APR-02: Almeria, Spain

Sunrise today was at 0800, so we arrived in the port of Alemira in the dark, docking at 0730.  

Tour Description:  Granada & the Alhambra

Discover the Alhambra—the dramatic highlight of historic Granada—on this unforgettable tour. A number of interesting sights will be visible from the coach along the 2½-hour drive to Granada, and your guide will introduce you to local traditions and history as you travel. The city of Granada is beautiful, but nothing in the whole of Spain compares to the wealth of architectural art to be found in the city’s Muslim-Hispano complex—the 14th-century Alhambra. Walls and towers surround this breathtaking example of Muslim architecture. Inside, palaces, military buildings, a fortress and an administrative center can be found. Explore this remarkable structure whose detailed mosaics, prism-style cupolas and stone-cast latticework offer a stunning grace and sophistication. The nearby Generalife gardens surround the summer residence of the Moorish kings. Lunch is included.

Tour Experience

We left the port of Alemira and ascended the coastal mountains, passing through Puerto de la Mora at 1380 meters before descending into the Granada.  Along the way we saw many huge greenhouses.  Our guide told us there are 70,000 hectares under cover in the province.  The greenhouses (made out of plastic) are quite ugly but economically make the province of Andalusia one of the financially healthiest in Spain’s crippled economy.  Higher up in the mountains we can across a wind farm that extended for miles.  Further on were solar farms.  Southern Spain appeared to have made a heavy investment in alternative energy.

As we climbed higher the snow-covered tops of the Sierra Nevada Mountains were clearly visible.

We skirted around the city of Granada, going straight to the Alhambra were we dismounted the bus, met our local guide and began a 3-hour walking tour. 

[NOTE:  For anyone planning to visit the Alhambra, it is important to know that only 7,700 tickets are sold for each day.  Pre-orders by tour companies and travel agents today resulted in all the remaining tickets being sold within the first 30 minutes the ticket office was open.  The take-away is to pre-order tickets.   In addition, the flow of visitors is controlled, including an access time on the ticket.  Since we were on a guided tour, everything had been choreographed for us, but if you traveled there on your own this would be something else to keep in mind.]

Picture taking was difficult given the crowds, the frequently confined space and the prohibition of using a flash indoors.  Here are a few that hopefully will give you a sense of this impressive site.

Some of the interior walls, ceilings and arches were particularly stunning.

Visiting Alhambra was well worth a long bus ride.  

The trip back to ROTTERDAM was uneventful.  After dropping things in our stateroom we went on deck for a daylight view of the fort and the port.

The Captain elected not to have tugs assist ROTTERDAM in getting off the dock she was held against by a 30+ knot breeze on her starboard beam.  The thrusters and propellers stirred up the harbor bottom considerably before ROTTERDAM was in a position to move out of the harbor.

Local sunset was 2034 giving us an extended evening as we headed for the Straits of Gibraltar in relatively calm seas.

APR-03: Tangier, Morocco

We passed through the Straits of Gibraltar at 0400 this morning.  We got up to look at the Rock of Gibraltar.  Given that we have been to Gibraltar, getting up to see it was anti-climatic.  It was a blob of black in the darkness with a few lights at its base.  Within less than a minute of arising it was back to bed to dream of the Tantalizing Tetouan tour in the morning.   

Tour Description:  Tantalizing Tetouan

Begin your tour with a 35-mile drive over a gently winding road directly to the city of Tetouan, crossing the beautiful Rif Mountains. Along the way, keep an eye out for peasants in local dress as they sell their goat cheese at the side of the road. Arriving in Tetouan, known as the White Dove due to the color of its buildings, you will discover a town that was once a haven for pirates and a shelter for the Arabian refugees from Andalusia after the fall of Arabian rule in Spain. Tetouan still exhibits a profoundly Spanish influence as it was a Territory of Spain until asserting independence in 1956. Some administrative offices’ names are still in Spanish. Visit the outside of the Royal Palace of Tetouan, taking in its wide esplanade, Arab-Islamic architecture and its magnificently decorated gate. Cross on foot the ancient medina (Old Town) complete with narrow alleys and streets, popular shops, colorful souks (markets) with vendors of goat cheese, vegetables and spices dressed in traditional costume. The medina is home to a Jewish minority living in harmony with Muslims. Walk through the gate to the Museum of Moroccan Handicrafts. A variety of handicrafts are on display here, including embroidery, woodwork and woolen garments. The museum is also a school, where apprentices are taught how to make such items. Next, stop to savor the local musical entertainment and watch a belly dance as you sip mint tea. Return to the coach and head back to the port at Tangier.

Tour Experience

Little did we know that seeing Gibraltar in the dark would be the highlight of today’s  sightseeing.  

Our guide was arrogant bordering on adversarial.  The bus was old with leaky door seals, at least one broken seat, etc.  We drove for an hour to get to the crafts school where not much was going on.  No one explained anything beyond some sweeping generalizations.  It was not an auspicious start to Tantalizing Tetouan.

We were lulled into a false sense of things getting better when we entered the medina and started weaving our way through its narrow alleys and passageways.  This was the Morocco we remembered particularly enjoying on our last trip. 

Too soon we came to a restaurant where we were greeted with music.  We were given a cup of the traditional sweet tea and some small cakes.  Once seated, there was a thankfully brief floor show.  We discovered that belly-dancing loses a certain something when the dancer is fully clothed, middle-aged, a bit overweight and less than attractive.  The next entertainer was a man who did a series of stunts with candles on his head.  I subsequently discovered on a visit to the men's room that his other job was to clean the toilets.  The stunts with candles was a freebie, a clean toilet was not.  The performance ended with two musicians, not to be confused with the other four musicians who had provided accompaniment for the belly dancer and the talented toilet cleaner.  Dropping coins like rain as tokens of (alleged) appreciation, we escaped the restaurant.   

Speaking of rain, it was.

Our next stop was a carpet “exhibition”.  It was a hard soft-sell that went on too long.  The carpets themselves really were extremely nice.  Had we had more time and less pressure, Pam & I might have been tempted. 

Back outside, with the rain organizing itself into a steady shower, we wandered through more of the medina, coming out at the local palace of the sultan.  The sultan was not there.  The palace was closed to the public.  It had the curb appeal of Joe’s All-You-Can-Eat Moroccan Restaurant in Muscatine, Iowa.  Trying to photograph anything meant exposing my camera to the rain, so I snapped one quick, boring picture on this architectural dude and tucked my camera back in my raincoat.  

Our tour concluded with a 30-minute walk in the rain down some streets full of merchants, then back through the medina to get to our bus.  In fairness to that part of the itinerary, it could well have been interesting if we were permitted to walk slower and focus on what we were passing rather march along trying to stay dry.  Staying dry was particularly challenging on the return trip through the medina.  Many of the venders had rigged dilapidated tarps over their small stands.  This tarps collected water that periodically dropped on unsuspecting passers-by.  Pam & I each had several near-misses.

“Well, that’s over.” rather than “Well, that was interesting.” was the prevalent sentiment as we boarded the bus for the return trip to Tangier. 

The door seals still leaked.  So did a roof hatch, dribbling water on a man two rows behind me.  The bus windows fogged up.  ALL the windows.  The bus driver used a cloth to keep his window clear, driving with one hand while doing so.  In spite of this, Pam commented favorably on the care the driver was taking in navigating the bus.  She did not like my alternative take that given the age of the bus he might be concerned about the brakes.  Whichever of us with correct, and perhaps we both were, the bus delivered us safely to ROTTERDAM, ending what was without doubt the worse tour of our trip. 

Had the weather, guide and bus been better we would have likely scored this tour as mediocre instead of poor, but they were not so we did not.  “Tetouan” may mean “white dove” in Arabic, but this tour was more on the order of a motley pigeon.  Other groups on other buses with other guides reported a better experience.

Departing the harbor, a windmill farm was visible in the distance (left middle).  This is one of several we saw during the day. 

Through the haze we could also see in the distance the Straits of Gibraltar with Europe to the north (left) and Africa to the sound (right).

Just after sunset we looked out our stateroom window and saw what at first looked like the mirror image of ROTTERDAM.  Ruling out that impossibility we determined it was the NOORDAM on a passage to Malaga, Spain having left our next port of call – Cadiz, Spain – earlier today.