*having trouble with putting photos on the blog...sorry*
After a breakfast of fruit, fresh orange juice, yoghurt, breads and jams with mint tea, we started our guided tour of Fes.
The tour began with visits to the Royal Palace, there is one in each of the 4 imperial cities (Fes, Meknes, Rabat & Casablanca ), then the South Fort.
A visit to a pottery factory, where Kristin purchased some goods followed by a walking tour of the old Medina.
The old Medina has been there since 808 AD. It is best described as a labyrinth inside a maze. The Medina is home to the oldest university in the world. Fez reached its height in the 13th–14th centuries under the Marinids(Moroccan Jews), when it replaced Marrakesh as the capital of the kingdom. The urban fabric and the principal monuments in the medina – madrasas, fondouks, palaces, residences, mosques and fountains - date from this period. Although the political capital of Morocco was transferred to Rabat in 1912, Fez has retained its status as the country's cultural and spiritual centre.
We spent over 4 hours winding through the narrow streets, avoiding donkeys and mules, visiting the mosques, the various trades, the famous tanning (of hides) pits and much more.
We had lunch at a typical "tourist" haunt that guides take you to, but lunch was very good and made a lot more pleasureable by sitting with a lovely NZ couple, Kerry and Bruce (who were getting close to the end of a 4 week holiday). At Andy had the kefta tajine and Kristin the lemon and olive chicken.
After lunch we started our trip towards the Sahara desert. We first went through Ifrane, a lovely university town an hour drive from Fes. The buildings in Ifrane, could easily look like Swiss ski resort. Ifrane is at the foothills of a ski area (hard to comprehend considering the 40+C temperatures we have had in the last few days)!
A bit out of Ifrane there is a cedar tree forest that is home to monkeys. We stopped on the side of the road and fed them cherries that we bought just out of Ifrane, about $2/KG!
Our journey continued to a desert town called Midet. Where we are staying the night. Tomorrow we continue to tbe Sahara to a place called Mergouza, where we do the camel ride, sleep in a Berber tent , watch the sunrise and do some 4 x 4 desert driving.
Cheers,
A & K.
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