the Albaicin neighborhood by following a path that starts near the main gate and leads between the Alhambra and the Generalife. The walk to the Albaicin is down a fairly steep hill. There is a stream at the edge of the Albaicin neighborhood and many outdoor cafes are situated nearby. After being baked by the sun the previous day in Seville, we skipped the outdoor cafes and chose to have some tapas in an indoor bar that looked like it might appeal more to locals than to tourists. I had some very tasty fried anchovies and my wife had some excellent fried calamari. The Spanish are very good at tempura-like fried dishes. After eating too much tapas, we went to a nearby convent and were finally able to get some of the celebrated pastries made by nuns. The nuns are not seen by the visitor and there is a difficult process of ordering, putting the money on a big lazy susan turntable and receiving a box of pastries in return. The pastries were worth the trouble and we gave a few a way to two guys from Barcelona who had helped us with the process. Actually, without them we would never have managed to figure out that we had to buzz the nuns to give them our order or stopped giggling in embarrassment. We continued walking through the charming whitewashed Albaicin neighborhood and watched cats and ducks in an uneasy coexistence along the banks of the stream until we came to the main plaza of Granada and the cathedral area. Granada has an inviting small-town feel which my wife compared to San Remo, Italy. We enjoyed walking around, but it was time to head back up the hill to the Alhambra.
It was more difficult getting back up the hill than it had been coming down but we made it and, after a brief rest stop in the Parador, we presented our tickets and visited the Generalife. This moorish palace is on a separate hill from the Alhambra but is connected to the latter by a bridge. The Generalife is set in the midst of a series of gardens. Unfortunately there was a fair amount of reconstruction work going on this area so it was difficult to get a proper feel for the place. The Generalife has great views of the Alhambra and Granada. However, the sun was in that direction, so many of our pictures suffered from high contrast.
After visiting the Generalife, we crossed the bridge to the main part of the Alhambra and made our way to the Nasrid palace. This is the most famous area of the Alhambra and it certainly lived up to its reputation. The delicate and graceful courtyards and fountains are incredibly well preserved. Many of the ceilings are decorated with amazingly intricate honeycomb-like carvings. The only aspect that was even slightly disappointing (as noted by kaudry in her wonderful trip report on fodors) was that the tilework was not as brilliant as what we had just seen in the Casa Pilatos and the Alcazar in Seville. After the Nasrid palace, we wandered through the extensive gardens and then took in the Alcazaba, or fortress. This was very impressive in its own right but is not as unique as the Nasrid palace in that it is similar to other fortresses in Europe.
We returned to the Parador for another great dinner and the went back to the Nasrid palace for the night tour. Again, these were timed tickets that my super-organized wife had reserved weeks in advance. This was a great way to see the palace because the absence of bright outside light enables the visitor to really appreciate the intricate design of the wall and ceiling decorations. The fountains and courtyards were particularly charming at night.
Thursday 3/25
After a final splendid breakfast spread, we headed back to the room through the elegant cloister courtyard and packed up. We checked out of the Parador and got on the road, avoiding our previous navigational mistakes but still having trouble with the signage. We drove west on the A92 highway towards Ronda. To be continued...
Apr 7th, 2004, 04:38 AM
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Biz - I feel like I am reliving my trip through your report (even if I did stay in town in Granada, and not up at Alhambra).
I can't wait to read about your thoughts on Ronda. Now that I have been home for over a month, I find myself thinking that Ronda was my favorite town (followed closely by Sevilla).
Karen
I can't wait to read about your thoughts on Ronda. Now that I have been home for over a month, I find myself thinking that Ronda was my favorite town (followed closely by Sevilla).
Karen
May 4th, 2004, 04:25 PM
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After an unanticipated hiatus, our trip report continues (part 3).
Thursday 3/25
As described in our previous posting, we checked out of our Parador in Granada and drove towards Ronda. We took the A92 to the N331 and the coast at Malaga. The drive along the N331 provided spectacular mountain scenery but was not a particularly difficult route. After Marbella, we turned North on the A376. This was definitely more of a driving challenge than the N331 but also gave us even more fantastic mountain vistas. It is almost impossible to pass slow traffic on this curvy mountain road, so it took over an hour to drive 30 or so kilometers.
Given the rugged nature of the terrain, there were few signs of human activity once we drove more than a couple of miles from the coast, so the sudden appearance of the surprisingly large white town of Ronda as we crested a ridge was a bit of a surprise. Ronda has a very dramatic setting among stunningly beautiful mountains and the town itself is split into two parts by a dramatic gorge. An historic bridge crosses over the gorge and, although we were initially a bit confused about our location, we soon found our Parador on the far side of the bridge. This Parador is set in an old town hall, but aside from the façade, the building appears to be almost entirely modern. Our room was very nice and was certainly more spacious than the Granada Parador. As an extra treat, the room had a private terrace which was almost as large as the room itself. The terrace overlooked the spectacular gorge and the bridge.
We headed out to have some lunch and found a nice outdoor café near the bullring. After lunch we paid the bullring a visit. This is a very elegant but austere structure. There is a museum of bullfighting inside displaying some flamboyant toreador costumes and other bullfighting memorabilia. Next we set out to explore the town and crossed the bridge to the older side of town. My wife did some shopping and we saw some sites and checked out the fun and quirky bandit museum recommended by Kaudry on Fodors. We crossed back over to the newer side of town and ambled around on the pedestrian street and explored some of the backstreets. We stopped by a photo shop and downloaded 120 of our digital camera pictures to a CD Rom for 6 Euros. After heading back to the hotel for a nap, we headed out again to visit some of the local tapas bars. The very helpful Parador staff recommended several places which were frequented by locals. We were not disappointed as we visited two of these bars and had some of the best tapas of the trip. After that we stopped at an internet café and sent e-mails and so forth for almost an hour. It was almost 11 pm and Ronda was fairly sleepy, and so were, so it was back to the Parador and to bed.
Friday 3/26
A new weather front had come in overnight and it was raining when we woke up. Breakfast at the parador was the typical sumptuous spread and great Spanish coffee. In my opinion, Spanish coffee is absolutely the best, even better than Italian coffee. On this gloomy morning I drank several delicious cups. Fortunately, the rain stopped and the mists lifted, revealing some enchanting views of the valleys. Small waterfalls sprouted in the gorge. After a bit more wandering about town and admiring the views, we packed up the car, checked out of the Parador, and departed Ronda. Although the rain had mostly stopped, the drive back to the coast was very challenging because we were high up in the mountains driving through the clouds. At times we could barely see ten feet in front of us as we anxiously made our way around hairpin turns. Eventually, we came out of the clouds and made our way back to the coast. We arrived at the Westin La Quinta hotel, which is a bit inland from Porto Banus, which is a few miles West of Marbella. Using her Starwood magic, my wife got us a great junior suite and this very nice resort. Unfortunately, the main attraction of the Costa del Sol is the Sol, which was in short supply on this cloudy day. After a nice lunch at the hotel restaurant, we dove into Porto Banus. We walked on the beach for a bit, but it really was not good beach weather. Immediately inland from the beach is a highly developed retail area, which includes a large Corte Ingles. We did some shopping and strolled around the town for awhile and then headed back to the hotel. We worked out at the gym and then took advantage of a break in the weather to lay out by the pool for awhile. However, the weather did not hold and we had to return to the room. For dinner, we ate at the fairly good, but overpriced, Japanese restaurant at the hotel. Although this was one of our most expensive dinners, we were still hungry, so we went to the bar and had some tapas. We went to bed fairly early because we planned to wake up early the next day.
Saturday 3/27
We woke up early and checked out, driving west along the coast in a heavy rain. We pulled into the port at Algeciras in a torrential downpour. The confusing layout of the port and the heavy rain led us to decide to push on to Tarifa, where we were told that the ferries ran less frequently but where the crossing to Morocco was shorter. Fortunately, as we approached Tarifa, the rain stopped. Dozens of windmills adorn the hills above Tarifa. Tarifa?s ferry port is much smaller and more manageable than that of Algeciras and we were glad we had come here. However, we were told that there was no indoor parking in the entire town. We were disappointed by that, as an important part of our plan was to leave most of our things in the car and to travel very light in Morocco. Therefore, we were very anxious about parking our car on the street. Fortunately, both the tourist office and the ferry ticket office advised us to park on the same nearby street, which we were told would be relatively safe. They advised against leaving the car in the ferry parking lot.
In the next installment, we will be headed to Morocco, stay tuned??
Thursday 3/25
As described in our previous posting, we checked out of our Parador in Granada and drove towards Ronda. We took the A92 to the N331 and the coast at Malaga. The drive along the N331 provided spectacular mountain scenery but was not a particularly difficult route. After Marbella, we turned North on the A376. This was definitely more of a driving challenge than the N331 but also gave us even more fantastic mountain vistas. It is almost impossible to pass slow traffic on this curvy mountain road, so it took over an hour to drive 30 or so kilometers.
Given the rugged nature of the terrain, there were few signs of human activity once we drove more than a couple of miles from the coast, so the sudden appearance of the surprisingly large white town of Ronda as we crested a ridge was a bit of a surprise. Ronda has a very dramatic setting among stunningly beautiful mountains and the town itself is split into two parts by a dramatic gorge. An historic bridge crosses over the gorge and, although we were initially a bit confused about our location, we soon found our Parador on the far side of the bridge. This Parador is set in an old town hall, but aside from the façade, the building appears to be almost entirely modern. Our room was very nice and was certainly more spacious than the Granada Parador. As an extra treat, the room had a private terrace which was almost as large as the room itself. The terrace overlooked the spectacular gorge and the bridge.
We headed out to have some lunch and found a nice outdoor café near the bullring. After lunch we paid the bullring a visit. This is a very elegant but austere structure. There is a museum of bullfighting inside displaying some flamboyant toreador costumes and other bullfighting memorabilia. Next we set out to explore the town and crossed the bridge to the older side of town. My wife did some shopping and we saw some sites and checked out the fun and quirky bandit museum recommended by Kaudry on Fodors. We crossed back over to the newer side of town and ambled around on the pedestrian street and explored some of the backstreets. We stopped by a photo shop and downloaded 120 of our digital camera pictures to a CD Rom for 6 Euros. After heading back to the hotel for a nap, we headed out again to visit some of the local tapas bars. The very helpful Parador staff recommended several places which were frequented by locals. We were not disappointed as we visited two of these bars and had some of the best tapas of the trip. After that we stopped at an internet café and sent e-mails and so forth for almost an hour. It was almost 11 pm and Ronda was fairly sleepy, and so were, so it was back to the Parador and to bed.
Friday 3/26
A new weather front had come in overnight and it was raining when we woke up. Breakfast at the parador was the typical sumptuous spread and great Spanish coffee. In my opinion, Spanish coffee is absolutely the best, even better than Italian coffee. On this gloomy morning I drank several delicious cups. Fortunately, the rain stopped and the mists lifted, revealing some enchanting views of the valleys. Small waterfalls sprouted in the gorge. After a bit more wandering about town and admiring the views, we packed up the car, checked out of the Parador, and departed Ronda. Although the rain had mostly stopped, the drive back to the coast was very challenging because we were high up in the mountains driving through the clouds. At times we could barely see ten feet in front of us as we anxiously made our way around hairpin turns. Eventually, we came out of the clouds and made our way back to the coast. We arrived at the Westin La Quinta hotel, which is a bit inland from Porto Banus, which is a few miles West of Marbella. Using her Starwood magic, my wife got us a great junior suite and this very nice resort. Unfortunately, the main attraction of the Costa del Sol is the Sol, which was in short supply on this cloudy day. After a nice lunch at the hotel restaurant, we dove into Porto Banus. We walked on the beach for a bit, but it really was not good beach weather. Immediately inland from the beach is a highly developed retail area, which includes a large Corte Ingles. We did some shopping and strolled around the town for awhile and then headed back to the hotel. We worked out at the gym and then took advantage of a break in the weather to lay out by the pool for awhile. However, the weather did not hold and we had to return to the room. For dinner, we ate at the fairly good, but overpriced, Japanese restaurant at the hotel. Although this was one of our most expensive dinners, we were still hungry, so we went to the bar and had some tapas. We went to bed fairly early because we planned to wake up early the next day.
Saturday 3/27
We woke up early and checked out, driving west along the coast in a heavy rain. We pulled into the port at Algeciras in a torrential downpour. The confusing layout of the port and the heavy rain led us to decide to push on to Tarifa, where we were told that the ferries ran less frequently but where the crossing to Morocco was shorter. Fortunately, as we approached Tarifa, the rain stopped. Dozens of windmills adorn the hills above Tarifa. Tarifa?s ferry port is much smaller and more manageable than that of Algeciras and we were glad we had come here. However, we were told that there was no indoor parking in the entire town. We were disappointed by that, as an important part of our plan was to leave most of our things in the car and to travel very light in Morocco. Therefore, we were very anxious about parking our car on the street. Fortunately, both the tourist office and the ferry ticket office advised us to park on the same nearby street, which we were told would be relatively safe. They advised against leaving the car in the ferry parking lot.
In the next installment, we will be headed to Morocco, stay tuned??
May 11th, 2004, 06:57 PM
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This is part 4 of our report on our recent trip to Andalusia and Morocco.
Saturday 3/27
The ferry from Tarifa to Tangier was, oddly enough, Norwegian. I suppose they move the ferries to warmer climates for the winter. Crossing the Straight of Gibraltar took about 40 uneventful minutes. Upon arriving at Tangier, we exited the ferry and were confronted with dozens of taxi drivers. One guy was very persistent and kept badgering me after I told him several times that I had a driver meeting me. At one point, he put his hand on my shoulder and said ?I think we both know that you need a taxi!? Fortunately, we did eventually find our driver, who was standing near an old Mercedes.
Our driver, whose name we never really got, despite repeated requests, was a native of Fez who was probably about 60 years old. As we drove through Tangier, we noticed that many, if not most, of the buildings were in some indeterminate state between construction and collapse. Not spending any time in Tangier was probably a good decision. Once out of Tangier we drove on a fairly modern highway along the coast which afforded wonderful views of the beach and the sea. However, after thirty miles or so the highway turned inland and, soon after that, became more like a local road than a major highway. The countryside was surprisingly green and fertile. At one point we drove through a cork forest. Our driver reveled in pointing out the various types of crops to us. Flocks of sheep and goats were everywhere. Donkeys were a primary mode of transportation.
After a couple of hours of driving, we pulled over to a roadside café in a rather dusty and run-down town. Evidently, it was time for lunch. We thought this was odd, since we had been driving for almost three hours of what we were told would be a four hour trip to Fez, but we were hungry and happy to go with the flow. We ate some tasty roast lamb with delicious bread and washed it down with wonderful mint tea. Our enjoyment of the lunch abated when the driver told us that we were almost halfway done the trip. If anything, that was an under-estimation, as we spent at least three more hours bouncing along back roads, doubling back from wrong turns, and pulling over to ask direction from many, many locals. Although we were annoyed that the length of the trip had been misrepresented, we were very glad that we had not attempted to rent a car and navigate these roads which were confusing for a professional local driver.
We arrived at Fez completely exhausted from the drive. As we were on the final leg of the journey, the driver, who said little for most of the trip, aside from pointing out various crops, suddenly became eager to set up arrangements for the return trip and also for a tour of the Medina of Fez. We demurred and muttered something about possibly altering our plans. When we arrived at the hotel, we were not sure how to pay the driver. We never obtained any Moroccan currency and, although we had Euros, we thought that, since we had made the arrangements with the hotel, he might be paid through the hotel. Since the driver did not seem to express an opinion on the matter, we sought to clarify this situation with the front desk. However, we were plopped into a comfy sofa and provided with mint tea before any of this could be resolved. Now the driver had vanished and no one at the hotel seemed to have a firm opinion of how to handle the situation, or how much the driver should be paid. After a bit the driver reappeared and I simply gave him 170 Euros and told him that we would contact him through the hotel concierge regarding future arrangements.
Aside from the initial confusion regarding the drivers payment, the staff at the Hotel Palais Jamai was very good. Our room was quite nice and had a fairly large private balcony with a view of an old city gate. We went to the hotels Moroccan restaurant for dinner and had a very tasty dinner while listening to music and catching some belly dancing. We wandered the extensive grounds of the hotel after dinner but we were advised not to wander around the Medina by ourselves. After our exhausting day of travel, we decided to turn in fairly early. Unfortunately we did not sleep well because there was a wedding or some other type of loud celebration that caused music and singing to go on until about 3 am.
Sunday 3/28
We had a very nice room service breakfast on our balcony before going down to the lobby and meeting up with our guide, Mohammed. As with all transactions in Morocco, the cost of the tour was a bit unclear, however, the hotel advised us that there was an official rate of about 15 Euros for government-approved guides like Mohammed. Mohammed suggested that we take a taxi tour around the city walls before heading into the Medina. This seemed like a fine idea, until we encountered the taxi driver, it was the man who drove us from Tangier to Fez and who wanted to be our exclusive guide in Fez. We were, needless to say, quite uncomfortable about the situation. Our driver pouted while Mohammed explained the sites to us. We asked to stop at an ATM in the new town to withdraw some local currency. We circled around to the royal palace and explored the neighborhood in the vicinity of the palace. After that we headed to a ceramics factory, where we were given a tour. The factory appeared to be on fire, but it turned out that it simply lacked a chimney for its kilns, so black smoke poured out of the roof. We purchased a couple of small souvenirs and returned to our familiar Mercedes.
After a bit more driving around, it was time to leave our driver and continue on foot into the Medina. Our driver was anxious to solidify the arrangements for our return, but we were not eager to undertake another six hour ride, so we demurred again. As often was the case in Morocco, the cost of this service was unclear, and there was little effort to make it clear, but we ultimately paid him twenty Euros for about an hour of driving. Once in the Medina, our first stop was the slightly decaying Glaoui Palace which, according to our guide, was a special treat that is not a normal tourist site. The palace is still inhabited by a caretaker who is a member of the family that built the palace. Evidently, the grandfather of the current caretaker of the palace was once a powerful aristocrat who had a falling out with the King. There is almost no furniture in the palace and many parts of the palace are in disrepair, but the building boasts some incredible tile work and intricate honeycombed carved ceilings and doors.
After visiting the palace, we continued wandering through the Medina. The Medina is a very different urban environment not only from anyplace in North America, but even from old European towns with small alleys in that the alleys in the Medina are more like hallways and the boundaries between indoor and outdoor life is highly blurred. Tiny shops, barely bigger than a walk-in closet, line the Medina. Children, men and donkeys swirl about, but women are generally absent in most areas. We explored bakeries and various types of workshops until we eventually came to a carpet factory. After about an hour of haggling and several cups of mint tea, we bought a very nice hand-woven carpet. We had it shipped back to the U.S. with the cost of shipping included.
After the excitement of the carpet purchase, we had a delicious lunch at a restaurant which is set in an elaborately decorated former palace. As with many historical structures, we were told that this palace was built in the 14th Century. After lunch, we explored some other areas of the Medina and then parted ways with our guide. Again, there was a lot of confusion about the payment, which was exacerbated by a sudden rainstorm. The supposed official rate of 15 Euros seemed like far too little for several hours of very good guide work. However, I am sure that the guide made most of his money on commissions from our purchases. Ultimately, I gave him the standard fee plus a 100 per cent tip, the equivalent of about 30 Euros.
After relaxing in our room for a bit, we met with the hotels excellent concierge and arranged for a car to take us back to Tangier at 3 am. This wacky plan was dictated by the ferry schedule and by the thought that an early morning drive might avoid some of the donkey-jams that we had encountered on the way in. We emphasized that we wanted a fast driver. After making these arrangements, we took a taxi to the newer part of town, which was built by the French in the 1930s and had another great Moroccan meal. Even in this newer part of town, women were rarely seen and were never without men (except for western tourists).
The 3 am departure plan turned out to be a good idea after all. The new driver did indeed get us to Tangier in about four hours. There were a couple of scary moments when he had to get out of the car to walk around for a bit in order to keep himself awake, but we made it to the ferry in one piece. Unfortunately, although we got on the Tangier-Tarifa Ferry it turned out that this ferry did not actually go to Tarifa (to be continued).
Saturday 3/27
The ferry from Tarifa to Tangier was, oddly enough, Norwegian. I suppose they move the ferries to warmer climates for the winter. Crossing the Straight of Gibraltar took about 40 uneventful minutes. Upon arriving at Tangier, we exited the ferry and were confronted with dozens of taxi drivers. One guy was very persistent and kept badgering me after I told him several times that I had a driver meeting me. At one point, he put his hand on my shoulder and said ?I think we both know that you need a taxi!? Fortunately, we did eventually find our driver, who was standing near an old Mercedes.
Our driver, whose name we never really got, despite repeated requests, was a native of Fez who was probably about 60 years old. As we drove through Tangier, we noticed that many, if not most, of the buildings were in some indeterminate state between construction and collapse. Not spending any time in Tangier was probably a good decision. Once out of Tangier we drove on a fairly modern highway along the coast which afforded wonderful views of the beach and the sea. However, after thirty miles or so the highway turned inland and, soon after that, became more like a local road than a major highway. The countryside was surprisingly green and fertile. At one point we drove through a cork forest. Our driver reveled in pointing out the various types of crops to us. Flocks of sheep and goats were everywhere. Donkeys were a primary mode of transportation.
After a couple of hours of driving, we pulled over to a roadside café in a rather dusty and run-down town. Evidently, it was time for lunch. We thought this was odd, since we had been driving for almost three hours of what we were told would be a four hour trip to Fez, but we were hungry and happy to go with the flow. We ate some tasty roast lamb with delicious bread and washed it down with wonderful mint tea. Our enjoyment of the lunch abated when the driver told us that we were almost halfway done the trip. If anything, that was an under-estimation, as we spent at least three more hours bouncing along back roads, doubling back from wrong turns, and pulling over to ask direction from many, many locals. Although we were annoyed that the length of the trip had been misrepresented, we were very glad that we had not attempted to rent a car and navigate these roads which were confusing for a professional local driver.
We arrived at Fez completely exhausted from the drive. As we were on the final leg of the journey, the driver, who said little for most of the trip, aside from pointing out various crops, suddenly became eager to set up arrangements for the return trip and also for a tour of the Medina of Fez. We demurred and muttered something about possibly altering our plans. When we arrived at the hotel, we were not sure how to pay the driver. We never obtained any Moroccan currency and, although we had Euros, we thought that, since we had made the arrangements with the hotel, he might be paid through the hotel. Since the driver did not seem to express an opinion on the matter, we sought to clarify this situation with the front desk. However, we were plopped into a comfy sofa and provided with mint tea before any of this could be resolved. Now the driver had vanished and no one at the hotel seemed to have a firm opinion of how to handle the situation, or how much the driver should be paid. After a bit the driver reappeared and I simply gave him 170 Euros and told him that we would contact him through the hotel concierge regarding future arrangements.
Aside from the initial confusion regarding the drivers payment, the staff at the Hotel Palais Jamai was very good. Our room was quite nice and had a fairly large private balcony with a view of an old city gate. We went to the hotels Moroccan restaurant for dinner and had a very tasty dinner while listening to music and catching some belly dancing. We wandered the extensive grounds of the hotel after dinner but we were advised not to wander around the Medina by ourselves. After our exhausting day of travel, we decided to turn in fairly early. Unfortunately we did not sleep well because there was a wedding or some other type of loud celebration that caused music and singing to go on until about 3 am.
Sunday 3/28
We had a very nice room service breakfast on our balcony before going down to the lobby and meeting up with our guide, Mohammed. As with all transactions in Morocco, the cost of the tour was a bit unclear, however, the hotel advised us that there was an official rate of about 15 Euros for government-approved guides like Mohammed. Mohammed suggested that we take a taxi tour around the city walls before heading into the Medina. This seemed like a fine idea, until we encountered the taxi driver, it was the man who drove us from Tangier to Fez and who wanted to be our exclusive guide in Fez. We were, needless to say, quite uncomfortable about the situation. Our driver pouted while Mohammed explained the sites to us. We asked to stop at an ATM in the new town to withdraw some local currency. We circled around to the royal palace and explored the neighborhood in the vicinity of the palace. After that we headed to a ceramics factory, where we were given a tour. The factory appeared to be on fire, but it turned out that it simply lacked a chimney for its kilns, so black smoke poured out of the roof. We purchased a couple of small souvenirs and returned to our familiar Mercedes.
After a bit more driving around, it was time to leave our driver and continue on foot into the Medina. Our driver was anxious to solidify the arrangements for our return, but we were not eager to undertake another six hour ride, so we demurred again. As often was the case in Morocco, the cost of this service was unclear, and there was little effort to make it clear, but we ultimately paid him twenty Euros for about an hour of driving. Once in the Medina, our first stop was the slightly decaying Glaoui Palace which, according to our guide, was a special treat that is not a normal tourist site. The palace is still inhabited by a caretaker who is a member of the family that built the palace. Evidently, the grandfather of the current caretaker of the palace was once a powerful aristocrat who had a falling out with the King. There is almost no furniture in the palace and many parts of the palace are in disrepair, but the building boasts some incredible tile work and intricate honeycombed carved ceilings and doors.
After visiting the palace, we continued wandering through the Medina. The Medina is a very different urban environment not only from anyplace in North America, but even from old European towns with small alleys in that the alleys in the Medina are more like hallways and the boundaries between indoor and outdoor life is highly blurred. Tiny shops, barely bigger than a walk-in closet, line the Medina. Children, men and donkeys swirl about, but women are generally absent in most areas. We explored bakeries and various types of workshops until we eventually came to a carpet factory. After about an hour of haggling and several cups of mint tea, we bought a very nice hand-woven carpet. We had it shipped back to the U.S. with the cost of shipping included.
After the excitement of the carpet purchase, we had a delicious lunch at a restaurant which is set in an elaborately decorated former palace. As with many historical structures, we were told that this palace was built in the 14th Century. After lunch, we explored some other areas of the Medina and then parted ways with our guide. Again, there was a lot of confusion about the payment, which was exacerbated by a sudden rainstorm. The supposed official rate of 15 Euros seemed like far too little for several hours of very good guide work. However, I am sure that the guide made most of his money on commissions from our purchases. Ultimately, I gave him the standard fee plus a 100 per cent tip, the equivalent of about 30 Euros.
After relaxing in our room for a bit, we met with the hotels excellent concierge and arranged for a car to take us back to Tangier at 3 am. This wacky plan was dictated by the ferry schedule and by the thought that an early morning drive might avoid some of the donkey-jams that we had encountered on the way in. We emphasized that we wanted a fast driver. After making these arrangements, we took a taxi to the newer part of town, which was built by the French in the 1930s and had another great Moroccan meal. Even in this newer part of town, women were rarely seen and were never without men (except for western tourists).
The 3 am departure plan turned out to be a good idea after all. The new driver did indeed get us to Tangier in about four hours. There were a couple of scary moments when he had to get out of the car to walk around for a bit in order to keep himself awake, but we made it to the ferry in one piece. Unfortunately, although we got on the Tangier-Tarifa Ferry it turned out that this ferry did not actually go to Tarifa (to be continued).
May 26th, 2004, 04:29 PM
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Monday 3/29
As we boarded the ferry and our ticket was taken, the person taking the ticket said, Tarifa? and we nodded affirmatively and we all seemed pleased with ourselves. Why not? After all, the ferry was emblazoned with 8 foot high letters reading <Tangier-Tarifa>. Unfortunately, despite the encouraging signs, we somehow boarded a ferry that was bound to Algeciras. Worse than that, the trip to Algeciras took more than twice as long as the trip over from Tarifa and on this stormy day there was more than a little seasickness on board. The only positive aspect of this trip was that, as we pulled into Algeciras harbor, we had a great view of the Rock of Gibraltar.
Things did not improve after disembarking, as the lone Spanish Customs officer was overwhelmed by the huge crowd of passengers and one of our bags was taken by another passenger. My wife chased after the culprit and managed to retrieve the bag. Evidently it was an innocent mix-up. We eventually stumbled out of the ferry port and found a taxi. We asked how much it would cost to go to Tarifa and the driver told us 20 Euros. After a few days in Morocco, it was a bit of a shock to ask how much something cost and to receive a precise figure in response.
The taxi dropped us right at our car, which was in fine shape. We packed up and sped back to the Westin La Quinta, where we were able to check into exactly the same luxurious room that we had left two days previously. We napped for awhile and recovered from the long trek back from Fez. It rained for most of the afternoon, but in the evening the weather improved a bit and we headed into town for dinner. The dining options were nothing special and, looking for something different, we ended up at a German restaurant which served fairly good food. The town did not have much else to offer that we could see, so we returned to the hotel for the night after dinner.
Tuesday 3/30
We lounged around the hotel for most of the morning and had lunch on the terrace by the pool. In the early afternoon we checked out and drove to Carmona, a town about 20 miles to the northeast of Seville. We stayed at the parador of Carmona, which is inside a fortress built by the unfortunately-named Pedro the Cruel. The room was a bit on the small side but we had a private balcony which offered sweeping views of the countryside below. We wandered around the town for awhile but many of the historic sites had closed for the day. This was fine with us as we had pretty much run out of tourist steam by this point. We returned to the parador and explored our dinner options. The parador restaurant was fairly expensive and we were not very interested in a big meal. The front desk directed us to a nearby museum which had a bar that offered some tasty tapas. After this final round of tapas, we returned to the parador for the evening. The next morning we drove about 15 minutes towards Seville, dropped the car off at the airport and caught our flight home. A wonderful trip!
As we boarded the ferry and our ticket was taken, the person taking the ticket said, Tarifa? and we nodded affirmatively and we all seemed pleased with ourselves. Why not? After all, the ferry was emblazoned with 8 foot high letters reading <Tangier-Tarifa>. Unfortunately, despite the encouraging signs, we somehow boarded a ferry that was bound to Algeciras. Worse than that, the trip to Algeciras took more than twice as long as the trip over from Tarifa and on this stormy day there was more than a little seasickness on board. The only positive aspect of this trip was that, as we pulled into Algeciras harbor, we had a great view of the Rock of Gibraltar.
Things did not improve after disembarking, as the lone Spanish Customs officer was overwhelmed by the huge crowd of passengers and one of our bags was taken by another passenger. My wife chased after the culprit and managed to retrieve the bag. Evidently it was an innocent mix-up. We eventually stumbled out of the ferry port and found a taxi. We asked how much it would cost to go to Tarifa and the driver told us 20 Euros. After a few days in Morocco, it was a bit of a shock to ask how much something cost and to receive a precise figure in response.
The taxi dropped us right at our car, which was in fine shape. We packed up and sped back to the Westin La Quinta, where we were able to check into exactly the same luxurious room that we had left two days previously. We napped for awhile and recovered from the long trek back from Fez. It rained for most of the afternoon, but in the evening the weather improved a bit and we headed into town for dinner. The dining options were nothing special and, looking for something different, we ended up at a German restaurant which served fairly good food. The town did not have much else to offer that we could see, so we returned to the hotel for the night after dinner.
Tuesday 3/30
We lounged around the hotel for most of the morning and had lunch on the terrace by the pool. In the early afternoon we checked out and drove to Carmona, a town about 20 miles to the northeast of Seville. We stayed at the parador of Carmona, which is inside a fortress built by the unfortunately-named Pedro the Cruel. The room was a bit on the small side but we had a private balcony which offered sweeping views of the countryside below. We wandered around the town for awhile but many of the historic sites had closed for the day. This was fine with us as we had pretty much run out of tourist steam by this point. We returned to the parador and explored our dinner options. The parador restaurant was fairly expensive and we were not very interested in a big meal. The front desk directed us to a nearby museum which had a bar that offered some tasty tapas. After this final round of tapas, we returned to the parador for the evening. The next morning we drove about 15 minutes towards Seville, dropped the car off at the airport and caught our flight home. A wonderful trip!
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