Off on the Road to Morocco

Morocco was fantastic!!!  At one point, we were standing in the Medina (the old downtown, dating from the middle ages) saying to ourselves, "How could we have ever considered skipping this trip?!"  Why would we have done so?  Well, for one, it was right in the middle of the month between London and our final return to the USA.  Oh, second, we really couldn't afford it.  BUT our logic was that we can't afford any of this anyway, so why stop now?!!  Particularly since Zoë has a big birthday coming up, and she deserved a trip to a place she had always wanted to see . . . So we were off on the road to Morocco, just like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope once were, except that we flew RyanAir instead of riding a camel.  And we weren't singing that dumb song.  Well, I was singing it, but Zoë and Santiago weren't.  They did not approve.

In any case, our destination was the amazing city of Fes, Morocco's traditional capital, and home to the largest and best preserved medieval medina (the aforementioned downtown area) in the Arabic-speakign world.   This was our first trip to an Arabic-speaking country, a Muslim country, and to the continent of Africa.  We stayed at a wonderful place the Riad Cles de Fes.  A "Riad" is an old-style house, large, and constructed around a central courtyard.  Several of Fes's riads have been transformed into bed-and-breakfast places, and ours was one of them.  Built originally in 985 ACE and remodeled in the past six years or so, it was our very own Alhambra, with amazing tile and stucco work, not to mention a friendly staff and delicious food.

Our first full day was spent on a tour of the Medina.  We are not usually ones for guided tours, but in Fes it's essential.  The medina is a warren of little streets and alleys, and you really need a guide to get around it without getting lost, at least until you get your bearings.  Our guide, Aziz, took us around the perimeter of the medina first, to see the old fortifications, the walls, the king's palace, the Jewish quarter, and then he marched us into the medina itself.  There are a few monumental structures inside, including a very large and historic mosque and two medresas, or religious schools, dating from the middle ages.  As non-muslims, we couldn't enter the mosque, but we could peek in from the door.  Going into the medresas was no problem.  All were feasts of tile work and stucco.

As magnificent as these places were, however, they competed for our interest with the medina itself.  The medina in Fes is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, not just for its many, many old buildings, but for the many traditional crafts that are still practiced there.  Both buildings and activities are protected by UNESCO.  As you make your way through its maze of streets, you go through different areas dedicated to different crafts.  Dying, tanning, weaving, brassworking, and others are all represented.  You go through different markets.  Produce.  Meat.  Leather goods.  Shoes.  Traditional clothing.  Western-style clothing.  Spices.  Etc.  All of this takes place on streets that would count as alleyways, or even hallways, in many other places.  Hardly any of them are marked, and there is very little discernible pattern to them.  Except for the occasional motorcycle, you see no motorized vehicles, only donkeys, many of them not particularly happy to be doing what they are doing, like carrying large propane cans.  People jostle you.  Merchants try to hustle you into their stores.  People shout in Arabic or French or a combination thereof. Kids push by with handcarts full of goods.  Stray cats wait patiently for the butcher to drop something.  What is it he's cutting anyway?  Oh, it's a cow's heart!

More to come in the next post.  More pics on Facebook.

A street scene in the Medina

Donkeys in the brassworking quarter