Day 4 Monday 9/3/07
We gathered at 8:15 a.m. and drove to Meknes, the imperial city of Moulay Ismail, the founder of Morocco. His biggest accomplishment was building a granary that would feed his 12,000 horses for 20 years. The granary was temperature controlled, inside some fairly serious fortification because Ismail was paranoid about being seiged. The most intricate gate of Meknes and perhaps of Morocco is the Bab Mansour. Across Bab Mansour is the Demolition Square, a square demolished to contrast with the grandeur of the gate. The last thing we saw was Moulay Ismail’s mausoleum. Moulay is not a name; it’s just an honorific for a man, as is Sidi. A woman would be referred to as “la la.” Moulay Ismail’s mausoleum had actual working fountains as well as a working ablution fountain. He was buried next to his two sons, and off to the side was his wife. Inside the Meknes medina wall is a 9 hole golf course, possibly one of a kind in the world.
Lunch was at Palais Terrab, a huge dining hall outside of Meknes that serves up to 600 visitors. The restaurant was nicely decorated and served alcohol with its fairly limited menu. I ordered some pastilla (a chicken pie with powdered sugar and cinnamon) and chicken tangine. The tangine in Meknes is cooked with olives, giving the chicken a yellowish color. The chicken was served with neck and liver, which I devoured heartily. Annie participated in the fixed menu of various veggies (chick peas, carrots, mashed cabbage, cucumber, none of which was very good) and beef tangine, which was served with lots of potatoes and carrots (pretty good). This restaurant was recommended by Fodor’s and endorsed by many tour operators.
After lunch we went to Volubilis, the Roman ruins north of Meknes. Some mosaics remained intact from the 3rd century; however, most were destroyed. The Arc de Triomphe was rebuilt after an 18th century earthquake centered around Lisbon. We then drove through the sacred town of Moulay Idriss, built in the shape of a camel on the side of a hill. The drive up to Moulay Idriss is slow and treacherous, a real waste of time since all we did is drive through the town.
We were dropped off at Jnan Palace, in the Ville Nouvelle area of Fez. It’s in a walled-off compound with a large pool. The rooms are nice, with mini-bars that don’t come with alcohol nor diet cokes. So I ordered a six-pack from room service, at a cost of 60 DH each. $45 for a six-pack! Dinner was at the hotel’s Italian restaurant, Casa Verde. We were offered a fixed menu of salad, veal stroganoff and ice cream. Not wanting to eat the same thing, we ordered beef carpaccio and arrabiata penne pasta at our own expense. The salad is the usual mix of veggies: carrots, hearts of palm, baby corn, cucumbers, potato, tomato, lettuce and a chunk of canned tuna, all drizzled with a tasteless Italian dressing. The veal stroganoff was actually quite good and it came with some rice, cucumber and carrots. The carpaccio was flavorless so we dipped it in olive oil mixed with salt and pepper. The arrabiata penne was good, not olive-flavored and almost al dente. The best was the coffee ice cream for dessert.
After cleaning up, we checked with the concierge about Annie’s lost luggage. We were told it arrived in Fez and it is at the airport and we have to pick it up. In fact, it was best that we go get it, at 10 p.m. The concierge called a Grand Taxi for us, at 300 DH round-trip. The luggage was at the airport as promised, but something just didn’t feel right. According to our guide, the taxi fare should only be half, and Air Maroc would pay for it if we had a receipt, which we obviously did not receive since the taxi driver and the concierge were in cahoots to rip us off. To top the night off, the A/C in our room didn’t work so we had to move to another room.
Cliff Notes: Trust Moroccans only as far as you can throw them.
Day 5 Tuesday 9/4/07
We did a full day tour of Fez, starting with the gate to the royal palace. It’s an intricately carved gate and we were told that it gets much better inside but no one is allowed in the royal palace. The next stop is a fort atop a nearby hill, from which standpoint we can see Fez el Bali (the real medieval Fez), Fez el Djedid (so called new Fez where the royal palace is), and Ville Nouvelle, where our hotel is and everyone who isn’t slumming lives. The last stop before hitting Fez el Bali is the official tile/pottery factory of Fez. They make pottery and tiles from scratch. Dugged-up gray clay is brought in, mixed with water and made into tablets for firing. Fired clay is then colored and then hand chipped into tiles for mosaics. The tiles are then pieced together upside down, with cement poured in to seal everything. At the end of the process is a very busy looking mosaic that doesn’t seem to have much creativity. Needless to say, we didn’t buy anything.
Fez el Bali is preserved in its medieval glory, which means it’s about 400 years behind the times. We started our tour in the Andalusian Mosque. Non-Muslims, or infidels, are not allowed into any mosque other than the Hassan II Mosque, so we went right on through the warren of narrow streets passable only by people on foot and donkey drawn carts. Our second stop was the Sharij Medersa, a school for the study of Koran with a nice pool in the middle. The place is decrepit but the dormitory is still used to house students. We then went through meat markets (saw a camel head), fish markets (saw what look like small sharks), vegetable markets, iron-mongers, etc. to get to the Kairaouine Mosque by Place Seffarine. Place Seffarine is actually one of the larger triangular “squares” in old Fez. From there, we were lead to a restored riad now used by the official Fez carpet guild. They always break the tourists into groups by language. The English salesperson gave us the spiel about how there are five elements in each riad (a rich person’s house) – open air courtyard, water fountain, cedar wood, interior windows, and something else. Berber carpets are less desirable because they aren’t weaved as tightly as urban made carpets; such as the ones made in Fez. In fact, the Fez carpets are so tightly woven, they claim to be two sided - the winter side is the plush side, the summer side is just the back of the winter side where the pattern is fainter. The price of the same carpet in the U.S. can be three times as much, according to Fodor’s guidebook.
Other official Fez stores we visited included the tannery (it literally stinks, they give a twig of mint to cover the smell), the silk scarf makers (made by looms), and the official old school clothier (I didn’t bother checking that one out). We were accosted everywhere but we did not budge. I did spend money on the Moroccan version of scallion pancake. There are actually two versions, one without onions, and one with onions. Both are delicious but very greasy. Our lunch was taken at a large restaurant inside old Fez. We were all tangined out so we tried the kebab and ground beef skewers. The ground beef skewers were quite tasty and available in the markets as well.
After all the forced shopping, we got back on the tourist track at Bab Boujeloud, a relatively new gate in blue, as opposed to the color of Islam green. The road from Bab Boujeloud led to Bou Inania Medersa, a fine Koran school that is still used today to teach but no longer houses any students in its 48 dormitory rooms. When we arrived, it was in use for afternoon prayer and we had to wait 15 minutes for admission. It was worth the wait as it is the 2nd most beautiful Medersa that we were allowed to see.
Rather than eating at Jnan Palace with no selection of food, we went to Zagora, a restaurant recommended by Fodor’s guidebook. We walked around Jnan Palace window-shopping for a bit and then jumped into a cab. The cab driver gave us a funny look but then he proceeded to drive. A left turn later, we were dropped off in front of Zagora and our fare was 2 DH. The taxi driver didn’t want to charge us for the ride but I gave him 5 DH for his troubles.
Everything at Zagora was good, but they were out of briouates (a spicy dumpling, supposedly one of their specialties). We had chicken pastilla, harira (tomato based soup), roast lamb and beef kebabs. The dishes were good by local standard. The lamb was slow cooked so the meat was falling off the bones. The kebab was well seasoned and cooked medium so that it was very tender. I didn’t like the pastilla any more on the second try and I was never fond of tomato soup.
My impression of the old Fez is that while it’s important to preserve it for historical value, it’s not doing its denizens any real service. People should not live in such tight squalid quarters. Maybe it’s not as bad as I think because the interior of the houses are supposedly much better than the exterior – in accordance with Muslim customs.
Cliff Notes: You can still catch the plague in Fez.
Day 6 Wednesday 9/5/07
Our sleep was interrupted by the 4 a.m. prayer, blasted through loudspeakers somewhere. The rest of the day wasn’t much better. We spent 10 hours driving from Fez to Marrakesh, with 4 stops (including lunch-break) of approximately 3 hrs total.
My bright idea was to venture into the medina on our own after checking in to our hotel, the Royal Mirage. It looked like a straight shot but it was anything but. So after wondering for a bit, we hailed a taxi which took us to Place Djemaa el Fnan (the “Square”). The taxi ride itself was a harrowing experience as our driver jockeyed for position with other cabs and mopeds. We were not relieved, however, upon arriving at the Square because we were constantly mindful of (i) mopeds whizzing by, (ii) pick-pockets on the prowl, and (iii) street grill restaurateurs’ hard sell tactics. We escaped to a Fodor recommended spot – Les Terrasses de l’Alhambra, a pizza joint on the northeast corner of the Square. All day long I was planning on eating street food but then I was told that there’s a good likelihood of getting sick from it. As my stomach was already in turmoil from a steady diet of strange foods and a lack of my usual greens, we decided to take it easy. As I chomp down on my pizza carbonara, a mediocre white pizza with ham and mushrooms, I asked myself was coming into the medina by ourselves really worth it? Maybe in broad daylight we would’ve felt more adventurous.
Back in the hotel room, we wonder why these places were given 5 star ratings. There were holes in the wall where fixtures were ripped out and not replaced. We had a wonderful view of a construction site. The mini-bar at least had a few beers. There was internet access for a measly 200 DH per 24 hrs. I suppose it could have been worse.
Cliff Notes: should’ve flown from Fez to Marrakesh.
