Day 5 - October 14 - Fes

Today was another very long hot day. We had a full day tour of Fes which is considered the centre of Islam in Morocco. There is a lot of confusion on the spelling. Fes is the name of the city. Fez is the red hat with the black tassel.

Sunrise from our rooftop restaurant during breakfast.

We started with a panoramic view of the city from one of the hills surrounding the city . We passed through la Ville nouvelle which was built in the 14th century. The street is called avenue de France or les champs élysées de Fes.

We walked through the Mila that is the Jewish quarter. At one point 30,000 Jews lived in the Mila. They lived upstairs where they had beautifully carved balconies and had their shops on the main level.

We visited the bronze doors of the royal palace. We seem to be seeing a lot of royal palaces. The king seems to have a palace in every city.

This location was used for a scene of Indiana Jones.

Star design on palace door.

We stopped at a school where they make ceramics. It was interesting. One man was making tagine dishes. It took him about 2 minutes to make the plate and 2 more to make the cover that fit perfectly. We saw how they cure them in the ovens, decorate them, paint them and glaze them. It was interesting even though we had seen this in Triana Italy a couple of years ago.

From there we went to the medina. Wow, there were so many people everywhere. The medina is 360 hectares and has over 9,000 streets. It is the biggest medina in the world where you cannot drive. It was a bit scary. It was so full of people and the streets or alleyways are very narrow and intersect. We had 2 guides plus an assistant to help us stay together so that nobody got lost.

Nothing is wasted here.

Camel anyone?

Another location for the Indiana Jones movie.

While in the medina we also visited a tannery which was interesting if not a bit smelly. They gave us each a sprig of minte to camouflage the smell. They use pigeon poop to help bleach the hides. They use the poop for it's amonia. Every Friday the locals come to sell the pigeon poop that they have collected during the week.

We finished the tour of the medina with a visit in a weaving shop. Many of the woman bought scarfs.

A demo on how to dress up for the desert.

Where we had lunch.