ASILAH ON THE ATLANTIC

After a few days in Chefchaouen we once again met up with lovely Mr. Otman, bundled back into his Mercedes and began the 3 and a half hour drive northwest to Asilah, a picturesque white-washed town on the Atlantic coast. As we drove out the weather took a turn for the worse and we could feel the wind thrashing us about as we drove through the Rif. Not exactly the seaside weather we had hoped for. Things stayed much the same as we pulled into town and we were happy to say goodbye to Mr. Otman and lug our bags into the calm, white interior of the hotel Al Alba. We had a beautiful room, another knockout bathroom and met the sleek, muscular, moviestar of a cat that lived at the hotel.

Beautiful as Asilah was the weather really dampened our experience there. That and the fact that, with no sunny beach to sit on, we really didn't have anything to do. We walked to the pier overlooking the ocean and admired the tiled-in graveyard which, sadly, isn't open to non-Muslims. I loved the cool, calm colours of the town and the bright, sparse murals on the sides of buildings. After a walk around the town centre and the pretty, mostly residential medina we had what we'll call an interesting late lunch and headed back to our hotel. We spent the night drinking red wine, eating pistachios and watching Al Jazeera which, in my opinion, is one of the best news stations around.

In the end we left a day earlier than we'd planned which turned out to be a good idea as our trip from Asilah to Tangier, onto Algeciras via ferry and up to Malaga on the bus took us more than 11 hours. That was probably the most tiring day of our trip. Anyway, beautiful Asilah, I'll have to return another time when the weather is all warmth and sun and I can fully enjoy the delights of the coast.