Al-Karaouine Mosque and (the world’s oldest) University, founded by a woman in the ninth century. Picnic on the roof terrace of our Air BnB apartment in the Medina (technically shared, but no one else ever used it). The view from…
Exploring the Sierra de Grazalema from a home-from-home in Benamahoma
You can see for miles from Puerta de las Palomas (1,639m), in the Sierra de Grazalema. Nearly nine years ago I went to a small pueblo blanco (white hilltop town) called Grazalema in Cadiz province on a chilly November weekend, to…
The medina and the market: colours of Tangiers street life
For me, the most memorable part of my all-too-short visit to Tangiers was wandering through the Medina – the old city, just below the Kasbah. In my last post, I talked about our guide, Aziz. If I had been trying…
A trip to Tangiers: first impressions
A snatch of plaintive Arabic music, small children playing marbles in the street, a Berber woman covering her face with a scarf… narrow alleyways dotted with rubbish, houses painted azure blue, canary yellow, terracotta pink; ancient, exquisite carved wooden…