Nov 9, 2011 - Fab Fes

Another sunny day and another warm (enough) shower! Lots of blessings. Breakfast was eaten at an outdoor coffee shop in the sunshine. The laundromat was still closed so we need to wait a few more more days to do our laundry! Oh well, we still have clean socks and clean underwear! At 9 am we were in the bus on our way to the Medina. Our local tourguide for the day was Hakima. She told us that she has done this job for 12 years now and in the beginning it was difficult to get the jobs as a woman. Women's role in Moroccan society is changing...

Oct 5, 2011 - Fes, Morocco

October 5 We still had a free morning in Chefchaouen where we enjoyed a lovely outdoor cafe breakfast (surrounded by cats of course). We wandered around a bit more, visited the Kasbah and got ready to leave by noon. We were supposed to take a public bus to Fes, but decided to pay extra for an upgrade and take a private van for the 4-hour drive. The first hour was a very windy ride through mountainous roads with crazy drivers. It's a good thing none of us got car sick. We stopped for a nice, quick lunch and continued on where the roads...

Aug 31, 2011 - Fes

Today we are in Fes having a rest day so that is going to be relaxing in the pool and having a siesta. On Monday we travelled 5 hrs in the train to get to Meknes and then went for a tour of the old city with its 3 lots of city walls and then went to a french morcocan restaurant for dinner. Yesterday we travelled to Fes the old town is fascinating as thou u are transported back into the dark ages and so many people it was pretty full on. We visited a pottery place that made tiles; tagines etc and tannery which was all very back in the middle...

Jun 24, 2011 - Fazed in Fes

Pickpocket: I beg of you Monsieur, be on guard, watch yourself, this place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere. Everywhere. When I arrive at the station, have a mint tea pick-me-up and check my emails, then head to platorm 6 where the train, in the orange and cream of the Moroccan national railway, the ONCF, is waiting. Morocco has one of the few decent railway networks in Africa, in fact possibly THE only decent network, and the trains are in excellent condition, air-conditioned and split into compartments like the British trains of...

Jun 17, 2011 - Six Weeks in Fes: Days 1-3

Getting to Fes was quite difficult. After a seven hour plane trip from Chicago to London, and another three hour flight from London to Casablanca, I was supposed to meet up with three other students from AHA. Unfortunately, I was unable to make the One o'clock train we had planned to take, and had to go on the two o'clock train instead by myself. After somehow managing my way through the Casablanca airport, I made it on to the train, but not after having my bag seized by a porter, whom I ended up accidentally tipping twice as much as I was...

Apr 6, 2011 - Thermal Baths and Massages

A free day. Some of the tour elect to visit some Roman ruins. Four of us decide to visit the Thermal Baths. An hours drive from Fes – Great cropping land quite flat before steep hills appear halfway through the drive – all cropped and hardly a tree to be seen. Some erosion. Olive trees are used as a boundary to the large paddocks. We see our first centre pivot irrigator. The thermal baths not what we expected. We thought they would be natural springs in the ground however is a resort type set up. We opt for the cheapest option: Sauna,...

Apr 5, 2011 - A day in Fes

We catch the early train to Fes. Our younger members worse for wear. When the bar in our hotel closed last night one of the staff directed them to a nondescript door in the hotel foyer. Once unlocked and open they entered a nightclub holding some 200 plus people. No one had any idea it existed – a very Alice in wonderland experience was how they described it. The room full of men and hookers. Obviously no ‘good’ Muslim woman would be present at 1am in the morning. The price for a girl was 200 dh. (about AUD20). The price for a bottle of...

Jun 16, 2010 - Épilogue

Après une longue attente, il est finalement temps de monter en voiture. Après un faux départ (nous étions partis à trois, Mélanie, un monsieur et moi car les autres passagers ne se pointaient pas le bout du nez), il a fallu faire demi tour pour venir cherche le dernier couple de Montréal ayant manqué la correspondance qui ont fini par arriver à l’Hébergement. Une fois tout le monde à bord de la voiture de Royal Air Maroc (mini-fourgonnette) nos compagnons d’infortune nous souhaite gaiment : « Bienvenue au Maroc ! » Ce sont des canadiens...

Jun 1, 2010 - Morocco: Fes

Fes is the real deal. I really can't think of many places where such a fascinating place would exist as it does with or without tourists. The art is fantastic. Throw pottery on a foot powered wheel. Produce and carve mosaic tile from Fes' famous grey ash clay. Carve and paint the intricate mosaic designs on cedar wood doors and window frames. Produce 'silk' from cactus and weave intricate designs into bedcovers. We stayed in a 'maysaria'--an apartment in a 'dar' (Moroccan house) which would normally be passed to the eldest son when he...

May 19, 2010 - Long Drive from Fes to Marrakech

Drive through beautiful mountain resort town of Ifrane, where the Al Akhawayn University is located. See photo of Atlas lion sculpture. Fes, Imouzer, Ifrane, Khenifra, Beni Mellal and Marrakech. 450 km, but the road was very curvy, crossing the Middle Atlas Mountains. Excellent landscape along the way. Stop in Beni Mellal.

May 18, 2010 - Fes Medina (old city)

Fes - tour through medina Craftsmen - silver and brass-making; Berber carpets; pottery & mosaics; tannery; weavers Donkeys, mules through alleys (A "Coca Cola truck" was a mule with crates of bottles tied to both sides) Fortress - view of city [Niall: I must say, the old market of Fes was one of the hightlights for me, and one of those moments in life I will never forget. The alleys are so narrow, and there are so many stairs, that it is not possible for modern vehicular traffic to enter the market. Goods are still packed in via donkey and...

Feb 17, 2010 - Volubilis

According to the tour schedule, today was free day, so yesterday evening we met in the hotel lobby to discuss options. Five of us were interested in visiting Volubilis, which is an ancient Roman site dating back to the 2nd century. It would be a two hour drive each way and the only choice of transport was a taxi. So again we would be travelling Moroccan style. We left the hotel at 9.0am and I took the first stint in the front seat and actually had a seat belt. However, I felt bad as one young man, Hamish, was much too big to be squashed up,...