Day 3 - Fes .... The Tannery

First stop on our medina tour was the well known tannery. An enormous outdoor space contains the huge vats where they clean off the hides and then dye them. The skins are dried on the flat roofs surrounding the vats. We visited a shop on the edge of the tannery area with several floors of jackets, bags, shoes, ottomans, and most anything else you'd want to find out of leather. We weren't much tempted but our friend Fritz managed to find a leather jacket that was quite handsome, and negotiated down to a price that was a pretty good one. We can hardly wait to see him in it behind the wheel of his new, red BMW!

Here are pictures of the vats, and drying skins, and some dyed skins.

Fes Day 3 - Into the medina

The bulk of yesterday was spent exploring different parts of the medina, or old city. That's the part of Fes that has 15,000 tiny, twisting streets and many ways to get lost. You don't go out exploring without someone who knows the territory. The "streets" are too narrow for cars, so donkeys and carts are used to move things around. Donkeys are known as medina taxis. Here are a few shots of medina streets, shops with interesting things and medina taxis.

 View of a medina street.

Headscarves

Some nice sweet treats

How about some camel for dinner tonight?

There's a donkey under there.

Medina taxi

Fes Day 3 - The Royal Palace

The King has a royal palace in each of the major cities in Morocco. The one in Fes is the oldest. Yesterday we visited the main entry to the palace, which has seven beautiful doors that were restored in 1968. The best artisans in the country volunteered to come together to produce the gates. Here are pictures of the center three gates, one of the outside gates, and a couple closeups of the tile work (with Phil's hand for scale in one). It's beautiful work, especially impressive now that we have seen how it is produced by hand.

Outside of Fes -Day 2. In a Mountain Village

Our American guide, Susan Schafer Davis, is an anthropologist who has worked with a couple of small villages to help the women find ways to market their rugs, to tour groups she brings and also on an Internet site she maintains. Yesterday we visited one of those villages in the Middle Atlas Mountains. We drove near the village, and then walked along a narrow path down to the mud house that is the home of a three generation family, who farm the land and two generations of the women weave the rugs. This family also gathered rugs made by other women in the village to show to us.

We were served a wonderful meal in this simple home, which had a versatile guest room with a built in bench around the side, topped with comfortable cushions. This is a typical guest room in a Moroccan house, and serves as seating for a group, and also beds for several people. After lunch we looked at the rugs they had gathered. Several rugs were purchased (none by me).

Their home is on a hill up above the village proper. After our visit, we walked on down to the village, which looked like a construction site. The overall surroundings are quite beautiful, and the weather up high in the mid Atlas Mountains is much cooler than in the big cities, so people take vacations here and some even are buying "vacation homes." In winter they get snow, and there is even a ski lift nearby.

I am sharing a picture of the path we walked down to get to the house (we had to get off the path to let the donkey go by). Notice the satellite dishes on top of the houses. You can see the village in the background. I also share a picture of us all in the guest room, one shot of one of our younger members trying on a long shawl that she ended up buying (notice the other rugs on the floor and around her) and finally a shot of the village. I will try to include a shot of the surrounding hills if I can get the system to load five pictures.

Fes Day 2 - Hand Made Tiles

Today was our first big crafts day. We began the day with a tour of a tile factory, where all the tiles a mad and painted by hand. They make things as varied as roof and floor tiles, plates, cups and bowls, and intricate large fountains and installations mad up of very small, handout pieces.  

These people are very proud of their handmade pottery, using no lead and assuring it was dishwasher safe. My pictures show a finely crafted fountain, part of the workshop area where the men shape and bevel the individual pieces of tile to put them into larger compositions, a woman hand painting a design onto a plate, and the color palate she was using.

The Queens Bedroom

When we opened the door to our room, we were astonished to find ourselves in a room that looked like a Moroccan version of the queens room at the Pena palace. A lovely four poster bed, with a huge couch, a separate low table with four chairs, an ornately painted and carved cupboard and a coffee table with carved wood decorations. There is also a stained glass door, which is the entrance to the room. The only discordant note is the television in the corner.

Here are some views of the bedroom, along with a picture of the table.

Fes Day 1 - Wow! Our Amazing Hotel - the Riad El Yakout

Today we traveled from our gathering point in Casablanca to the city of Fes (also spelled Fez), where we will stay for the net five nights. The biggest surprise was the amazingly built and furnished Riad where we are staying. Riads are buildings that once served as homes for the extended family of rich people. They are mostly located in the medina, which is the old part of the city, on narrow streets where you can't get by car. so families gradually abandoned them and many were rented out or falling into disrepair when a few enterprising people decided they could convert them into boutique hotels.

We a surrounded by beautiful tile and lattice work on the walls and floors, lovely traditional embroidered fabrics on furniture, carved and inlaid tables and chairs. We will likely never actually stay in another place like this!

My first set of pictures tries to capture some of the beauty and ambience of the public spaces, a center courtyard of two stories, the first story VERY tall, surrounded by columns with tile work around the base and a glassed over roof that can be opened to the sky, and a fountain in the middle. There is an adjacent courtyard with a small pool in it. On the main courtyard I show one of the doors with beautiful carved doors and ivory lattice work above. And finally, a picture of a beautiful set of inlaid ivory table and chairs.