Sun 7th Dec
Early afternoon sees us dock in Barcelona. By 4 pm the ferry is on the second leg of its journey. There is time to phone home to hear that all is well. Bill has deteriorated no further, is comfortable and being well cared for by the staff of his nursing home. His condition is, for now, stable.
Some passengers disembarked in Spain and others boarded. We pass the time on this long voyage people watching and playing our Pakistani card games, that and trying to decipher the tannoy announcements. These aren't always in English and when they are there is so much noise because everyone else has stopped listening, that they are impossible to understand. Follow the crowd seems the answer? Maybe?? Every cabin is taken, so although ours is an inner cabin, we are glad of it. Lacking daylight also helps to pass the time, as we have no idea what the time is!!
Mon 8th Dec
As we sit having coffee in one of the lounges, we see both dolphins and minky whales playing in the wake our ship leaves behind her. This makes the long ferry crossing worth all these hours aboard.
Land Ho, at last! Spot on its ETA of 6pm European time, we dock in Tangier. It came as no surprise that the off loading of the ship was under the direction of the passengers! Not a crew member in sight. Somehow everyone got off, though not all in one piece. There were those who had broken down on loading, those who broke down off loading; some were towed off others pushed. Then we watched as already seriously overloaded vehicles were loaded even further. Somehow extra foot passengers were to be squeezed in. One had a suitcase. To get him and his case in the car meant unloading the roof and the passenger seat. The new passenger then went in search of various wooden wedges to ram under the roof rack, as extra support (no thought for the paintwork.) The whole load which included a fridge freezer as well as his suitcase and the mirriade of other items, were then stacked high upon the car, making this poor Audi well over twice its usual height. This car may not be such a sought after Audi on the secondhand market?
We had plenty of time to watch all that was going on - we were parked up, unable to formally enter the country! In amongst the unintelligible announcements on board was apparently one informing all passengers that they must get their passports stamped by an immigration officer before leaving the ship! Oh dear.
Innocently, we disembarked, glad to see that Fay had survived her voyage; we said Bon jour to the young, tall and handsome policeman on the dockside and handed him our passports as instructed. Baffled he flipped through them both and then again before asking "where is your entry stamp?" This was the beginning of my reality check. Once he had explained that we couldn't go any further without it and that he would have to call an immigration officer back, who by now would be on his way home, it was time for some quick thinking. Womanly wiles were what was called for here but as I said, time for a reality check. Now in years gone by I may have charmed him with a beguiling smile and if called for, flirted a bit; instead I confirmed his suspicions that we weren't a threat to national security, just a middle aged, slightly eccentric English couple by offering to make him a cup of tea! It worked, he parked us up and called for his mate in immigration. So maybe, just maybe I'm not 25 anymore??
The immigration officer was much more of a cold fish when he arrived. "Why hadn't we heard the announcement? He had been on board the whole trip! Had we been asleep for the entire voyage?" 25? I felt like 15, being told off for not doing my homework on time.
Richard was taken off to the police station after being told to "leave your wife in the car." I watched closely to see where they were taking him, just in case?? Eventually he returned with both our passports, fully stamped. Apparently we are the first people ever to have got as far as we did with no stamp!
All this curfuffle made us late getting to customs. It did not matter, the overloaded, reloaded car was still behind us! Finally, the paperwork was done and we were in but by now it was gone midnight, so like many others we spent the remainder of the night in the dock carpark.
Sent from my iPad
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