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Our first day in Fes was a day for getting laundry done and getting things done in the apartment.  We did get out for a four mile walk around the neighborhood to see what was around.  I watched qualifying for the Indy 500 and Sandy got a chance to chat with Becky for a little while.  We baked some potatoes and grilled some steaks on the stovetop for dinner.  Afterward, we walked back over to the park from last night and Sandy had some popcorn while I had grilled corn on the cob.

Monday was our main day of walking around to see the sights of Fes that we wanted to see.  We planned a walking tour that netted us about 11 miles of walking.  Our exploration included the Medina.  We kind of liked this one.  It’s big – made up of over 9,000 alleyways and main roads – but it doesn’t allow motorbikes like in Marrakesh so it is much more pleasant to roam. 

The oldest university in the world is found here in the Fes Medina.  It was founded in the year 859 and has continuously operated since then.  We spent an hour or so in the Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts and Crafts – nice presentation of the types of wood used in Morocco, the tools that are used to craft products, and some of the products that are common across Morocco. 

We wanted to get lunch at a Mexican restaurant in the Medina but it was closed.  We ended up nearby at Le Cave and had a very good lunch.  We both had chicken pastillas and one of those great Moroccan salads.  Service was really friendly and they gave us a couple of bracelets before we left.

We managed to avoid the constant advice of how to get to the tanneries and found them on our own with the help of our Lonely Planet guide.  One of the ploys here is people who are very friendly and want to walk with you to the tannery and then expect you to pay them because they “guided” you.  We went to Chouara Tannery, which is one of the oldest and largest in the world.  To get to the terraces overlooking the dye bins, you have to walk through a leather shop.  If we weren’t traveling the way we are, it would be hard to pass up buying product after seeing the process and realizing the high quality.  One of the most noticeable aspects of visiting the tannery is the smell.  It’s a very strong odor and it’s not pleasant.  The leather shop offered mint leaves for each of us to carry so you can hold that to your nose to cover the odor.  Sandy took up the offer.  She decided she’d have been ok without the mint.  I was ok without it, but it did stink.  Watching the work that goes into the cleaning and dying the hides (they come from sheep, goat, cow, and camel) was eye-opening. It is all manual labor.  It is very hard work and it’s hard to imagine hours upon hours of standing in those dye pits.  We did learn that no animals are killed solely for their hide.  The hides come from animals that were used for food.

After the tannery, we walked over to Palais Glaoui.  Another very interesting place.  This is a run-down riad that was built in the 1800s by a wealthy family from Fes.  The property had a caretaker and somehow over the course of time, the original family let the property go into disrepair and it fell into the hands of the family of the caretakers.  The man who lives there now is from that family of caretakers and he lives in this place by himself with a dog and some cats.  He’s an artist and has hundreds of his pieces in one of the rooms of the riad.  He has an eclectic collection of records in one of the rooms, a collection of old TVs and radios in another.  This is another place that, for us, just had this weird eerie feeling as we walked around having the whole place to ourselves.

From there, we walked in the direction of home.  The walk took us by the mall and we went in to see the stores.  It’s a nice mall – very similar to those in the States.  We walked around the food court and opted for chicken shawarmas for dinner.  Continuing the walk home, we found Avenue Hassan II, which has tons of shops, restaurants, and a movie theater.  There is also a great median for walking/running down the middle.  We stopped at the grocery store to buy more cereal.  We grabbed some ice cream in the park by the apartment and that was the end of a long day of Fes sightseeing.  In our apartment, I completed more of my flight instructor courses.    

Tuesday included a four-mile run along Avenue Hassan II and then planning for our next couple of weeks – lodging and transportation.  Those days just look like us sitting at our computers with Sandy usually focused on lodging once we’ve figured out how long we want to be in a certain location and me focused on getting the bus/train/flight tickets.  Dinner was at a chain restaurant in Morocco called La Grillardiere.  I liked it – good menu and the food was decent.  Service was good.  Sandy had salmon and I had a mixed seafood platter with salmon, another mild fish, and shrimp.

We scheduled a day trip with a tour guide on Wednesday to see some sights outside of Fes.  Ismail picked us up at 9:30am and there was a French couple in our group. The car was a little tight for five of us, but manageable.  The first stop was the town of Moulay Idriss Zerhoun – about an hour and a half west of Fes. On the way, we stopped for pictures overlooking a gorgeous valley and lake. 

A highlight of spending this much time in Morocco and moving around like we have is to get an appreciation of how diverse the landscape is.  Moulay Idriss was a great grandson of the prophet Mohammed.  He came into this area and settled and brought Islam to Morocco.  The mosque here contains the tomb of Moulay Idriss so this is clearly a very sacred area of Morocco.

Next up was Volubilis, which was the main reason we chose this day trip.  The Romans conquered this area a little more than 2,000 years ago and at one time this city housed 20,000 people.  A main highlight of the ruins is the number of tile mosaics still in place in so many of the houses here.  Another highlight is the beauty of the area.  If you didn’t know better, you’d look out at the landscape and think you were sitting in the fields of Italy.  It makes you think you’re going to have one of those amazing Italian meals at night with a great bottle of Italian wine.  It’s almost cruel since it is so hard to find wine here.

The last stop after Volubilis was the city of Meknes.  This is a city of 500,000 people and it was kind of disappointing.  Many of the sights in Meknes are closed as they do major renovations getting ready for the Africa Cup next year.  The Africa Cup is an international soccer/football tournament for countries across Africa and Morocco is hosting it next year.  So we had lunch with the French couple and then walked around the Medina.  We decided to take a horse and carriage ride to see more of Meknes.  That lasted about 40 minutes and then we regrouped with Ismail and the French couple for the 90-minute drive back to Fes.  We grabbed a pizza in the park and then had the chance to visit with Hammy and Pure as they get set for one of the best weekends of the year – Indy 500 weekend!

Sandy found a nice gym for us to workout in on Thursday – best price of the trip also.  Only $3 each for a day pass.  We did a little more grocery shopping after the workout.  In the afternoon, I worked on some more of my flight instructor courses before we grabbed a taxi to the Jnan Sbil Gardens.  These are well-kept gardens that visitors and locals alike take advantage of.  We had a nice walk around the gardens and then went to find the Fes River.  It’s tiny – more of a stream as it goes through the city and then we taxied home.  We found a pharmacy close to our apartment where we were able to get our monthly blood pressure checked at no charge (the numbers look good for both of us).

As a part of our time in Fes, we decided to rent a car and do an overnight trip out to Tazekka National Park, which is a couple of hours east of Fes.  We picked up our Kia Picanto at Budget in the city at 9am and headed east.  It was nice to get behind the wheel again and also to have the freedom to explore out and about on our own schedule.  We have seen all the police check points across the country during our bus rides, so we were a little nervous about getting stopped.  We talked with a couple from Italy and a Dutch couple who had separately rented cars and drove across Morocco.  Both couples shared that they were flagged over during police check points two times each.  The Dutch couple had to pay a small fine for not stopping properly at the check point area.  Our goal was to pass through every police checkpoint without getting flagged over.  The park is beautiful.  It’s the largest and oldest in Morocco.  In some parts, the landscape reminded us of Utah or Colorado.  We tried one of the trails we read about but it wasn’t well-marked so we turned back.  We picnicked at the trailhead and then continued on toward our hotel – the Tazekka Parc Hotel.  We made it to the hotel without being flagged over at several of the police check points!  This is one of our favorite hotels – mainly because of the people.  The approach to running the hotel by the owners is so refreshing.  They are the only true hotel in the area and could raise their rates but that’s exactly what they don’t want to do.  They want to be known as excellent and fair.  The way they staff the hotel to also help the local community is great.  The food was excellent (as it has been across Morocco), the views of the surrounding mountains was perfect.  Just loved it.

We wanted to get out for a hike and the hotel owner suggested the hike up Bou Adli, the mountain in front of the hotel.  It tops out around 6,000 feet and after Toubkal, it was daunting.  We did end up going to the top.  Sandy stopped a little short because it got pretty rocky.  It was about 40 minutes up from the bottom.  Great views of course from the top.

Another highlight was watching the moon rise over the mountain last night.  This was the view from our bedroom.  The stay in this area was too short.

On the drive back to Fes this afternoon, we weren’t as fortunate to avoid getting stopped at one of the police checkpoints.  I managed to pick up a speeding ticket.  The way the speed limits work here is that it’s basically 50mph on the roads and then it drops down to around 40mph as you go through villages.  Once you leave the village, there is usually a sign with the 40mph speed limit lined through indicating that it’s time to go back to the 50mph speed.  The problem is that sometimes you never see the sign when you leave the village and all of a sudden you’re getting passed by other cars.  Well, we went through a village and I thought it was another example where the sign was missing so I started to increase all the way up to 45mph and sure enough, there was the police stop.  We paid our $15 on the spot and on we went.

Back in Fes, we returned the car and then we wanted to find a place to have a beer.  This was Sandy Saturday – the day we usually hang out with our friends in Portland, Indiana getting ready for tomorrow’s race.  We went to a café we thought would have a beer but they did not.  The guy from the café was nice enough to walk with us to a place that was exactly what we were looking for.  We found some good pasta and some beers at a hidden bar in a hotel about ten minutes away.  We felt like it was a speakeasy because we’d never have found it on our own.

Afterward, we walked home and Sandy video chatted with A’Drea (whom we miss tremendously!).  Later we got the chance to spend time with our Indy friends and family.  We video chatted for about an hour – appreciating the time we got to spend with them and missing them a ton.  It’s a different kind of race weekend for us this year, but we’re grateful that technology helps us feel connected.