An Amazing Day in Fes

 Cranes nesting on the city walls.

 An overlook of the medina.

 The master potter.

 An example of Zellige tile.

 A new spin on a 'head' shop.

 A fish souk.

The tannery.

Dyeing the hides with his feet.

 Two doors in one.

 Me at the door to one of the old Medersa schools. 

 A copper worker.

Mule train of hides.

Saturday, September 16^th.

Today was amazing from start to finish. We had the provided breakfast and then set out in the van with Samir to the medina. It is one of the largest car free areas of the world. The streets are much too narrow and like a labyrinth for cars to get through. The method of transport is either donkey or small carts. We were traveling with a new local guide as well. He gave us a lot of history of the city and the King's palace where we stopped first. There have been four royal cities in Morocco over the centuries: Fes, Marrakesh, Meknes and Rabat. Fes has been the capital city three times, most notably during the 14^th century. Most of the Fes we saw today dates from that time period: the city wall, the King's palace, the Medina, and many of the main souks and buildings.

At the King's palace our guide told us that 1 200 00 people live in Fes of which 250 000 live in the medina. The medina is surrounded by 10 miles of walls and has twelve entrance gates. There are 9400 alleys and no cars are allowed in. This is one of the largest car free zones in the world. Only donkeys and small carts are allowed for moving stock or material. He showed us the tile work and the copper work on the entry doors. The tiles are done in six colours and represent different things: blue for Fes, red for Marrakesh, white for Rabat, green for Meknes, yellow for the Berber tribe and black for Africa.

After that he took us through the Jewish area, which is right next to the palace. The Jews came here after they were persecuted and expelled by Queen Isabella during the Spanish Inquisition. Morocco welcomed them and they thrived here. They are Safardic Jews from the Andelucia region of Spain.

Next we went to the government run Fes Moroccan Pottery and Zellige Tiles facility. It is a manufacturing cooperative and training school. This is where they make all the mosaics tiles. They even make the tiles that are needed for the reconstruction of old houses, palaces, restaurants and the like world wide, including the Alhambra and the Alcazar of Seville. We saw the artisans and watched the painstaking step by step process of the making of tile patterns for doors, fountains, tables, lamps, plates, etc. It was incredible, the workmanship is unbelievable and the old fashioned methods are still used today.

Then we began our journey through the very narrow labyrinth that is the medina. We walked past various souks: fruit, dates, meat, spices, fish, metal works, etc., until we came to the tannery. We climbed two floors in the leather souk to get a bird's eye view of the dyeing vats. The sight was incredible (and the smell pretty vile). The animal skins are soaked in lime and pidgeon poop to remove the flesh and soften the hide. Then they are soaked in vats of coloured dye by men working in their bare feet. They are paid by the number of hides and the trade is inherited from the father. I was transfixed watching the process. It is horrible work. As with the tile market, there was a shop here where you could buy any leather goods, in any colour you wanted. There were coats, purses, bags, shoes, etc.

Further on our guide showed us one of the old cedar doorways into a house. He explained that the door had two knocker with different placement and sound. The bottom one was for people entering on foot and the top on for men entering on horse or donkey. There was also a symbol to ward off the 'evil eye'.

He also showed us an old higher education boarding school that would have housed about sixty students. At this point we stopped at another old, lavishly decorated, restaurant, former home for lunch.

The first course was a number of plates of cooked salads, followed by a main and a dessert of fresh seasonal fruit.

As we continued we stopped at a copper workshop where the son of the master who had made the doors to the king's palace showed us how it was done. Again the craftsmanship is amazing and the objects for sale are beautiful.

The last market we visited was the material market. Here we were shown the process of extracting the threads or 'silk' from the agave cactus plants and how they weave it into patterns and then dye it. Again there was a shop with scarves, dresses, and djellabas (the robes for men and women) for sale.

Intrepid carefully selects shops with quality merchandise for their clients to shop at, thereby removing some of the high pressure selling that can be a part of shopping in the souks of Morocco. A number of the group purchased items from the shops we were in.

The tour ended at this point and we exited them medina and returned to the hotel quite tired. But, the Aussies wanted to go out for a drink, so after some Googling the whole group decided to go to a roof top bar back near the medina. We flagged down four petit taxis (because they are only allowed to carry three people). We needed Wim to translate for us as he is the only one that speaks French (which is the second language here because the French colonized Morocco from 1912-1956).

The Mezzaine Pub although nice because it was outside, turned out to be much more expensive than where we went last night. We stayed for a couple of drinks and then hailed another small fleet of taxis for the return trip. When we arrived back at the hotel, the group decided to return to last night's pub. This time it was crazier. There was live music, with a man on a keyboard and a man singing arabic songs in a wailing type voice. The place was full of people drinking, smoking cigarettes and shes-ha, and playing pool. It was fascinating to watch what was going on. There was couple sitting close to us who had to be late forties. She was dressed in a djellabas smoking cigarettes and drinking beer and they were cuddling and singing. I'm pretty sure it wasn't his wife. It went totally against our expectations. At nine a few of us decided to pack it in and tried to pay. What this country needs is a cash register or a calculator. Every where we have been they write on paper and add it up and then have someone check it for them. Our waiter added it all up and told us if was 855 dirham for the table. It caused some confusion when we wanted to pay separately. Anyway, we got it done and I headed home for the night.