Aug 29 - sensory overload !

Whew !  What a day !

From the get-go, it was overload ! 

We walked out of the hotel to find that there were people still celebrating from the night before.  Going into a little bar, we ordered coffee and croissants.  The place was hopping, full inside and out.  They were still drinking !  The proprietors had this massive machine that mixed dough and produced long snakes that went into a huge vat of hot oil.  Doing this on the fly, it was being consumed as fast as they could produce it.  I took a couple of pictures, will post later, but upon our return last night, that equipment was gone.  That's hard to belive; in fact, I'm tempted to walk down there now to see if it's back.

A dent in our appetite and energized by not one, but two coffees each (two espressos for Sandy; two cappuccinos for me), we headed to the ferry where we showed our FRS numbers and they produced boarding passes.  Stamp, stamp and we were through the emigration formalities and in the waiting room. 

We boarded on time, a very large vessel as it also held trucks, cars and buses.  It wasn't too crowded from a pedestrian point of view as it was early.  We relaxed to enjoy the one-hour trip.   After a bit, I took a walk to take pictures and look around and saw that there was a queue for another passport check, this time by the Moroccan police, and the signage said that this had to be done before landing.  Sandy and I went to join the line and found that the queue wrapped around, and around and around ... so basically we stood there until we were docked, getting stamped just before it was time to exit.  The queue moved very slowly because every time someone would come to the head of the queue, the rest of their extended family would join them.  Oh well, we had nothing else to do anyway !

Off the boat, they checked that we had our stamps; we exited the area and we found a fellow holding up a sign with my name.  He walked us to the taxi stand where his compatriot was waiting and we set off.   Abdul, our guide and Ahmed, our driver, took us first to a little out-of-the-way restaurant for some breakfast.  That was actually quite welcome.  Egg and cheese sandwiches in a different bread, more coffee and we were on our way.  We toured around the outskirts up on the heights, seeing typical and atypical tourist spots.  In only one spot was there a tourist bus, a high vantage point ... yes, I have to post some pictures !

Just as I was getting kind of snoozy, driving around in the car, the driving part of the tour was ending.  We then started the walking part, Ahmed on his way elsewhere, Abdul showing us various parts of the inner city, into the Kasbah and Market.  The market was amazing !  The sensory overload, sights, smells, crowds, people grew !  Late in the tour Sandy asked to see some carpets, so we headed there.  She almost, almost, bought something for our entranceway in Florida but it wasn't quite right.  We'd even agreed upon a price ... but ... she wasn't sure so we passed. 

Partway into the walking tour it was lunch time and Abdul deposited us in a nice restaurant just outside the Kasbah, with a great view and great Moroccan food.  Yes, it was better than Epcot :).

From the end of our walking tour we were basically done, finished, in more ways than one.  We'd spent our 6.5 hours touring.  We were exhausted.  Sensory overload.  The original plan was to then tour some more by ourselves, have dinner and then take the 10pm ferry, which would get us back to Tarifa at midnight (one hour time difference).  Instead we simply went to the hotel that Abdul suggested (that took credit cards), relaxed by their pool, had a drink and headed for the 6pm ferry. 

When we got to the ferry area another fellow introduced himself; this was Aziz, the one who we'd been communicating with and who handed off to Abdul.  It seems that Aziz is the main main on this tours-by-locals and he's got a number of freelancers.  He moved us around the ferry area, verifying that we could leave early, checking that we'd had a good time and would do a positive review.  He had heard from Abdul that we were leaving early.  I'm guessing that it's as important to them that we have a good time / do a positive review, as it is on ebay etc.  Being expensive, much more so than the group tours, it's even more important.  Yup, this had been perfect.

The ferry back was quite crowded and we were early off so that we weren't stuck in the immigration queue.  Stamp, stamp, and we were back in Tarifa.   Back to our room, we relaxed for a few minutes and then headed out for dinner.  We set a new personal record ... dinner starting at 10pm.  Another bottle of wine consumed, we were back in our hotel.

We should have stopped after the appetizers.  This was our first bad meal -- well, the entire meal wasn't bad, just the Albacore Tuna which was fishy, i.e. not fresh.  I ate most of mine anyway, Sandy hardly touched hers.  Her Caprese salad, my Aubergine, the accompanying veggies and such were all excellent.  The Albacore was the problem.  The wine was good.  All was well in the world.

The streets were busy, surprise surprise.  We walked through the mobs back to our hotel and called it a night.  It was almost midnight.  Kids in strollers were still at dinner and we were turning in.  Hey, at least I wasn't heading to bed at 9pm !

Today will be a slow start.  Breakfast opens at 9am.  Mass is at noon and then we drive to Portugal for the next stage of our adventure.

Onward !