Please note- there are many images in this blog entry due to Marrakech being such a photogenic place!
When I was a child, my favourite Disney film was Aladdin. Magic carpets, enchanted snakes and exotic music; food and colours everywhere.
After years of waiting for an opportunity, I took the 1 hour flight from Seville to Marrakech which is not where this children’s story is set but the photos I’d seen and all I’d read about it evoked this mystical, dusty and glittering land.
There is a game called ‘Ryanair Roulette’ where people go online and book flights to whichever destination is the cheapest on that day. I love this idea as I am happy to visit almost anywhere and to be fair, Ryanair does offer some unusual and interesting destinations.
My cousin Luke and I didn’t exactly go blindly for the cheapest but we collected a few potential destinations into a list and we decided which one to go for.
I am a lifelong Francophile and Luke appreciates French cuisine and wine so we opted for the under 2 hour flight from Manchester to Bordeaux, France.
So off to the land of red wine we went…
Algeciras is often spoken about as the ugly spot of Andalusia. Industrial. Crime-ridden. Barren.
You won’t find it featuring highly in travel guides and it is often seen as just a transient port of call between Spain and Morocco. Algeciras is in the autonomous region of Cádiz, it is the last stop on the train line from Madrid and overshadowed by its stunning neighbour, Tarifa to the south-west.
I first heard of this supposedly unremarkable town when I was studying A level History, with reference to the Algeciras Conference of 1906, held to discuss the future of Morocco.
Intrigued to see why this place is both disregarded and heralded, I spent three days in the Algeciras zone, visiting a friend who lives there. The Campo de Gibraltar encompasses the following areas:
With my knowledgeable friend to show me round, our first stop was at one of Algeciras’ surprisingly beautiful beaches. The ugly reputation is largely undeserved, once you look past the grey dusty streets and shutter-drawn windows.
Laur On Tour 