After breakfast, we packed our things and then set off for Tangier.
We decided to take the route along the coast, which wasn’t really any further. Than through the mountains.
The drive directly through the market was also interesting. But you didn’t get to see much of the market. Everything was very crowded. People walked across the street regardless. The road surface was also very slippery.
Once again, we arrive at the hotel well before check-in. Shortly before our destination, the satnav once again sent us to the wrong turn-off. We wandered around the area, unable to find the right road, until a truck driver waved us over and showed us the way to the right road. Then the sat nav sent us to a traffic circle, again very confusingly. The traffic circles here have their own rules. There is always at least one policeman at the traffic circle. There were five at this one. Alex had to slam on the brakes when a car cut him off, but although the car touched Alex’s front wheel, he remained relaxed and calm. The car just drove on and so did Alex. We watched the police officers to see if they would ask us to stop, but they also seemed completely relaxed. So we drove on to the next dead end, which the satnav guided us to. In principle it wasn’t so wrong, the hotel was just above the road (dead end/freight port) to which the satnav sent us. We asked a friendly man if he knew the right way. A short time later we did make it to the hotel 😉
Until our room was ready, we sat down in the hotel café and treated ourselves to a San Miguel for the equivalent of around €7.50 per beer 😉
The espresso and the water with it were the welcome of the house.
Apart from breakfast, we hadn’t eaten anything today and so we were hungry. The man at reception told us that the restaurant didn’t open until 8pm. It was now 5:30 pm. We had found a restaurant nearby with good reviews via Google. About 20 minutes away. When we left the hotel, we realized that the restaurant is above the main road on a small hill, visible from here. So we didn’t follow the Google description, but simply walked across the parking lots, which probably belong to the hotel and the other adjacent buildings here. We continued across a meadow, then across the 4-lane main road and finally up the small hill to the restaurant, only to discover that it was closed and, from the look of it, probably no longer existed.
The area gave us the creeps. Narrow alleyways, scary-looking people. So we went back to the main road. On the hard shoulder of the 4-lane road, there were people standing at regular intervals with coffee machines in their cars selling coffee. It was crazy to see that.
We knew that there was a view point nearby. That was our next destination.
From this view point, you have a beautiful view of the Strait of Gibraltar. Just 44 km away as the crow flies, the mountain of Gibraltar, the European mainland, is close enough to touch.
In the meantime, it was just under an hour until the hotel restaurant opened. To tide us over, we each snacked on a muesli bar that we still had in the bike’s case. We showered and freshened up.
Dinner in the hotel restaurant was very tasty.
