Tangier Part 2
Written by Pieter Jan on Dec 17, 2019 — 2 min read
At: Tangier, Morocco
We’re stuck in Tangier because of the wind. Some December storms are coming along and they’re bringing strong southwestern winds, the direction we want to go. So we’re still taking it easy here.
The days are melting into one another, the way they do when you’re on vacation.
“What day is it today?”
“No idea, Wednesday maybe?”
“I think it’s Saturday.”
“Want me to check?”
“Nah…“
We do make a distinction between Rainyday and Sunnyday. Luckily the latter prevails.
We read a lot, I play the piano, we watch series and movies. The kids are playing with legos and playmobil or take the dingy out for a ride in the harbor.
We visited the American Legation. It was the first American public property outside the United States and now houses the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies. It’s housed in two big mud-and-stone buildings on either side of an alley, joined by a little bridge.
Inside you’ll find beautiful American-styled furniture, an exhibition on composer and writer Paul Bowles, an exhibition on Moroccan Jewish wedding dresses and a whole class of Tangier medina women attending a literacy course. I downloaded some Paul Bowles books afterwards — he’s a good writer, his style a bit like Hemingway’s but without the testosterone overdose.
The stately dining room had an old piano too — in tune! — but when I started playing it, a guard came up and politely told me I couldn’t do that. Pity.
Then we walked on to the kasbah, the defendable part of the medina. If you want, you can take a walk with us and enjoy the winter medina.
From the top of the kasbah, we had a great view over the medina. We could even see Vite & Rêves in the distance.
We walked out and were rewarded with a great view over the Strait of Gibraltar.
