To Marrakesh by train: part 1 - crossing Gibraltar

Note: The first and previous post on this blog was about the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. It is unconscionable that only now a ceasefire was reached. May it be permanent. And if you can spare, donate to one of the organizations supporting relief on the ground, see a list here. From the Netherlands I've also supported Plant en Olijfboom.

We started the year with a cold, and then with a land trip from Iberia to Morocco. I will share here some impressions and reflections, over a few posts. 

If you are interested in the logistics of travelling by train to Morocco, the "man in the seat 61" is "the Bible". But I will also share a post with our logistics and emissions.

Standing in the old fortress in Tangier looking over the straight of Gibraltar to the coast on the other side. The waters of the Mediterranean joining the waters of the Atlantic. At least these are the names given to them. The waters don't seem to mind. Neither do the large stretches of land we can see, as if impervious to the passage of time, trade, invasions and people. 

Europe. 

why is it called the old continent? By whom? By those who though of themselves as "discovering" "new" continents?

Africa. 

the continent most affected by the Mercator projection used in most world maps, making Africa seem much smaller than what it is

The edges of the two land masses look at each other, here, at the narrowest point. 

Here, where the waters of the sea that bathes all these coasts from here to Gaza, mix with the wide ocean. 

Here, the edges of whole continents and histories face each other up close. 

What do they say?

As a Portuguese, there is plenty in our language, history and culture that tells of exchanges with north Africa. There are expressions and legends about the "moors". Like "há moiro na costa", "there is moor on the shore" to insinuate that there is someone with a romantic interest around. Numerous words that as we learn, starting with "al", come from the arabic, such as the southern regions themselves: Algarve, and Alentejo. For centuries, most of Iberia (or parts of it) belonged to a muslim caliphate (Umayyad , and later the Almoravid empire), known as the Al-Andalus, where despite hierarchy and segregation, there was coexistence of arabs, berbers, christians and jews. These are times before the existence of entities such as "kingdom of Portugal", which might explain (but not excuse) why it is barely mentioned in high-school "Portuguese History" lessons (as far as I can remember, it might be different now).

Remains of this past are often found in archaeological excavations, like a few years ago in Lisbon's cathedral, but sometimes they are still at the surface. A clear example is the main church of Mértola, which was visibly adapted from a 12th century mosque. 

We learn in school about the Portuguese creating outposts along the African coast, (although not much is taught about the violence involved in "conquering towns"). There is this mythical figure in Portuguese history, a king "who disappeared on a day of fog and may one day return". This very young king, Sebastião the first, decided to crusade the north of nowadays Morocco and disappeared in battle in Ksar el-Kebir. 

(Consulting Wikipedia, I learn that Sebastião was aligned with deposed sultan Abdallah Mohammed against the then incumbent sultan Abd Al-Malik I, and that the three of them died - or disappeared, in that battle). 

This happened on August 4th 1578. As Sebastião had no descendants, the Spanish kingdom took over Portugal (and its overseas "possessions") for 60 years. And that's probably the last time North Africa is mentioned in our history lessons. 

Five centuries later, what do I know about our southern neighbours? 

Very little. So little, that it was almost shocking to see how close these land masses are.

Psychologically Portugal and Morocco are very far away. But from Southern Portugal, Morocco is much closer than France. Less than 400km from the border. Even from Porto, in the north coast, Tangier is almost at the same distance as Hendaye, the nearest French town (about 800km).

It took us only one train, (Porto-Lisbon), one night (bus Lisbon-Algeciras), and a ferry (1h) to cross continents. In the ferry trip between Tarifa and Tangier-ville, the passport control is on the boat. It is low-season which means few tourists among the crowd. Excited, the bright sun blesses the crossing, and after one hour we are disembarking and walking towards the dense white old town or medina, while newer parts of Tangier seem to spread far on the surrounding hills. 

We are in Morocco!

Extra note:

Consulting wikipedia again, I see that Ceuta is officially "ceded" by Portugal to Spain in 1668 as part of a peace treaty. So this is the background to why Spain still owns the enclave of Ceuta in the Moroccan coast.