I saw the king!

The tannery
see all photos »

My first morning in Fes I decided to spend most of the day chilling out and wandering around the area near my hotel in the Ville Nouvelle. I noticed a lot red and green banners and flags – the national colors of Morocco. It seemed rather odd, but I figured it was for the Islamic new year, coming up a few days later. I eventually ended up at the Syndicate Initiative (local tourist office) -- at least, I tried to end up there. It was closed for remodeling. While I was standing around looking like the confused tourist I was, a guide came over from the café across the street. He had an official guide ID and explained that the place was closed. He also explained that reason for the banners and flags was that King Mohammed VI was in town, and the traffic was being redirected because his motorcade would be going by a couple blocks away in a few minutes.

The newly remodeled streets of the Nouvelle Ville
see all photos »

After arranging a Medina tour for the next day, I decided to follow the crowds up to the road blocks. There crowd lining the street was four or five people deep, many with little flags or placards. There was even a band playing those long trumpets I thought only existed in cartoons. I was only there a minute before a police car came down the empty street, shortly followed by some security cars, then a motorcade of Mercedes with government officials standing up, with the king in front! It was really quite cool. Of course, it was about ten minutes later that I realized I had my camera and that would have made a cool photo…

Inside the Aben Danan synagogue
see all photos »

I met my guide, Tardek, the next morning and we headed to the medina – Fes el Bali, the old Fes – it’s a World Heritage site that is over a thousand years old. To get there we drove through Fes Jdid – “new” Fes, which is only about 750 years old. The royal palace is in Jdid, and we got to see it all decked out, with the royal guard in attendance. The medina was amazing. The streets are so narrow that motorized vehicles can’t enter. The different trades are still clustered together – the butchers, some with camel heads hanging outside, are in one area, the carpenters in another (wonderful smelling) area, copper smiths, silversmiths, tanneries, and more.

Having a guide was really nice – in addition to not getting lost, I was pretty much left alone by shopkeepers while walking around. We saw the major sights and museums, which were all of course beautiful. We also went to the tanneries, a weaver’s shop and a couple carpet stores. I accidentally ended up buying a carpet in the Berber shop – it was an okay carpet, but not fantastic, so I figured sticking with an offer of a quarter of the original price would be safe – I’m not really that good at bargaining, and it’s always harder with a guide (who will be getting a commission) around, and I figured they’d give up. Fortunately for me, it really was less that I was willing to pay and I do like the rug. Hmmm…

The next day was my last in Morocco. I spent the morning visiting the Jewish cemetery and the restored Aben Danan synagogue in Fes-Jdid, and then picking up some last-minute gifts. The cemetery had a strange little museum about the Jewish families that used to live in Fes; at one time a fairly important group in the city. After Israel was established, almost all the families left, leaving the cemetery and synagogues behind. The cemetery has been kept up fairly well, and the Aben Danan synagogue was recently restored by UNESCO and was really cool to visit. They even have a small mikvah, which was an interesting contrast to the hammams often attached to mosques.

Later I did last-minute shopping. I got delicious olives that the Marche Municipal, and finally got a tajine. Yay! Except that being me, I didn’t have enough time to ship it home, so had to haul it around for the rest of the trip home. I got everything packed, then tried to get a cab to the train station. It was fairly close, but with all my (now very heavy) luggage, I didn’t want to walk it. Once I finally got a taxi that would got that far, we drove about 5 blocks before we had to stop – more road blocks for the king. Fortunately the station was only a few more blocks, so I walked. Then I realized that this wasn’t just for the king’s motorcade – the station itself was going to be visited by the king! Which would have been cool, except that I had a very heavy suitcase and a train to catch. Eventually I found out where to wait until the king came and went, then was able to get the train, delayed an hour or so.

The ride to Casablanca was nice – no cold this time! At the airport there were these neat stands that would basically Saran-wrap your bags, and they wrapped my tajine up so that it was fairly easy to carry on the plane, though it was very strange looking, and I got a lot of curious questions once I left Morocco. The trip home was fairly uneventful, and anyways I was so tired I didn’t pay much attention anyways.