Courteous Americans

July 3, 2012
Courteous? This is not a word one hears often describing Americans. Yet this is what a desk clerk said here in Assilah, when comparing her American guests to the numerous Spanish and French visitors.

I am wondering whether our inability to communicate and total unfamiliarity with Moroccan customs have anything to do with our reticence to exert ourselves?

Chefchaouen

June 30-July 1, 2012
To get from Fez to the Rif Mountain town of Chefchaouen, we took a modern, Greyhound like, bus for five hours through the fertile valleys and hills of this area.

The landscape is filled with large fields of moan wheat, olive tree orchards, vineyards, and grazing livestock. I was amazed at the high level of mechanized agriculture. There did not seem to be many small subsistence-level farms, but poor families working larger farms. In many ways, the topography
reminds me of the American west.

Chefchaouen is a picture postcard town in the Rif Mountains and a popular tourist destination (50% of the worlds hash is grown in the region). The buildings are built into the side of a mountain and are painted white with lots of blue tones. The temperatures are mild, even cool at night. The architecture is from southern Spain and the people speak a lot of Spanish. The town plaza is filled with open restaurants, shops, and a Kasbah. Very delightful feel. Inexpensive and good food. Difficult to move on.

Street Scene

Tower of the Kasbah

View from Kasbah Tower

Spanish Mosque overlooking city

Need more be said?

We discovered a route between our small hotel and the main plaza. Although it was not the shortest and required us to walk up and down a couple of steep hills, we had learned our lesson not to stray from the  way we knew among these mazes which they call streets.

Sometimes you just need to take a nap.

Meknes

June 29, 2012

Meknes is a large city not too far from Fez. It is centered in a rich agricultural region, vineyards abound.   Wine is one of its most important products.

Outside the palace in Meknes

Lots of ceramics sold in the square, especially tagines,

 kind of clay Dutch ovens, used in a lot in Moroccan cooking.

 Olives, olives, and more olives

Roman Morocco

June 29, 2012

Morocco was once part of the Roman Empire, called Mauritania. Volubilis was the most south-eastern expansion of Roman rule. We went there in 115+ degree heat.

Mary with Trisha Bailey, a Gambian Peace Corps Volunteer  who joined up with us.

 What is left of a city of 20,000

 Arch into a rich person's house

 Part of "Main Street"

 Ceremonial Arch constructed for the Roman Emperor, Caligula

 Vestal virgin, Trisha, on steps of the temple

 City of Moulay Idriss

Mosque at Moulay Idriss, unavailable to us

The Medina of Fez

June 27-28, 2012

The Medina of Fez is one of the oldest and largest. This is the part of the city within the old fortified walls. It is a labyrinthine maze of narrow roads, big enough for donkeys and a few humans.

 Even people who live there get lost. We did twice, with guides who could not even agree between themselves. A guidepost for us was a pile of donkey dung. 

 Mary and Hanna Siemering on one of the "streets".

 Shops and entryways to homes are everywhere.

Last of the master textile weavers.

This 79 year old man has been recognized for keeping alive

a 12th century skill.

An ancient textile computer which used strings to determine the weave of the fabric

(The Arabs were amazing!) 

 Girl weaving a rug.

 It takes 500,000 pieces of wool string, tied as a double knot,

 hammered into place, then trimmed to make one square yard of rug. 

Afterward watching the rug making, there is a glass of "Moroccan Whiskey" (mint tea)

and then the "soft sale".

Sleeping in Fez

June 27-28, 2012

On the advice of a Peace Corps Volunteer we stayed at the Riad R'Cief in Fez.

Riad's are something like a Bed and Breakfast. They are houses converted for overnight guests, serving a breakfast. Some can be like palaces. We lucked out and got a palace.

It is hard to describe what this riad is like, except it is like living in a museum. It has been completely restored. Everywhere you look are elaborate tiles and detailed woodwork. The center courtyard extends three floors as an atrium. It is even air-conditioned and situated in the middle of the medina, old city of Fez.

 Entrance to our room.

The Sultan and his wife.

 Looking out a window to the interior courtyard.

The wood-carved ceiling.

A Fez dinner

June 26, 2012

After calling Mohammed to see if he really wanted to have dinner with us and hanging up with the feeling that he was unsure about who I was. We agreed to at McDonalds.

Joined by another Gambian Peace Corps Volunteer, Trisha, we sat awaiting our ride, not sure what would happen. Alas, he arrived with his friends. We all crammed into a small car. Off we went into the night. Down several dark alleys. Up flights of stairs to be seated in a large room with mysterious strangers moving in and out. There arose the possibility of this could be it.

Joined by others, each of whom had grander or more spectacular stories to tell, we went up more flights of stairs to the roof top to enjoy a meal of turkey legs with Kiko and a "millionaire young savant", Amin. The lighted city of Fez spread out before us.