3 October - Arrival in Fez, Morocco

Our flight was a typical Ryanair affair. No food, no entertainment, reasonable legroom and comfort, with the standard clapping on landing at Fez at quarter to 9pm. Very nice to have only cabin baggage so very quickly through border control and customs out into the arrivals hall. Our accommodation place had a taxi arranged to meet us, and there was a man with a sign to greet us. The ride in was fine, surprisingly long, and through open country, modern commercial areas and arriving at Place R'Cif just outside the old medina of Fez.

Arrival at Fez

The old medina is said to be both the largest and best-preserved Muslim medina in the world, with 150,000+ people living and working inside it. The 'manager' of our dar (house) was waiting and took us in tow through seemingly endless narrow lanes, shops on each side, to arrive at a hole off a marginally larger lane where our tiny lane began. We tried to memorise the way for future reference, but it was all a bit overwhelming!

Our accomodation was through a heavy door, up 2 flights of steps to the entry level, then another 3 flights from there to our room at the top. Unfortunately the pictures of the room were deceiving - it was neither as large or as bright as it appeared on the booking site. It would have to do, but we were both very disappointed as we had booked 9 nights there, and hoped to spend quite a bit of time in the room chilling out with good books. There was also a drainy smell that came and went through the day and night. Our manager took us onto the roof terraces, which by contrast were simply spectacular. Our dar is the tallest in the area, so the views are astounding. We were right up high in the very centre of the medina, with cubic-shaped buildings stretching away on all sides, and the old cemetery and a fort opposite. The medina is so dense that there is no hint of any streets, just buildings.

The view from our terrace

We had a mosque roof close by, so expected a bit of noise from the muezzin, but we rather like that. As it turned out, there was a session before dawn, but not too intrusive, and early enough that we both easily got back to sleep.

Breakfast was OK. Olives, naan bread, a madeline each and some other dense bready/cakey thing. Eggs fried in a tajine, yoghurt, jam and a triangle of processed cheese, with orange juice and mint tea to wash it down.

The entrance to our street

First step was to try to make sense of the medina. The map we were given was OK, but the reality on the ground was very different. nothing is straight and square, even the straighter streets kink and weave! There are two main streets between us and the Blue Gate, and we managed to work our way up one and down the other quite successfully. Quite fun really. Plenty of people about, plus a smattering of donkeys and human-powered push-carts. A great pleasure not having to contend with the motorbikes we loathed in Marrakesh. Another advantage of no motorised vehicles is the extraordinary quiet of the medina. In the morning we could only hear birds.

One of the lovely fountains Fez is known for

Having successfully done an orientation tour, we looked for somewhere to lunch, looking for perhaps an omelette as we'd had in Marrakesh at any number of cafes. No such luck. There are very few food outlets at all, and those there are have minimal menus. We managed to find a recommended family-run eatery, The Famille Berada, off one of the main drags. Finding it was quite amusing. We knew we were close to it, asked a likely lad, and found we were standing right outside it. Signage here isn't necessarily obvious. We were invited into the kitchen to taste and choose which tajine we'd like, then sat down to an excellent meal of many little starters, followed by the ubiquitous tajines. All this to the accompaniment of father at 70+ doing handstands. He was quite a character.

Our French was proving very useful. There is a lot of English spoken, but everyone learns French at school, and we could thus converse easily with shopkeepers, locals or whatever. The accent is pretty pure, and we found most people easier to understand than in France, a real bonus.

Having travelled a lot, and having houses full of travel-bought stuff, we are pretty much past buying more. However earrings are an easy exception, and we spent a while in one silver shop choosing and haggling prices. We knew we were being done, but the prices were not high, so what did it matter.

People seem to be universally nice. Very few touts, mostly a quick bonjour and merci non do the trick, again a nice change from Marrakesh where they were more determined.

Temperatures were still excessive, with highs of 32-35 for the first half of our time. We had a siesta in the early afternoon before heading out in the other direction in the early evening. Thankfully the heat reduces quickly at sunset. We randomly chose a restaurant for dinner - guess what? Tajines again. After two we were already feeling a little tajined out. Unfortunately most restaurants have very limited menus - tajines in about 4 styles, and brochettes (skewered meat) on couscous. Over the years we have gone more and more towards fresh vegetables, not always with meat, and it was not looking good so far for us.

The ubiquitous tajine

Overall not a great day at all. A disappointing, somewhat smelly room, average breakfast, very limited choice of food for lunch and dinner, and a certain amount of disorientation in the alleys of the medina. Even finding somewhere to buy water was remarkably difficult.