Fes is the 3rd largest city in Morocco and has a rich history. This is one place in the world you can visit and it is like you are taken straight back in time especially in the old part of the city in the Madina. The city also does not seem that large especially when mainly visiting the historic part of the city. The madina is a vast labrenth of small walking lanes between large interconnecting stone buildings. There are said to be over 9,000 streets in the madina.
I had a very rough start with my experience in Fes but after I got over that in the following days Fes really grew on me.
I was on vacation with my father, my sister and her husband. We got into Fes in the evening and you can see the view from the roof or our Riad. A Riad is a tratditional Moroccan house that has a inner courtyard and a few stories of floors around it it. This one was a palace for a king in the 1500s and has since been converted to a hotel.
This is the view up through the court yard to the retractable glass roof.
The room I shared with my father.
The room my sister and husband stayed in.
Another view of the dusk from the rooftop.
A view down into the lobby from the rooftop.
After getting settled into our Riad we were hungry. We found a pizza place with some good reviews. Up until this time we were eating exclusively Moroccan food so we had a feeling for something different. We got the place on google maps and started walking to find it. We started along the main road from the front of our Riad and took it for a ways until it ended at one of the gates for the Madina. We decided to continue to try to get there even though it was quite dark. This took us through some of the market stalls in the madina. At this point we started to get some guys latched onto us trying to show us where to go and what to buy. This distracted us and as this happened the GPS signal dropped and was nowhere to be found.
We tried a few directions but the alley ways started to get very dark and all the market stalls were closing and there was a lot of construction going on too. We found that we were lost and did not want to deal with the guys that were trying to attach themselves to us. We then tried to backtrack the way we came and found that we were very hopelessly lost. I was calm and thought we could continue walking and find a way or that we needed to trust someone to get us through. My sister on the other hand was starting to get very uncomfortable and did not want to trust anyone.
We were wondering for a while and we were getting quite fractured as a group. My sister was pissed at me because I wanted to forge through and also I was willing to trust to bystanders to help us out. My sister did not feel the same and felt we were being lured into some sort of trap. The energy was horrible and our team work was absolutely out the window at that point. We eventually found a restaurant to ask for help and some directions. We followed the directions and ended up on a busier path again that led us out of the madina, while on this path I saw the sign for the restaurant we wanted but everything was in shambles between my sister and I at that point. She wanted to see the exit from the Madina before it got any later even though we were all hungry. We found the exit and then I suggested we go back to the pizza restaurant. We went and it was off the main path my sister refused to go again so we had to settle for another typical Moroccan dinner on the edge of the Madina.
We had actually crossed right through it and had to take a taxi back around it to get back to our Riad that night.
The next night we decided to stay in the hotel to have dinner.
My first Moroccan beer, beer and wine are not that easy to find in Morocco.
We ended up with quite the spread and had a lovely meal that night.
The first day we got to really explore the Riad gave us a guide for a half day tour. Our first stop was one of the palaces for the King of Morocco.
In front of the palace was a large avenue going off into the distance.
This is the main gate of the palace.
After the palace we went to a near by hill top which is adjacent to an old fortress. This was an area where the people have a festival each year. It is right above a cemetery and awards some views of the vast medina below. It was now easy to tell how we got lost in the over 9000 pathways there.
The next stop was a craft center where students learn some of the crafts and artwork popular in the area. The first artisan was making pottery particularly the Targine which much of the local food is cooked and served in.
Mosaics are also a mainstay of local art throughout history. The Moroccans are known even in Europe for high quality long lasting mosaics. You can see how the potter shards, and glazed tiles are turned into little pieces they are then arranged into the patters face down before being plastered on the back before the whole piece can even be seen. It is intricate work and highly skilled.
This lady is hand painting glaze onto a piece of pottery before it is fired to bring out brilliant permanent colors.
In the show room all these types of artwork and pieces are for sale.
From there we went to another hill top and started our walk into the Madina again. This time we had a guide at least. Near the entrance there were a lot of hides being dried in the sun after tanning. Most of the big European fashion houses come here to source their quality leather, which processes have not changed for hundreds of years. This is where we really started to step back in time as we enter the small foot paths away from cars.
In the small paths of the Madina there is only room for pedestrians, donkeys and the occasional motor bike you have to jump out of the way of. The donkeys are the cars and beast of burden of the madina. Many spend their whole lives in these walls. They even have stables in the madina.
All of the above are pictures of a Madrassa which is hundreds of years old. These are islamic schools where students devote themselves to learning the Koran in and out and live on the site. It is also tucked away deep in the Madina. It can be very quite and peacefull within the school where out in the ally ways there can be thriving activity. It is just another door along the corridors though to enter this space.
I poked my camera out a window to get a shot of some of the roof tops and the density of the buildings. The sun really does not shine on most of the streets and it is clear how we lost the GPS signal while trying to navigate the area the prior night.
The next stop on the tour looked like just another door along the ally way but when inside we entered a beautiful space lined with rugs form stories tall. This is a commune for widowed women and they make these beautiful rugs that are for sale.
The last stop in the medina for us that day is the world famous leather tannery. Once again it seemed like we were just entering a door to a leather shop. We were given some mint to crush and smell and rub on our upper lip because the smell was over powering. It was quite putrid but the mint did help. We climbed a few flights of wooden stairs before reaching a balcony overlooking the sight above. Little has changed in the leather making process in hundreds of years. First they shave off as much hair as possible then they dunk them in pools of lye then other colors depending on the end result desired. All around were leather shops selling all kinds of goods in leather.
The next day were were due to catch a train in the afternoon. I had not had much of a chance to try some of the street food and what might be considered fast food yet and I was feeling a little braver than the rest. I stepped out on my own and went and got the above meal. It was great. I also felt a little more free walking alone without my blond sister and Indian husband. I have darker hair and had a full beard at the time so many guides already had been calling me Ali Baaba and I did not stick out so much. I was able to walk down the street without anyone bothering me. After stuffing myself I went back and joined the others.
Wooo Wooo all aboard the Marrakesh Express. This was an old song I remember listening to when I was a kid and a big part of our trip was planned around this. We boarded and took a train from Fes to Marrakesh it was about an 8 hour trip. You can see my sister and her husband posing for a photo before we took off here.