Fez Not to Be Missed--- Did You Know We Were Riding on the Marrakesh Express?

Beautiful Train Station Marrakesh

Yes, we road on the Marrakesh Express.  It was actually a wonderful experience for 4 of the 8 hours we road on the train.  There is something definitely powerful about a train, and this one was efficient, we didn't have to think about busses, traffic, flight times or gate changes.  We got to see the country side, chat, read, meet people in our "cabin", and it was great (for about 4 hours).  Then it was a bit tiring.  We revived as we went through Casa Blanca, and I thought of course abut Humphrey Bogart.  I tried not to think about the return trip and how that one, too would take about 8 hours (it actually took nearly 10 because of train delays). The one downside was that the windows of the train were filthy with some terrible sticky mess on the outside.

First Class seat! ($60 round trip!)

Many squatter camps near the train stops.  This a smaller one

actually seeing Casa Blanca (look to the ocean)

Graffiti is ubiquitous

We also had two of the sentinel experiences on the train.  Two random men at different times (as we neared Fez) sat down in the one empty seat in our cabin, and started talking to our three new young German Friends and one sweet young Moroccan lady and of course, us.  The first began with a wonderful introduction to himself about how he knew US, because his sister had heart surgery in NYC, and that some Foundation of Hope had sponsored her, and that he worked in the capital for Peace Corps volunteers who came from the US to help the Moroccans.  He reminded us that Morocco was the first country to support the ratification of the Declaration of Independence (Morocco hated the British for their particular brand of colonial rule), and then proceeded on a thread of how lucky he was (as well as we) that he happened to have a cousin who lived in Fez and with whom he could introduce us just as we got off the train....He went on to ask us what we wanted to do in Fez and as we mumbled and tried to ignore him, he persisted and kept adding attributes to his cousin, a friend of his cousin's who had "Mercedes" to drive us etc etc.  This shall I say is almost verbatim out of the Lonely Planet "watch out for" guidebook.  When John just said something to the effect of us having a hotel and being met at the train station, he quickly got a cell phone call, got up and said, "  'Scuse, I am going for a coffee" and left our compartment.  At the very next stop, the same situation repeated itself. This gentleman was much less odoriferous and for that I am grateful, but he had the same spiel.  But, this time, he had a sister who came with her family from the US, and they traveled all over Morocco and how much she loved being back in her home country.  He described all the places in Fez that we should see, and other side trips that we and our German Friends had already taken. He reminded us that Morocco was the first country to support the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and that Moroccans are good friends to the US.  Then, he described the train station and how crazy it is and how he and his family had hired a great driver who was very knowledgeable and had a good car, and how he happened to have this man's business card.  He asked John where we were staying and John said, "I don't know, the reservations are up above in my case, but we have a driver picking us up from the hotel."  Our Germans at this point were beside themselves, one of whom pointedly had taken our his Lonely Planet guide and was apparently reading in German to his friends about the shysters who get on the trains and try to sell you not only fake things but fake guides at high prices.  The guy looked at John and at me, and suddenly got a call on his cell phone, and harrumphed and said.....have to take this.  We saw him striding up and down our car for the next 45 minutes and actually saw him on the way home getting on and off the train!  Perfect experience.


So, we arrived at the Fez station and had a wonderful young man with our name on the placard to pick us up.  He drove us quickly to the old city and proceeded to drop us off in a parking lot where we were picked up by a "Chocador" (not sure spelling but he is the guard of the house) who walked us up a long winding outdoor stone stair case past small shops that were open, selling mostly Caftans for both women anad men.  Darkness had settled in even at 5 as the winter is coming to Morocco as well.  We turned right to a small alley and entered a door with no name plate.  There we were in the Palais Amani.  WOW!

The garden (Riyad) from the top of the hotel

The Riyad (garden)

We were given an orientation and then shown to our room which was lovely.  We were encouraged to eat dinner at the hotel, which we did, and enjoyed the slow cooked lamb and chicken, and delicious wine. We started our day in Fez with a delicious traditional breakfast.

Amazing breakfast soup

Our guide Jalid, was a man of few words, but very efficient.  He was not the type of person to try to get us to buy things but took us to most places where he thought we would like to go.  My priority was to find some Moroccan pottery, and that is where we started.  And Oh my goodness.....

Artisans hand working on tiles

Where the dried Olive pits are used for baking the pottery

Some tables and fountains

John watching pot spinning

John in pottery heaven

tables are made by placing individual pieces upside down

Our pottery purchases

Our tile hanging

So, once we had spent all our money on the beautiful pottery, we set off for the tour of the city.

Map of Fez Medina

Fez Entrance to the Medina

Old wall around the city (big university in middle)

brass souq

candles for sacred mosque souq

"guaranteed antique" shop

John's favorite doors

Fez Independence Square (Independence day Nov. 18th)

John walking down "main street!" in the old town

cute small shop

The Madrassa (where Islamic school and Mosque used to be located)

The sacred Mosque

Silver souq

The two big towers

At the end of the day, we were exhausted, but happy to have at least seen the main sights of the city.  We did go to the tannery, but since leather is not our main interest, we just appreciated the tons of leather items for sale in this area!  I will not comment on the meat souq for the sake of my vegetarian children, but there was a lot of it.  As our guide said, "we Moroccans are not vegetarian".  I am sure that some are, but we did not witness this.  And, as I could see, every single part of the animal was used, from anything edible, to anything to make into something utilitarian, or beautiful.  At least, no wasted parts.

dinner Palais Amani

sunset from the hotel top

sunset crosses the old town

So from Fez, we returned to Marrakesh on the train, spent a cold night in a fancy hotel (that was really cold), ate food that gave me food poisoning for the flight back to Amsterdam, trudged to our hotel from the airport in freezing rain and wind, I immediately passed out while John sought food, and we returned to RDU just in time for Thanksgiving.  While food poisoning is horrible, it was at the end of the trip, and this trip was amazing.  Cheers to Africa!