Andre and Wendy: Fes

Today is a much better day travel wise as we are spending the day in Fes and back to the same hotel as last night for the night. One thing about these tours, they want you to see as much as possible, but you really don't have time to see much.

A very sad breakfast, but we definitely aren't starving. No hot water in the shower, so will deal with that tonight.

Start off the day with a short drive to the kings palace to see the amazing bronze doors, so impressive. A short walk from here to the Jewish quarters. Wow we were here 10 years ago and it looks nothing like it did back then, it has all been redone during covid to what it looked like years ago. Personally we liked the old way, kinda falling apart and showing its age. The latest Indiana Jones moive had scenes from here.

Another short bus ride to a nice lookout of the Medina, very impressive, the largest Medina in the world and you get a really good view of it from here. No cars can enter, streets are so narrow, and very busy with people out and about.

We then visited a ceramic factory, so much manual work. They use grey clay here, Fes is famous for its pottery and grey clay, the only place left in the world that uses it. The clay comes from volcanic soil. and is super had when finished. We now have 4 nice water/drinking glasses to add to our cupboard somewhere.

Next off is a walk through the old Medina, which dates back to the 800's. This is such a crazy labyrinth with artisans, food, ceramic, metal, really all kinds of vendors you can imagine. Lots of locals out and about, not only for tourists. It is so tiny locals must get so frustrated when a group of tourists try to pass through.

We had a visit with the textile artisans. They make silk from agave plants here, we had never heard of that before. We prefer tequila from agave plants.

A great lunch next. Salads served family style, our favourite was the cauliflower, we need to find a recipe for this. We split a main of Pastille Chicken, which is a little like a chicken pie with cinnamon and icing sugar on top, a dish from Fes that we really liked.

After lunch we moved to the tannery. Entering you are given a piece of mint to hold up to your nose if the smells bother you. We saw some hides being processed in huge vats to remove the hair and then they are dyed using natural colors. No purchases made here by us.

Our final stop of the day was at a mall that has a liquor store and grocery store. Picked up a bottle of Moroccan wine for $5, and some groceries for a picnic lunch tomorrow. Couldn't resist the ice cream on the way out, pistachio and chocolate, yummy. We have had fantastic weather so far, this morning was a cool 7 degrees to start, but up to 24 degrees this afternoon. Perfect for touring.

Tomorrow we are back on a long road trip, more than a 7 hour drive we think to get to the desert where we will be spending the night.

On the Bus again

Traffic circle

The wall surrounding the Royal Palace. The palace is humongous. About 500 by 500 meter with lots of it being gardens

The petit taxis are red here

Our guide for the city was excellent.

Here are the 7 doors to the palace. The works on them were incredible. From the mosaics, the brass doors the the carved cedar woods, they were full of details.

We are now in the Jewish quarter but very few Jews are left here, they have all moved to Israel we were told

This street is in the Indiana Jones latest movie. It has all been restored lately

What it looked like before restauration 10 years ago

No cars allowed in the Medina

At the Fes medina lookout

Cemetery

Back on the bus and we go visit a ceramic coop.

From a block of clay he makes all the pieces for a tagine

The dye they use are all natural

Making the pieces for mosaic. They start with small square where they draw the shapes and then uses hammers to rough cut the shapes out. Then each small pieces is fine tuned by another person.