Tag: Tangier

Bruce, Sting, Tangier and Us

Bruce 2 tangier editedAmazing day.  Of course Rick found Said (center,) the guide who worked with Bruce Springsteen and Sting during the 80’s Amnesty tour.  He was a trip and a pleasure.  Tangier is not as romantic or exotic as I had expected but it certainly was interesting.
It was May Day so lots of things were closed including the famous, visited-by-George-Washington American Legation Building.   Morocco was the first country to recognize the new United States in 1777 so it would have been cool to go inside the place so long a part of our shared history, but this country has a real workers’ May Day and public buildings are all closed.
The holiday also meant no garbage collection so the streets were kind of scruffy, too.

tangier synagogue edited

Tangier Synagogue2We went to see the old Sephardic synagogue but the guard had lost the key (seriously !)  We did look in through the open windows though, which actually offered a pretty good view.
Oh, and in case I forgot to tell you , here’s a reluctant undertaking.  For the record.  Yes.  Camels.
cr camel edited 2

So Many Stories

dinner window 4-29
Evening, out the window.

There are some amazing people here.  Wander around looking for a poolside table for lunch and two people look up and say, “Join us.”    They turn out to be a pair of characters with whom we share enormous common ground – in broadcasting, in travel, in life.

Go to Trivia at noon and be outclassed at every turn (an unfamiliar experience, I might add.)  Meet two couples who’ve sailed around the world and several who’ve hit most of it.  All full of stories and curiosity and an unfettered sense of adventure. Hyperion

Spend a couple of hours on the private patio; wander upstairs to check out the gym and the spa then downstairs to the “book swap” to find an old favorite I would have rated “highly unlikely” to be along on a trip like this.

Then I met a Game of Thrones couple who had never heard of Hyperion and were thrilled when I went back to the give away and brought it to them.  A perfect cruise reminder:  never assume anything about anyone.  Don’t.

I guess that’s true in general but out here on the sea it’s particularly so.  Physical therapist or CEO, accountant or fashionista, nobody is predictable and almost everybody is as eager to meet you as you are to meet them.  An openness to discovery – of new places, people, food, books and ideas dominates.

A lecture on tomorrow’s destination filled the large auditorium.  It’s a kind of floating grad school dorm for grownups. In other words, as we move toward our first stop in Tangier in about eight hours, we’re a bunch of excited, curious, energetic travelers who also just happen to be living on a ship where this appeared at the foot of our bed tonight.

Yes, he’s a towel wearing Rick’s sunglasses and holding the info on our next stop in his paws.  Goodnight for now, from Rick, me and the bunny. Rabbit bed