orange tree in Tarifa

Anika & old church in Tarifa

the port of Algeciras

from our hotel room window

Toledo from our hotel room patio

With some regret we left Toledo for Algeciras on the southern coast, the port from which we would take a ferry to Morocco. We had heard Algeciras described as a charmless place and indeed, upon arrival on a rainy evening, this certainly is true.

We arrived friday evening thinking we could arrange to park the car for two weeks, wash some clothes at a laundromat on saturday morning and maybe drive to Tarifa for a look around. Probably due to errors in translation, we learn that there are no laundromats in Algeciras, only a dry-cleaner who tells us she is so busy that she couldn't do our clothes today even if we were willing to spend the $120 or so that it would cost. We learn that there is a laundromat in Tarifa, only 20 km away. Excellent, we were planning on a short visit anyways!

The drive over is beautiful, a lush but craggy landscape studded with windmills and bulls (toros!) We can even see Africa (Morocco) as we head down into Tarifa and the rain abates. We drive briefly around the rather beautiful little town looking for a laundromat until we decide to ask someone. Apparently there are two, both probably closed on a saturday. We find one in short order - closed. The other is in the medina, so no cars. We park and wander into the medina, a small maze of narrow streets often less than 150 cm wide. There are dozens of small bars, fish shops, jewellers, more bars, some pastry shops, clothing and shoe boutiques - but no laundry facilities of any kind. When we ask people, we are told about the one out on the avenue, or more often, a blank stare and a "No."

Peoples' clothes here seem quite clean, I wonder how this happens and how we can take part.

Pausing, we take advantage of the overload of bars and take some small tapas with beer and wine. After another short wander around and a further drive around, neither with any luck, we head back to our hotel room to do some hand-washing. One weeks worth of travel for four, two of which are small children (small clothes, big messes). We buy some string and some laundry soap. Funny, at a large market there are dozens of bars of different kinds of laundry soap, but only two boxes of machine detergent!

My parents will arrive by plane this evening in Gibraltar where I will go to pick them up. Tomorrow - to Morocco...