Inspired observations gained from my travels, matched to a music track and made into a quirky blog from a recalcitrant Lancastrian.
recalcitrant
rɪˈkalsɪtr(ə)nt/
adjective
1.
having an obstinately uncooperative attitude towards authority or discipline.
noun
1.
a person with a recalcitrant attitude.
"a stiff-necked recalcitrant and troublemaker"
☯️
Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.
Franz Kafka.
Next trip coming soon….
I wish Emirates flew to here…maybe then I wouldn’t have felt like I’d spent 2 hours in a bloody crèche with noisy brats, high on Haribo, squawking and banging the back of my chair all the damn way! It was a relief to see the Pyrenees below as we started the decent back into normality and away from irresponsible parenting!
Metro to the hotel was a blur then it was time for a cold beer by the local landmark, the Arc de Triumf…I love France!
You gotta love a quirky catchy song when your on yer hols and this from the lovely France Gall is no exception, so enjoy some French flair remastered from 1964.
“Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free…”, crooned the lyrics by ‘The Band’, but this was back in 1976 when hippies used a magic bus to get around and excess luggage wasn’t an issue. They didn’t have to use Ryanair to get to the seaside back then but no ‘loads for free’ around here nowadays!
If Fanny had showed up overloaded with excess clobber she would have met the waiting ‘Ayatollah de Baggarge’ at the check-in, whose job it is to ensure that the permitted 10kg allowance is not abused and then, God forbid, if the parameters have been exceeded, appropriate extortionate tariffs are imposed forthwith . No free-loaders here, in fact she will absolutely ensure your gelato fund will be severely dented before you have the slightest possibility of entering the Eurozone.
For us, we were way under the required limits so it’s off to the VIP lounge for a couple of relaxing G’n’T’s and a charcuterie platter before we head for the skies.
This classic track ‘The Weight’ by ‘The Band’ from back in 1968 which is a great song that featured as a backing track in the wonderful hippie road movie, ‘Easy Rider’, the following year.
Leaving the wind behind, the forecast is looking good for the Iberian Peninsula where it’s time to explore Catalonia’s Costa Brava and travel down the eastern coastline on a road trip from north to south. Expecting August to be hot and busy so it’s almost time to get outa here…one more sleep 🛌 💤
Just time to dig out my passport and peg out my holiday thong…
‘Holiday in Spain”, original single version from the album ‘Hard Candy’ in 2002, which is the best listen as most of the live versions are dire…sorry Adam!
It’s nearly time to check in wi’ th’iPad and sober up the copilot, so a warm welcome onboard and strap yourself in again for another adventurous blogfest…I’m just checking that the dashboard still works and that the literal controls are illuminating, then we will soon be climbing above the little fluffy clouds, expecting a smooth flight with favourable weather conditions, so thankyou for choosing to fly with the Narrowboatboy…😎
The more astute will have noticed that each daily blog title also matches the handpicked track from my repertoire of banging tunes, and this first one is no exception and the lead Indie‘banger’ for this trip, I give you “Shall we take a trip?” Made by the baggy outfit ‘Northside’ from the hazy dayz of 1991…enjoy.
It’s Super Saturday here in downtown Taghazout as the street vendors set up their tiny stalls on the walls of the winding little higgledy- piggldy streets by the beach.
The elders congregate as the tiny fishing boats come into shore to sell their catch, not sure how it works but after a natter, folk seem to walk away with a fish or two.
Meanwhile, the poulterer at ‘Surfin’ Bird’ KFC ensures that you get your choice of chuck fresh as, when you have chosen it, he takes it round the back and pulls its neck for you.
Need to hurry now as I’ve booked in to ‘Hassan’s Hammam & Beauty Parlour’ to get my eyebrows done and a quirky holiday souvenir at the ‘Kamel Tattoo’ parlour so the holiday is complete.
All that is needed now is to perfect the ‘Surfin’ Bird dance as featured in this video!
“It’s Friday, so it’s time to start taking it easy…Oh, and don’t forget your prayers today”…the Imam in the tower tried to inform us from the mosque before sunrise.
Strolling down the desolate empty beach I spotted a dead camel, washed up on the sand in the night, so went over to have a closer look. As I approached, a grubby looking Tuareg wearing a pair of Arab wellies and a twisted turban popped up from behind it out of the sand like a genie. With a barked command and a kick of the tired, defenceless beast, he got it to rise up painfully with a groaning fart, and started to beckon to me with a view to climbing aboard the lanky, stinking creature. Once again, he was picking on the wrong fella, as I knew my camels, and had watched him lure a string of vulnerable, pathetic and gullible inner city tourists to mount his steed to look like idiots for a ten minute plod and parade down the beach for some ridiculously inflated cost of their hard earned dobbers!
Not likely Sonny Jim! This degradation is not going to feature on MY Instergram … So with a departing “Salam Alaikum”, I toddled off towards ‘Mo’s Surf Shack & Berber-barber Emporium’, just off the high street, this time opting for a refreshing cut-throat morning shave rather than the full Brazilian Morrocan beach special I got sold the last time…
After ‘Pre Pre’ coffee and crepes the sun had started to warm up the day but the sea was quite far out and quiet again today.
Next stop, ‘Faisal’s Fine Meats as we have elected for a halal bbq on the terrace with a touch of Charles Aznavour crooning in French from the Bose.
It would be a shame not to have a taste of some Moroccan plonk with the food so while we were in Agadir yesterday a sample bottle of ‘Ait Souala Grande Reserve 2021’ fell into the basket to try. According to the label it’s produced from a wine estate, located between Casablanca and Rabat, so north of here still on the coast.
The country has historically used the Atlas mountain climate and the cooling Atlantic breeze to produce some decent wine and now it seems, since some investment, the wine is improving. The Muslim fellas round here are not too keen on supping it so most of it is produced for the Western palate so lm happy to be the Guinea pig.
To see if it stands up I’m going to pair it with some Al-Baraka premium dates, a ripe French Camembert and some ‘Agneau della Maroc avec Sel de table’ bought from the local halal butcher, cooked on the top terrace bbq.
The Islamists among us are not so keen to have a tipple but I would like to remind them that the Arabs, who are mainly Muslim, introduced distillation to us and also bequeathed us with the phrase ‘Al-Khol’. So, when the French colonials were kicked out, King Hassan of Morrocco saw sense and started a rebirth of the vineyards here. Having never been one to let religion stand in the way of progress, I will give it a go…
And the verdict…yes, Iv had better but Iv also had a lot worse, go for it and enjoy, and remember’ Life is too short to drink cheap wine so ask me tomorrow, I’m enjoying today!
Enjoy a bit of Belle & Sebastian here for todays tune.
The surf isn’t working today and it’s a little cooler so…
Following the scrub and massage in the hammam yesterday, the body is now in good shape so the plan is to take the morning Alsa bus back into the big city again. Missing the bus by seconds we piled into a shared taxi for a 20 dobber ride as the cost is split so with an exchange at 1:13 we arrived half an hour later in town for less than £2.
We headed straight for ‘Hassan’s bicycle Emporium’ to hire a couple of comfortable saddles for the day so we could have a mooch about at our leisure. He did us a ‘good price’, adjusted the seat heights and put a couple of PSI in the back tyre (cheeky bugger) and we were off, heading up first to have a look at the marina.
Agadir has a long seafront promenade and leisure marina, all rebuilt and modern following the earthquake that destroyed the city back in 1960. They are still re-building the city today and you get the feeling that one day it might get finished but it’s quite sad to see that a country with so much history doesn’t have anything historic left in Agadir worth noting.
It does have a fabulous long, clean beach though and a lovely wide promenade to cycle along.
When it was time to return to Taghazout, we opted for the bus(7.5 dobbers each) but for the second time today we ended up piling into a shared lift, this time a Caddy van. How it works is that the fare is split between the passengers so it makes the journey much cheaper than it would be if you went by taxi for 60 dobbers. Some get in, some get out and it stops when and where you want. This one arrived at our destination and in good old taxi driver style asked these tourists for 80 dobbers…WHAT???
Well, I can tell you, this was only going to end one way and he was told in no uncertain terms that we didn’t much care for scammers and it was disappointing behaviour. So with a shake of the head, we parted company with him, thrusting the going rate of 20 dobbers and no more into his greedy little mitts…he must have thought we had just arrived in town on a boogie board!!
Hey, great sky to finish the day…
Some classic Indie here from 1989 from a classic indie band I saw back in the day ‘ PWEI’ or to give their formal name ‘Pop will Eat Itself’…
