Tangier is a bustling port city in the North of Morocco, the perfect spot to depart for the south of Spain. The bus journey from Chefchaouen to Tangier was a real pleasure, the bus traversing wide valleys against backdrops of craggy mountain ranges.

The bus station at Tangier is located well outside the city and we were obliged to get a taxi into the Hotel Continental. The taxi cost us 70 Dhs and seemed like a pretty reasonable deal, who knows if it was or not.  Our faith in taxi drivers across the world remains low, one never knows what the price actually should be, or so it seems.

We had elected to have our last night in Morocco at the Hotel Continental,  as it is located directly across from the ferry port and reputedly has the most ornate and beautiful breakfast room in the country but a word of warning it also has the worst breakfast, or so we had been told. It’s true, the breakfast is ordinary to say the least; the hotel is tired although it shows signs of having been a true French Colonial beauty in its heyday and has some interesting historical and quirky artefacts. It really is quite an eccentric place to stay and is air conditioned, an important factor in hotels but not traditional style housing in Morocco or so we found.

As we had arrived in the early evening and had booked tickets on the FRS ferry for the next morning we were keen to have a quiet and early night. So forgoing the excitement and lure of yet another medina, we crossed the road to the newly renovated waterfront and strolled along under the palms, taking in the sights and sounds of the bustling city. Tangier, outside the medina of course, could be any modern city, with sky scrappers, night clubs, cafes and shopping malls interrupting the traffic. We used our tried and true method of finding food that is not aimed at tourists and their pockets, by going 3 streets back from the waterfront and found Pizza Nour . A busy cafe with street side and indoor tables, a very happy and bustling staff and not a tourist in sight.  We managed to order in our proficient, french-moroccan-english patois.

We ordered a couple of Chwarma plates, a coke and enjoyed people watching, as city workers on their way home, pulled up out the front, gave their order and had their pizza, chwarma or other delicious looking take away delivered across the road to the car. We were hoping it was better than our version of drive through, McDonalds. Naturally it was (not really that hard one suspects!), we received 2 enormous plates of kebab chicken, salad and potato chips; another addition to world cuisine the humble chip and all for about half the price of the ‘authentic moroccan cuisine’ on the strip running along the beach.

As always it was a warm night in Morocco, although the coastal breeze made the meander home along the foreshore very pleasant indeed.

Best room, worst breakfast

 It is true, the breakfast at the Hotel Continental was well, average to say the least but the opulence and intricacy of the room was unsurpassed on our Moroccan journey.

It took us only a few minutes to amble across to the ferry terminal from the hotel and before we knew it we were rolling away through the waves towards Spain and our new home in Alorà.

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