- Lisbon, Portugal here I come!
Farewell to my dear friend Morocco-Hello to my new friend Portugal! I had a great time in Morocco and made many friends there. I also spoke Arabic (and a lot of French) and although everyone understood me, it is very hard for a non-Moroccan (even other Arabs) to understand the Moroccan Arabic dialect. It is called Darija and it is almost completely different from Arabic, mixed with Berber and depending if you are up north (Tangiers) Spanish or further south (Marrakech) French.
But now is the time to move on since the gringo must explore and speak another lingo! Where to go? Someplace close. Wait, right across the Mediterranean lies the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). Which though? Hard choice….so I’ll do both!
I waited at the Menara Airport in Marrakech for my ride to come and it soon showed up
A nice, larger plane for the short leg of Marrakech to Madrid (90 minutes) and in no time we were there. And like many European airports in big cities (London, Amsterdam, Paris) Madrid’s airport is large and busy. Lucky I was a “connecting passenger” (which saved me some of the headaches of navegating the whole airport) but the ride on the air train from one terminal to another seemed as long as from 125th St. to 59th St on the A train in NYC!
Luckily also, there is a great Iberian Airlines Lounge in Terminal 4 (my terminal). I had two hours to kill and it was a great place to do it in.
The layout of the lounge was large, open and airy and its design was modern
The quality of the food and drink offering was very good for lunch and there was ample quantity.
Time to go-boarding!
Até logo! See you in Lisbon!