12-14 October - Mojacar

Even with a late bedtime we were awake by 8am. The breakfast we so good last time that we opted for it again. It was then so easy to throw our hand luggage into the back of the car, which was sitting happily in the hotel carpark, and we zipped off around the corner to a supermarket to stock up on a few provisions for the day-long drive to Mojacar, and a few things for breakfast the next morning to save us having to go out too soon.

Unfortunately the heat hadn't left us yet. The day was in the mid-20s, but the sun was strong, and the aircon in the car had given up the ghost, hence a hot trip south. We chose the toll roads, as it saved a full hour, and it was going to be a long day anyway at 7 hours. The trip went well. We stopped at a small town for a coffee, and rolled into our home exchange at 6pm, having tried to do another shop -  a failure due to it being a Spanish holiday. Our hosts' handyman Diego was there to greet us, and after some clumsy Spanish-English conversation, we discovered we each had decent French, which made explanations of doors, alarms and the like a lot easier.

A random castle along the way

What a nice place to arrive to! Lots of room, wonderful views, a pool and quiet. It was even better than we remembered from our 2009 stay here. We'd bought beer and some bits from the local Carrefour Express at the service station, so a quick drink and we were in the pool to cool off and start our time in Mojacar properly.

First view of our exchange home

Looking up to Mojacar Pueblo

Yes!

Next morning we thought we'd start with an exploration of the pueblo, the old town just above us. It was a steep walk to get to it, and we managed to stumble across a big Spanish wedding. Great fun. The groom soon turned up with his mother in a little Citroen Mehari, jumped out and proceeded to entertain everyone with an impromptu dance with the aid of the local band. The guests were all assembled outside the church, wearing their finery. People clearly get dressed up for a Spanish wedding. Super-high heels everywhere, with all manner of different styles of dresses. Clearly being large and curvy is no issue here, it's great to see. We were both taken by one extremely generously-sized woman in the tightest of tight fiery red dresses, flaunting her figure to all and sundry.

We didn't find anything that tempted us for lunch, as the town centre is clearly geared up for tourists and British residents, so we grabbed some pastries on the way back. A swim rounded out the day nicely.

Sunday being the day of rest, we did just that. Both of us left Morocco with colds despite the temperatures there, and we were not feeling the best. The most we managed was a trip out to get a coffee. They are superb here. Strong and tasty, just a single Euro each, and even the decafs are really good, without doubt the best I've had anywhere in the world. We think it is partly the generous dose of ground coffee used.

11th October - Fez to Barcelona

Our flight out to Barcelona wasn't until late in the evening so we had plenty of time to play around with on our last day in Fez. Check-out wasn't until noon, so I did a final workout while John brought the blog up-to-date. We left our bags in the dar and headed out at midday to have a look through the Nejjarine Museum of Wood Arts and Crafts. It was pretty impressive, both for the range of wood and furniture it had been made into. 

Museum building

Detail of a door

We do love the colours and textures of Arabic building

Around 1pm we returned to an eatery we'd been to a few days ago to have another omelette for lunch, plus mint tea of course. A quiet stroll back through the alleys, a few small purchases and we were back at the dar by 3pm. We filled in the time until our host arrived at 5:30pm. He'd organised a taxi to the airport and took us to the meeting point with the taxi driver. It was only a half hour trip to the airport. Bread and cheese for dinner again. We boarded at 9:30pm, arrived in Barcelona at 1am (with the hour time change), taxi to the hotel and to sleep around 2am. It was very nice to be back in a clean hotel. It was our second Ibis Budget and we were both impressed with it.

Wednesday 10 October - So long Morocco

We won't be at all sad to see the last of Morocco, and Fez in particular. I think it is safe to say we won't be back to either, ever. Nor will we willingly eat another tajine. There have been good things, and lovely sights, but not enough to balance the ledger.

Our last full day started horrifically, with a man climbing up the frame of our window from the terrace on the floor below and putting his head inside, about to climb in. We were only vaguely awake. I yelled at him, then jumped naked out of bed and bashed the hand that was gripping the window frame. Thankfully he had to let go and jumped down. Very scary.

A few minute later he was lying on his back on the terrace below, masturbating openly. Hardly the sight we wanted to get up to. We closed up the windows and curtains, and tried to settle ourselves down a bit. I couldn't get through to our manager on his phone, but sent an email to our host.

Thankfully we had a full day planned, and getting ourselves out of the room and away to Meknes kept us occupied. We started with a petit taxi ride to the train station (ripped off as usual, but we couldn't be bothered arguing). The train to Meknes was easy and cheap, even though we treated ourselves to first class. At the Meknes station we negotiated a price with an old Mercedes grand taxi to take us to the Roman ruins of Volubilis, then the pretty Berber/Arab town of Moulay Idriss, then to the Mansour Gate of Meknes. Despite a few minutes arguing we knew we were being ripped off again.

Fez Railway Station

The countryside here is very fertile. Olive trees and cropping everywhere. Some of the olives are very old; presumably there have been olives here for millenia.

Volubilis was interesting. It was about as far south into Western Africa as the Romans got, and was built over perhaps four phases. The building ruins were not amazing, but the number, variety and quality of the mosaics were. There must have been dozens, of which most were remarkably complete, and with lovely themes and scenes. Well worth the trip.

Pleasant path up to Volubilis

Looking across the centre of Volubilis

The triumphal arch

And down the main street

A fishing mosaic

Next was a drive up to a lookout point to view Moulay Idriss from above. It is a pretty little town set on two knobs, the slightly higher one more Berber, and the other more Arab. Our driver stopped us at a 'recommended' restaurant, where I checked the menu and we agreed to stop. Bad mistake - the worst tajines of the trip so far. Normally for the price of a tajine you also get what is known as 'Moroccan salad' - a selection of small plates filled with olives, pickles, sweetish condiments and so on. Not here. The tajines were the standard choice, chicken, meat or vege, with raisins as an option but not prunes. There's always remarkably little choice. We chose a chicken and a beef with raisins. Unlike many other places there was no Moroccan salad starter. Service was appallingly slow - 45 minutes from our arrival to the tajines appearing. When they did, they were the worst we've had in Morocco. The veges were only potato, some sort of bland melon and a few slices of carrot - no eggplant, courgette, tomato or anything with flavour. My addition of raisins proved to be exactly 3 raisins! A poor, tasteless meal, served by uninterested staff. Another ripoff.

Moulay Idriss

Berber streets in Moulay Idriss

On going down to the village, I realised we'd need a little extra cash, but we first took off for the top of the town for the views, the major sight to see here. On the way we were adopted uninvited by a local, as happens, who led us up through narrow alleyways, with walls painted a soft berber blue. Not amazing views but interesting all the same. At the top he demanded 240 dirham, nearly 20 hours of the standard wage here! We laughed. Back down he kept badgering us, reducing all the time until at the bottom I handed him 50 dirham, yet another ripoff.

The central square was full of nice little eating places where we no doubt could have got  a decent tasty meal for less than half the price. A quick visit to an ATM and we were set for the end of the trip. An uneventful trip back to Meknes, despite the driver doing his best to make it eventful with some very dubious passing moves. He wasn't happy when I only paid him what we'd agreed, and not all the extra 50 dirham we'd agreed if it was a good trip. The lunch stop and the return driving were too awful.

Moulay Idriss market

Moulay Idriss Market

Meknes was a disappointment. We'd had two special places we specifically wanted to see, the mausoleum of the ruler, and the Museum of Moroccan Art in an old building, but both were under restoration. The alternative museum should have been open, but it too never opened its doors. What we did see was the prison area where they kept 65,000, mainly Christian, prisoners as slaves, working them during the day and chaining them up at night in a huge vaulted underground hall. The price however was a ripoff (the final and 4th ripoff of the day), as there was nothing there except a totally empty cavern. We went wandering around Meknes for a bit, but, after the day we'd had, we couldn't face going deep into the medina to look at one place we were assured was open. Instead we jumped in a petit taxi back to the train station, hopped on the first train and made our way back to our room.

A Meknes streetscene

Bab Mansour Gate

Bab Mansour gate

Cara Prison

Apparently the police had been round, talked to our manager and the neighbours. Profuse apologies all round, and the offending man had been spirited away by his family.

Tuesday 9 October - Fez

Breakfast was fun with the four girls, after which we all went our separate ways for the day. This was to be our last cruisy day here because tomorrow we have decided to make a day trip to historic Meknes, a town an hour away, plus two other places along the way. Hence, today we wanted to make a few small purchases, and an omelette for lunch somewhere. Things got off to a good start when I immediately found a belt and a purse. The prices were so reasonable we didn't even bother bargaining with the shop owners. 

After seeing a bar where we’d had a mint tea earlier in the week, so headed straight there to repeat the exercise. In the event, John downed another soft drink instead – his second in about 20+ years. He needed the energy boost. We are both still flagging. I have come down with a bit of a head cold but John is finally feeling 100% for the first time since we arrived here.

We enjoyed sharing jokes with the guys at the bar/cafe and set off again feeling refreshed and in great spirits. John mentioned casually to me that he liked the particular style of some of the carpets here. I thought the same and agreed with him. BIG MISTAKE. Why not just have a look at this stall right here… John spied a rug hanging on the wall that he quite fancied. Yes, I thought so too. Oh no. ‘What is your best price sir? I give you a democratic price. Just for you, a great price……’ We both sighed, had a look at some other rugs, shrugged our shoulders (though caught each other's eye behind the guy's back because we both liked it), suggested less than a quarter of the asking price, and, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, oops, we’d bought it (for 1/4 price). How did that happen? We do both really like it and are pretty pleased. It is nothing like any of the other rugs we have at home, and it’s quite small. Just as well - we now have to get it home. Chatting with the Moroccan guy who we'd haggled with, it turned out that his girlfriend was, as he termed it, an 'aborigine' (meaning Maori) from New Zealand. He said he was excited to have sold to some NZers, and he really did seem genuine about it. 

One of Fez's lovely public fountains

Time and again we have been impressed by how friendly and kind the people are here, and not just those you happen to buy from. It’s across the board – those sitting on the steps outside their stalls, those you chat with over a mint tea, waiters, people you ask directions from, anyone. There is no hardsell pressure to buy in the stalls either. If you say 'non, merci', then they will invariably wish you a very good day and with a smile too. It is different from our experience in Marrakesh, though it really wasn't too bad there, and many other tourists we have talked to say the same thing. It really has been a very pleasant experience.

We did eventually end up having a Moroccan omelette for lunch, and very tasty it was too. It is essentially an omelette with diced tomato and onion, but with a good handful of French fries thrown into the mix. It costs the equivalent of around 4E. When I heard someone next door asking for a coffee, my ears picked up immediately. I’ve only had one during the last week, so have been very restrained. I made the mistake of asking for a coffee (John had bought a soft drink earlier in the day after all). Of course it wasn’t up to much (though had caffeine) but when we got the bill found out it cost 3E, almost as much the omelette. It will keep me going until we get back to Spain though.

For the first time since we have been here it has rained. The days have been clear blue skies and hot, but Tuesday had dawned rather cloudy and the temperature a much more bearable 28 degrees. Thunder rolled around the skies in the afternoon and it was lovely to hear the raindrops, especially when tucked back up in our room. In fact, it ended up being a pretty impressive rainstorm, with decent thunder and lightning to boot. Great fun. This was enhanced when the power went out, and we ended up having our bread and cheese/tom/peppers dinner by romantic torchlight.

Monday 8 October - Fez

A day of doing little today. Neither of us felt great again. I have come down with a head cold. John is really sick of the smell emanating from the drains in the bathroom. It's not pleasant to smell when trying to sleep. We talked Said, the young manager who looks after the guests and make breakfast each day, and he said that repair work is going on with drainage within the medina. He brought some incense up to fire up in the room. It helped, temporarily.

I had a sleep again in the afternoon, something that is normally very rare for me. We ventured out for a few hours again, buying a baguette for lunch, and a few odds and sods. There are plenty of wonderful things to buy, in stall after stall, and it's difficult not to get too interested. However, we only have our hand-luggage with us, i.e. a 10kg limit for our Ryanair flights, so that is helping keep a check on any serious buying.

Place Seffarine, the metalworkers' quarter

And some of their output

When we arrived back at the dar later in the day the other guests had turned over yet again. This time it was two German girls and two English girls. There are three rooms here in total for accommodation, and the guests are typically here for only 1-3 nights, hence we have met quite a few over the last week. We all have breakfast together on the terrace, and it's been a lot of fun meeting everyone else, especially since they are usually in their 20s and are full of energy and enthusiasm for travel. We feel a bit like 'old hands' here, having been here for a week, but having said that, a lovely couple from Leipzig who we met at breakfast at a few days ago, beat us to find the main tannery later that morning. It was quite a laugh.

Sunday 7 October - Fez tanneries

Friday, 2 days ago, is the local day of rest, so we knew the famous Chouara Fez tannery would be working. It is located only about 10-15 minutes walk from our accommodation... provided you can find it in the alleys. We left just after 10am, and, after walking for three hours had managed to find our way to this tannery, only after having visited another one just around the corner from our dar. Yes, the alleys here are very complicated. We know our way round to a certain extent now, but once you get off your known route, everything turns to custard. Many of the young boys and youths delight in sending bewildered tourists off in the opposite direction they are asking to go. The same happened in Marrakesh, however the older men are generally extremely friendly and only want to be as helpful and welcoming as possible. 

After initially getting lost a woman took us in hand and she weaved her way unerringly around corner after corner until we arrived at the smaller tannery which is in fact a stone's throw from our dar. It is the oldest tannery in Fez, and, unlike the others it prepares camel skins. The smell wasn't too strong, though holding fresh mint to your nose is the usual practice when viewing the tannery from the terraces overhead. The guys in the pits work extremely hard hauling the skins in and out of the murky lime water, and later into the dying vats. The first part of the process must be thoroughly obnoxious on your skin. The dyes they use are all natural - normally vegetable-based. What incredibly tough work. After viewing the process everyone has to run a significant gauntlet through a multi-leveled building from which all manner of leather wares are sold. This is the only way to get back down to the alley. It feels a bit mean to keep saying 'no thank you' politely to the numerous proprietors, but they are generally very good natured and are not too pushy (quite different from our experience in Marrakesh). The leather goods are indeed lovely - bags, belts, jackets, purses, cushions, squabs and so on, but we really don't want to buy anything to take back, either to Ceret or Nelson.

The smaller tannery

Next, we persevered and kept asking directions from older men until we finally arrived at the main tannery. This was much bigger, with plenty of different dyes being used in the numerous vats. A donkey came in at once stage, carrying a load of new pelts for processing. The gauntlet on the way out wasn't quite so bad this time around as we tried to sneak our way out. There were plenty of people buying things though, with quite large groups of Chinese featuring prominently. 

The large Chouara tannery

 

Later on through the medina we got pulled into view an historic riad (for free), complete with women weaving their looms and a display of 1000s or rugs and kilims from the 1300 women who are part of the co-op that is run from here. It was an awesome display - the building, watching the weaving and also the mountainous stacks of rugs. Of course we were then asked which one we'd like to buy, with many being unrolled on the floor at our feet. We were strong-minded enough not to end up coming out with a rug, but it was a bit touch and go for a while!!

So, after thinking we were in for a short morning stroll 'around the corner', three hours and 6km later we found ourselves outside the family restaurant we'd had lunch at the first day we were here. It is close to our accommodation. Dying of hunger we stepped inside and enjoyed the same flavour of tajine we had last time. John was feeling very low on ergs so he bought a Fanta, possibly the first we have bought in perhaps 20 years or more. We finally got home to rest up at 2pm. John was still not feeling great, but I seem to have come right. As it turned out, he felt worse during the afternoon and ended up losing his lunch. This regime we are on seems certain to keep our weight down! With a headache as well it was clear John was having one of his 'coffee' episodes, only his second in the 5 months we have been in Europe. His coffee yesterday, first in about 4 days, was very strong, and probably precipitated things. No dinner.

A few things we have noted along the way -

• Most of the older women wear headscarves and full length cover, but up until about 25 the younger women wear far less. I wonder how many would want to keep wearing western clothes instead of reverting to traditional clothes as they get older. However we've seen very few women who are totally covered and only have their eyes visible. 
• Just about everyone has been so friendly and helpful, and non-pushy when you are in their shops. When you say you are from NZ they tend to get pretty excited. I guess we're a fairly rare breed. Most know the name 'kiwis'.
• There are lots of scrawny cats and kittens about, often lazing in the sun in the alleyways. They're extremely  tame and very much a part of life here. By contrast there are very few dogs (and therefore no dogshit), which is such a contrast to France. The only dogs we have heard have been those barking/howling at night here and there around the town. 
• We are really surprised at how few people smoke here. I guess I assumed that it would be popular and widespread but that is definitely not the case. We have seen very few locals smoking, and these are mostly older men. It means there are extremely few cigarette ends on the ground.

The medina is in fact kept very clean, with everyone keeping the outside of their stall frontages very tidy and swept. The whole medina has an air of activity, friendly banter among stall owners, the vast majority of the latter sitting quietly on little stools outside enjoying watching everyone go by, donkeys being used to ply goods up and down the alleys, and a restful atmosphere where people are sitting down have a mint tea or snack. It is very pleasant, but also very complicated to keep track of where you are.

We're found it unbelievable how quiet the medina is. For housing nearly 150,000 people, the night is very quiet, with the calm broken only by the odd dog, voices from a nearby alleyway or building next door and the muezzin calls from pre-dawn. Even during the day it is remarkably quiet, with perhaps some added construction noise from activity on a worksite or two and more conversation rising from the alleyways. With no vehicles and almost no motorbikes used in the medina, the effect on the tranquility of the place, and probably also the relaxed and gentle pace of the inhabitants, is a huge bonus to everyone.

Saturday 6 October - Ville Nouvelle

There was an almighty argument in the neighbours' house during the night. It was extremely loud and went on for ages. J&I managed to sleep quite well on and off during it nevertheless. The muezzin also make their calls before and after dawn, plus at other times of the day, but we are both sleeping very well irrespective of anything that wakes us up momentarily during the night. I think we are both extremely tired, perhaps the endless hot weather is sapping our energy more than we realise. 

We are eating less and less of each breakfast, neither of us being too keen on the doughnuts and bready things put out to accompany the hard-fried egg, yoghurt, plastic cheese and mint tea. However, feeling better today than yesterday we were determined to sort out our food issues. About a 4km walk from our place is a Carrefour supermarket. It is on the edge of the Ville Nouvelle (new town), which, according to Lonely Planet, is a pleasant French influenced urban area to visit. We were keen for some exercise, though we have typically been walking 8-10km each day (mostly from weaving in, out, around and through the medina alleys). It clouded over a little in the morning so the temperature didn't seem too hot and the walk outside the medina, through a bit of rural landscape was a pleasant change.

Ville Nouvelle, Fez

The Ville Nouvelle is basically a town in itself, but with a very wide boulevard along one side. Down the centre of the boulevard was nice greenery, though unfortunately the touted big fountains were in a state of disrepair and not working. The rest of it is very bland and tired - not special in any way. Conspicuously, there were a number of army soldiers/policemen strolling in threesomes down the length of the boulevard. We found a cafe to sit down and have a coffee. For virtually the first time since we'd arrived we'd found somewhere to sit down on the wide pavement, and able to watch all the activity in front of us - pedestrian and traffic. It was very enjoyable. 

This was one of the things we enjoyed so much in the main square in Marrakesh, and in other smaller squares there, but there are extremely few places in the medina in Fez which give this opportunity. There were lots of places for eating different dishes in the Ville Nouvelle, including in a big new mall nearby which offered the ubiquitous Burger King, McD's, Mr Italian Pasta and similar fare. We should have used the opportunity to have a non-tajine meal, but neither of us were very hungry, and in fact wanted something cold and wet. Hence we opted for a large pottle of soft-freeze yoghurt with trimmings.

After a bit of a wander-around we walked back to Carrefour and stocked up on cheese, tomatoes (which we can wash at home with bottled water), avocado, tinned fish, some nuts and a baguette. It should last us for 3-4 days. We can use the fridge in the kitchen in the riad. Unfortunately, my 'lunch' didn't stay inside me for terribly long but once despatched I felt fine and up to the walk back to the medina. Unfortunately we took a wrong turning and ended up doing an extra 3-4km, so by the time we got back to our riad had clocked up 17km and it was 4pm! Well worth it for a very enjoyable dinner.