If you haven’t read my previous posts about my trip with Intrepid called “Morocco Uncovered” start with Day 1. But if you are caught up OR just here to read about Fes, let’s go!
Day 5: It’s fun to note that this day was January 1, New Year’s Day.
It was a more relaxing morning since we were staying in this hotel (Across Hotel and Spa, though I saw no spa) for two nights and didn’t need to check out. I went to breakfast and as usual, ran into Barb and Graehm. No fresh-squeezed orange juice at this breakfast, though the food options were fine and they had a coffee machine, which was fun.
We boarded the bus and headed to meet our tour guide. It was a very foggy morning!
We met up outside of the Royal Palace, which you can’t go inside, but has some great doors.
You can see up close the detailed tiles and the work that went into the doors. I’m sure no expense was spared!
We walked through the Jewish quarter which was nearby.
Next we bussed to the ceramics factory, where we learned how the ceramics are made. It was very interesting, and featured men sitting in what looked to us to be very uncomfortable positions doing work for our benefit. Is this really how they work or is it a show for us to pay more for the ceramics sold there? I suspect some of both, and after the tour I did purchase a small ceramic cat ornament and a little bowl to put trinkets in, so I fell for it, ha!
Next we went to the Medina. We were warned not to get lost from the group as it was very hard to navigate and the streets/alleys didn’t always show up in Google Maps. One annoyance I had with the tour guide is that he was very soft spoken so as we walked through the medina unless you were right behind him you couldn’t hear anything he had to say. He was super knowledgeable, but just soft spoken. We also felt very rushed through the medina, but I know that’s part of the deal with a group tour. If we stopped for everybody to look at everything they wanted to look at we’d still be there. Hmm…that wouldn’t be so bad!
The medina was amazing, and I just wanted to look at stuff, but instead we walked through very quickly. We visited a madrasa there (a school) as well as seeing a University. It was not just the stores (souks) but houses, mosques, fountains, restaurants and cafes, and everything a person would need. I imagine if you lived in the medina you rarely needed to leave.
Next we walked to the tanneries where they make leather. They smelled horrible, and we were told it was much worse in summer, so I’m glad I didn’t visit then.
We were taken to a place for lunch next, which was in a really cool house.
I had chicken couscous and the food was quite tasty.
We all got impatient with how long it took though, and wanted to leave the room and get back into our sightseeing. Moroccan meals are never fast, that’s the lesson here.
After lunch I managed to take a few minutes to buy a fez: the first place I failed to talk the guy down lower, and the second place I ended up paying the same as I would have at the first place, but felt more successful because I had haggled from 130 to 100. Ha! The last stop we made for shopping was a weaving factory and I ended up buying a beautiful camel scarf (which I have worn several times already here). I had fun haggling down to 300 from 350. (I wrote that down, but I feel like I paid slightly less, but maybe I’m dreaming, or thinking of a later scarf purchase. I suppose my notes I made the day after are more accurate than my memory today).
Our last stop on the tour was from the top of Fes to overlook the city. It was really neat to see where we had been.
We ended the tour then and went back to the hotel. After a quick refresh, a few of us walked to a nearby mall to shop: I went with Steph, Alicia and Sabine. We looked around at the mall and then the grocery store, which was absolutely slammed, it was like navigating a public high school (at least, mine) in between classes. We decided to make things easy and have dinner at the food court. The whole place felt like a modern medina, which I suppose it was. I panic ordered finally, and got a burrito called the bang bang, which was chicken with cheese, fries, and a sauce. Not super healthy, but a nice change from tagine.
We walked home then, and we saw a van absolutely stuffed with people, and either Steph or Alicia (now I just can’t remember, forgive me!) said “Oh, that must be the basic tour.” We just died laughing. (If you have researched Intrepid trips, this is a much funnier joke, or maybe you had to be there). And then we saw this van:
I decided, no THAT’s the basic tour van. Everybody inside and the luggage tied on top.
We discovered there was a bar at the hotel, quite hidden, around behind a corner, and Sabine and Steph and I decided to have a drink. The bar smelled like smoke, but we noticed there was a little garden terrace so we sat out there. We also invited the rest of the group and Barb and Graeme joined later. I had a beer from Fez and another from Casablanca, which I preferred.
It was pleasant but chilly on the terrace, and it was nice to chat and relax with a beer, one of the rare times we did that on this tour. And then that was it for the day, and I went up to bed.