Tapas to Tajine : Travel to Southern Spain, Morocco and a little of Paris

Rock The Riad

We developed a new habit on our last trip, one where we stay in the hotel ordering room service, drink wine and playing music well into the night. Most of the hotels we stay in have a view we enjoy and we try to make sure we take the time to enjoy it. So from our ante-room we could see the Riad and the forts on the hill all lit up, We alway enjoy this. This time there was a ‘floor show’ of sorts also. Staying at the same location was someone who looks a bit like the actor Adam Grenier and every night he had a different woman with him. He had always the same routine with them, dinner in the restaurant, a little snogging some where in the Riad then of to his room. Like clockwork. We started to guess what his occupation was, Kim said he was a kept man who took other women on the side, I guessed he was a local who helped the ‘whispy model’ type I mentioned in the previous post have their Moroccan experience. Funny to watch. We also went across the rooftops of the Riads to see what we could see. There were many Weddings on this night, lots of music in the air. And Sydney slept thru it all…

We started the next day Meknes which is about an hour from Fez. There we saw the grand Bab Mansou gate, the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail and an underground prison that ran under the city once held over 20,000 people. A real ‘Midnight Express’ type place, luckily it had been cleaned up a bit… After a quick lunch back in Fez we toured a local ceramics factory to see what the local artisans were up to. Sydney got to witness them fire up a kiln that was fueled with wood and olive pits. The pits are a cheap local source of fuel (almost free we were told) and the oil in them make a good fuel; in a demo the tossed a hand-full into the new fire and flame came shooting back.

Finally we managed to wear Kim and Sydney out so back to the Riad for them while Jamal (the guide) and Tom walked the olds sections of Fez just to see what we could see. A hugh variety of people to see, very rich on the eye. Jamal grew up in Fez and new many people and things to see. He said it had changed quite a bit, foreigners are buying up property and Riads that cost about $35k when he was young are now going for over a million US dollars and the result usually does not benefit the locals. Also pollution has gotten very bad and a river that he used to fish in is now essentially an acid bath due to the metal work in the city with no controls. Very bad. Still a great experience and a great workout. Want a new exercise? Try several circuits of the old city of Fez with lots of up and down paths and people and object dodging. You get a heck of a workout!

View of the Riad and Fez

Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail

Bab Mansour

A prison break!

Stacks of Olives

Palais Mnebhi, once a palace, now a resturant.

Across the Straits of Gibralter

Down for a few days part on purpose and part not. We decided that our last full day in Marbella would be low tech, by the pool and much Sangria to get as relaxed as possible. Well we almost got it… Sydney was ‘a bit extra’ on the last day, she made a friend in at the resort, Jackie and ended up spending a lot of time with her. So the ended up in camp out of camp, in this pool, that pool generally keeping both sets of parents busy. It was too bad that we had to break the up but finally it was time to go.

Alejandro gave us a final ride from Marbella to the port in Algeciras. During our drives together he helped us with our spanish pronunciation sending Sydney into big laughs as we tried to roll our Rs. Sounded like we had hair balls… Along the way and for the first part of the ferry journey we had a great view of the Rock of Gibraltar. It was as impressive as I expected, a huge isolated rock just sticking up out of the earth. Seemed like a giant sail from certain angles. The ferry was populated with many types of people including the ‘wispy model’, a girl who (felt like she) had the look, wears designer labels but tried to dress down and was off for her Moroccan experience. Too funny. After a pleasant crossing we made it into Tangier and met Jamal, our guide for Morocco who promptly whisked us off to…. Pizza Hut??!! He said we had a long journey ahead and local foods were too slow for the time we had. So Pizza Hut or McDonalds would have to do. We agreed and so our first meal in Morocco (and Africa) was US fast food… 🙁

But Jamal was right, it was a long drive to Fez so eating then was good. Along the way we visited Volubilis a Roman outpost that was at the edge of the empire. Very well preserved including floor mosaics. Volubilis was also prosperous do to olives being grown in the area however it was abandon not long after the Roman Empire fell, people did not know the technology necessay to maintain the city. It was a very interesting visit.

On to Fez, The Riad Maison Bleue is better than we expected. In the old city we are walking distance from many things It does not have the same feel of the modern hotels that we have stayed in but it has a polish all its own. Hard to describe and I wonder if many others would enjoy it. But we certainly would have a had time staying in the other more western hotels we can see on the hills above us.

So today (Saturday) we had a walking tour of the old city and what a flood for the senses. So much for the eyes (architecture, people, stores), ears (sales pitches, calls to prayer) and smells (herbs, fruits, food cooking) that words would be hard. Syd, Kim and I like mazes and Fez itself is like that. Everything here is made by hand or with only a few machines, so it was nice to see real craftsmen at work. Something we do not see much of in the United States these days and after seeing this and Fez and what happened in Volubilis I have to wonder what os going to happen in our country if there was a radical change to how things work.

One of the highlights was a visit to the tanner where leather is made. We had read that it could be a bit tough on the nose and were given a sprig of mint to sniff as we toured but truth be told it was not that bad. Even Sydney did not mind and did better than other visitors.

We had lunch at Ennajjairne, a home that was converted to a restaurant only a few years ago and was a place our tour guide played in as a child. We were a bit put off at the start because it was full of tourists however it was easily the best meal we have had so far. The guide said it was one of the best and no-one seems to get the ‘tourist-tummy’ after eating there. He has said to us several times eat where you want, but 20 Riad may cost you 2000 dollars in hospital bills. Don’t know if he is full of the but the restaurant he selected was great. A quick stop back at the hotel so Sydney could have a swim and relax a little. We have asked a lot of her. I bumped into the General Manager and asked why the Internet was down and found out it was not, just selective (my words). So we are back on line, off only to bad information.

So we are back in the Riad for the night. We decided to have a small dinner here and since I am over seas I indulged in my usual traveling Cuban cigar with our evening wine. We wished we could go explore more and were advised that Fez could not be all that safe at night. So in we stayed. However after we put Sydney down to sleep we walked around the Riad a bit and discovered whole sections not open yet. The place is easily three ties bigger than we thought and we ended up in other Riads and walking across the roofs with views of Fez to die for. Again a maze. We even snuck a view of what looked like a wedding. An excellent few days.