There cannot possibly be another place like Fes.

Today was an amazing day. We spent the whole day in and around the medina in Fes. The sights, sounds, smells, and tastes were a surreal experience. We had a local guide for the day who was a hoot. He had a sense of humour and he imparted a vast amount of knowledge and given that there are 9000 alleyways in the medina, and he navigated us through 15% of it, and didn’t lose anyone I’d say it was a successful day.

We started with a walk through the Jewish neighbourhood, the largest and oldest in Morocco, which dated back to the 14th century. When they were expelled form Spain in the 1400s, many of them moved to Morocco and Fes had the largest Jewish neighbourhood in all of Africa. The guide pointed out the Moorish architecture in this neighbourhood as being different to what we would see later in the medina. Shops weren’t quite open yet as they open late and stay open late at night to take advantage of the cooler temperatures. In 1948 when the Israel was established, the majority of them abandoned their homes in Fes and moved to Israel.

Our next stop was a photo op at the gates of the King’s palace in Fes. He wasn’t in residence at the moment as he was on holiday, but since his beautiful wife is from Fes, he apparently does spent quite a lot of time here. I hope at some point to have time to talk about the things we’ve learned about the current King.

We then boarded our bus to head up to a fort or Kasbah up on a hill to get an overview of the whole medina area. It was amazing to see the buildings winding through the valley.

We then went to a co-op organized by the government in order to preserve the traditional methods of making amazing mosaics and ceramics. The patience of the artisans is incredible, especially the ones making multi-shaped mosaic pieces and the ones putting the patterns together. Some of them have thousands of pieces and they have to be placed upside down in the correct pattern and the correct colour by memory. I made a couple of small purchases, but could have spent Gillian’s inheritance if I’d had more time.

The bus then took us to another entrance to the medina and we walked through more of the narrow, winding alleys, sometimes short ceilings looking at all the things for sale. This is a tourist destination for sure, but a lot of the areas we walked through were where the locals were buying their meat, vegetables, fruit, clothing, shoes, getting sewing done, etc. Basically a mall of shops, each only 8×8 feet and in a labyrinth of alleyways.

We passed by one of the oldest universities in the world, started by the Fatima, wife of one of the Kings. I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten which one, and no time to take notes walking through the medina. Between watching your step, and your head, (yes, even those vertically challenged ones), and looking around, it was quite the sensory overload. Next past the area where they hammered and sold copper, and then on to the tannery area. What an interesting experience. They scrape the hides, preserve them, dye them, and finally make them into amazing leather products. I’ve never seen so many leather jackets in one place. I had read how stinky it was, and when they handed us mint to put under our noses if the smell bothered us I have to admit to being a little worried. But it wasn’t that bad. Sure wouldn’t want to work there though. They get paid by the piece and so work fast and long hours and it was really hot today.

We had lunch at a restaurant in the medina, which was standard “salad” and I tried the Fes specialty, Pastilla today. It was really good. Chicken in a pastry with almonds, cinnamon and sugar.

Then we headed to see a demonstration of weaving. A very different loom (not sure they call it that), than I have seen elsewhere. They use the standard wool, cotton and a vegetable one, made from the agave plant. They cut pieces of the plant are stripped and in the centre is a strong fibre that they call plant silk. I knew when they opened a beautiful blue one that it was coming home with me. It’s the blue color of Fes, so it was meant to be.

Then we moved on to a calligraphy class. It was really interesting and surprisingly calming. We learned about the tools and how to make the proper spaces, etc. And then the calligraphy master did each of our names in Arabic symbols. The top part is my name, the middle part is his signature and the bottom is the year.

Sorry I wasn’t more poetic, but it’s 11:38 and I still have to add the pics to the post and go back to my room and pack as we leave at 8 am. So that’s all for tonight. I’ll fill you in on the riotous evening we had which included food, a belly dancer and a wedding involving several people from our group.