I first learned about Agadir while browsing a brochure rack in the American Youth Abroad travel agency in Dinkey Town next to the University of Minnesota Campus. As graduate students Suzi and I had just been chaperones leading a group of undergrads on a spring break to Palma de Mallorca and I had the travel bug. It was a brochure for Club Med Agadir. It said Agadir is where both the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara met the Atlantic. I envisioned the deepest beach possible. To the West nothing but ocean, to the East nothing but Sand, to the Northeast, mountains. Plus there was the side trip to the Club Med Marrakech that you could include in the package. I saw the brochure just as a certain song by Crosby, Stills and Nash topped the charts. (In the early 2000’s Suzi and actually got to ride the Marrakech Express “from Casablanca going south.”) We never ended up going to Agadir with American Youth Abroad. We also never again attempted to chaperone a group of undergrads on spring break. Fifty Six years later here we are, sans undergrads.
Agadir was leveled by an Earthquake in 1960 so there is little old about the town. Our port call in Agadir was short. We had to be back on the ship by 1:30. To save time we took a tour.
The first stop was the Kasbah, not the “Come with me to the….” of the movies, with haggling merchants, mystery and a hint of danger, but an old fort at the top of the very last Atlas Mountain before they disappeared into the Atlantic. Along the wall you can see where the earthquake took down the bastions and the line marking from where they were rebuilt. Several people took a 20 meter camel ride for the photo op. Other than Camels, cats rule the Kasbah.
We also wanted to see the Berber Market and the Medina, both are featured in separate photo galleries.
Of course we wanted to see the beach. It was not endless but it was pretty broad. We had a coke and some sweets.
Here are some other shots of Agadir from the bus and the ship at sail out.
