Morocco Reviews: Tangier and Chefchaouen

After meeting the group in Casablanca, next morning we headed to Tangier in the north of Morocco. We were only going to stay there for lunch and then have a guided tour through the medina for about an hour, before heading south again to Chefchaouen. At first I was quite disappointed that we wouldn’t be staying longer in Tangier, as I have read so much about it being the Moroccan headquarters for the beatniks and the hippies. We had lunch and headed to the medina for the tour. This mainly consisted of our local guide telling us that in that house a rich French person lived, and that house had been bought by a rich English person, and that house was now a hotel. Not very informative and a bit disappointing. We passed quite quickly through the medina with no stops to shop, but from what I could tell, the goods on offer were not really interesting either. So in the end I was happy that we would not stay there longer. Perhaps if we had stayed longer and had time to explore by ourselves we would have found something interesting to do, but from the quick glance I had, I would not have high hopes. 

Tangier

In the afternoon we continued to Chefchaouen. Before coming I had never heard of this city, but it was a pleasant surprise. It has a small-town-feel even though it is probably quite large. The main part of the city is the smaller area of the medina, where all the houses are painted different shades of blue. And not just the walls, but the doors, stairs, window frames and gutters too. It makes for quite the scenic stop, and we spent most of our time there wandering through the streets taking pictures at practically every corner. 

The city was founded in 1470 by the Berbers as a defense against the Spanish and Portuguese. 500 years ago Jews and Muslims fled from Andalusia and settled in Chefchaouen to create their own little Andalusia where Christian extremists would not persecute them anymore. Window frames and doors were painted the traditional green of Islam, and it was only later everything was painted blue according to Jewish tradition. Christians were not allowed in, and supposedly only 3 Christians had visited the town when the Spanish conquered it in 1920. When the Spanish arrived they found a people who spoke a Medieval type of Spanish and wore strange clothing, much like the Medieval Andalusian clothes. Today Christians are more than welcome and the atmosphere is more relaxed than the big cities of the country. 

Most of the group went on a hike in the hilly regions around the city one morning, but I decided to stay in the town and relax and take a whole lot of photographs. The Plaza Uta el-Hamman is the central place surrounded by the winding streets of the medina. On the south side of the plaza the casbah is situated and right next to this is the mosque with the unusual minaret shaped like an octagon. You can wander the small streets around the plaza, stopping for fresh orange juice or mint tea, in-between photosessions. 

Hotel Madrid

The rooms are a bit noisy as many of them face the street, but my room was not too bad. As in many other places this hotel uses sausage shaped pillows which can leave a crick in your neck if you are not use to using pillows like this. The breakfast consisted of harira (lentil) 

soup, bread and cornflakes. Not the most filling, so I had to get an omelet once we were out exploring. Luckily that is quite easy to find as by far most cafes have a wide selection of omelets and other breakfast foods.