I had been on my way to Algeciras in Southern Spain on 2nd January before I met an Australian couple who said that I could get the ferry from Tarifa instead and it proved to be a good decision as it saved me a lot of time. On arrival in Tangiers I set off on foot to get my bearings and completely lost my way in search of an ATM. I finally found one which didn’t accept my card and then I was horrified when the next one swallowed my card and if my other card hadn’t worked I would have been well and truly up sh*t creek without a paddle. Thankfully, I got my card back after some locals had hassled a guard into helping us all get our cards back on a Saturday afternoon when the banks were closed.

After that I found my way in the North African city and booked my bus ticket for 8pm that night. With five hours to kill I set about trying to find the old Forbes Museum on the outskirts of the city which featured in Timothy Dalton’s first outing as James Bond in ‘The Living Daylights‘ (1987). Unable to follow the guide book map I walked fairly aimlessly and took a few photos of buildings which I thought could have been the militaristic villa of arms dealer Brad Whitaker from the movie and subsequent research on my return proved that I had got lucky in capturing the shot that I wanted.

 

I couldn’t get a place in a nearby cafe so wandered back to the medina area to have a mint tea while sat outside Gran Cafe de Paris which also featured on the big screen by way of ‘The Bourne Ultimatum‘ (2007) which was the third part of the trilogy starring Matt Damon. It was this film which really brought Tangiers to my attention following perhaps one of films most exciting chase sequences through the medina and across the rooftops. Not so surprising then that my half day in this city was not so thrilling which was a bit disappointing as guidebooks and friends had said that people either love it or hate it. I thought it was OK but a little boring to be honest.