While on the southernmost tip of Spain, why not head to Africa for a day? There are several companies that offer ferries and tours to Morocco from Tarifa (and other locations), but we went with <a/href="http://www.frs.es/ ">FRS since our book recommended it, which offered just a ferry ride, or a ferry ride and a half-day excursion. We couldn't figure out why the ferry plus excursion was around the same price (and included lunch) as the ferry ride alone, but we soon found out...it was indeed, a kickback tour of Tangiers. Our first stop to ride camels was benign enough (1 Euro to ride a camel plus a tip, although those poor camels), but we pretty much stopped to see all of the tour guide's buddies along the way, each of whom was selling something. Without the tour, we would not have made it very far out of the port, and we got to see the old town complete with the 5 traditional elements of Islamic life to be found in a community: a bakery for fresh bread from a wood-burning stove, a bath house with three temperature baths (cold, lukewarm, hot), a place to pray or Mosque, somewhere to sleep, and a fountain which provides water to the community. We also had a delicious multi-course lunch including the national dish: chicken and couscous and the national drink: mint tea. While we had to outrun some vendors along the way, a walk in the old town gave us a view of modern life including kids buying bread for their families at small shops and people selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables in the street, like cactus (which we tried and was pretty tasty) and huge bunches of fresh mint for tea.

As with much Islamic architecture, looks can be deceiving. A very plain looking whitewashed building can easily open up to the most ornately decorated inside. This was great to see before our visits to the Alcazar in Sevilla and the Alhambra in Granada.