Arriving in Fez (its where the hats are from) we are greeted by a massive imperial style city. Since the king is in town and with spring holidays recently started, there are masses of people around. Hotel Olympic is by no means a good medal, but a strong bronze. Side saddle toilets are pretty classy. Our first stop was the offical enterence to the royal palace, and its amazing guilded doors, framed in beautiful blue, yellow and white mosaics. The tall 10m walls shield a 9 hole golf course and park. The morocco ‘champsélysées’ leads through the city, a beautiful boulevard.
Off to a mosaic and tile factory is an amazing insight into the many beautiful designs we see everyday. Each tile made by hand, chiseled by hammer individually shapped to fit what is a massive jigsaw. It’s all made up side down with plaster poured in the back to fix. The ceramic is beautiful, hand painted designs reflect Arabic, Jewish and Berber traditions. Given its only week 2 of our trip we didn’t fancy carrying pottery through Europe so had to pass
On to the market in fez; renound for its handicraft, leather and food. We had a local guide for this experience as the medina has over 10,000 alleys and and often swallows tourists who venture in without a guide. The place was like stepping back a century, a colourful collection of people, stalls, restaurants and artists. Beautiful mosques dotted the medina, with the ‘oldest university’ from the 8th century located in the centre. It’s beautiful green imperial roof shinning against the dirt and brick houses ( with the frequent satellite dish). We visited a amazing collective workshop for scarf and carpet making. On hearing that we were from nz, the owner produced the address of ‘Dave dobbyn’ who had purchased a carpet last year. It took a while to explain that a personally didn’t know him, and whether his address in grey Lynn was accurate.
The lunch was amazing menu of Moroccan salads and pastille (Moroccan stuffed pastry with chicken and almond past, coated in cinnamon and icing sugar).
A quiet night after many hours of shopping and navigating small alleys.