Tetouen Chefchaouen Fes
Do you wear a Fez in Fes or do you travel to Fez to wear a Fes??
Tetouen, where we've stayed the night is only 10 km from the Med and 20km from Spain. Eid is over and everybody is back at work. There's a statue of a white pigeon, the city's symbol in the square.
We walk past the royal palace. There’s a lot of Spanish influence in the architecture. Through the main square and view the old city on the hill then on the road and back to the blue city.
It’s much less busy today. As we wander through the labyrinth of streets we find ourselves back at yesterday’s waterfall. Lost again, everything is still blue, we finally find our way back to the main square. Lunch at Bilmos again.
This afternoon we head to Fes where, if you like you can wear a Fez. On the way Abdul tells us about marriage in Morocco. Arranged marriages were still common up to 30 years ago. Now 65% are love marriages, performed as a simple legal ceremony in a courthouse, then celebrated over 3-4 days. Another 20% are social marriages, for convenience, love may come later. Men are allowed up to 4 wives but must get permission from their 1st wife, have a good reason, a job to support the family and separate houses for each of the wives. More trouble than it’s worth.
Our journey takes us through more agricultural areas where most live past 90 and those in their 70’s are considered youngsters. There are donkeys ploughing the fields and, we pass a truck overloaded with hay cantilevered over the cab and the back of the truck.
Fes is the oldest city in Morocco. The Medina of Fes houses 300000 people and covers 650 acres. There are over 9000 streets, many only a metre wide and designed to stay cool in summer.
We've got a Moroccan dinner tonight. The room is amazing and we’re entertained by a band, drummers, a magician, two belly dancers, no we don’t volunteer, and there’s an enactment of a Moroccan wedding. Loads of fun.
Today begins with a walking tour of Fes. The Hassan II ave was designed by the same person as the Champs Elysse and in summer is packed till 2am. There’s a French influence to the architecture here. The Royal palace is the largest in Morocco and the Mellah, or Jewish city is close by as the Jews were valued by the palace serving as political advisers.
The large brass doors are kept bright and clean, polished with lemon juice. There’s lots of marble, previously traded 1kg marble for 1kg sugar, plaster and cedar. It’s said that Morocco has its feet in Africa and head in Europe creating a melting pot of cultures. We wander down a lovely street built by Jews from Spain, forced out by the inquisition and spot some storks nesting on the top of buildings.
From the Fortress we can see the green roofs of the first university in the world and the layout of the Medina.
The government has established and controls ceramic cooperatives. The grey clay is soaked in water then worked with feet to make it soft before the skilled potters, using a foot controlled wheel, deftly create tagines and bowls. All by eye, no measuring sticks here. Once air dried, kiln fired and glazed it’s often decorated with Berber silver.
We're amazed to see that the mosaic tables, using chips of ceramic, are actually created upside down. Bad luck if you get a couple of coloured chips mixed up. A fountain priced at 6000 euro catches our eye but with no room in our hand luggage we'll leave it for someone else.
The neighbourhoods are quite mixed, riads with a garden, baroque without and that the Moslem rich should look after their poor neighbours, providing food, clothing and schooling when needed. A public bus goes past, packed inside with 2 extras hanging off the back.
The streets in the Medina are designed to stay cool in the summer and as we wander through we discover spy windows which allowed women to check out suitors and a communal bakery which bakes your dough for you. Doors have 2 door knockers plus a doorbell giving you lots of opportunities to ignore visitors if there’s no man at home to answer the door.
We’re considering a trail of breadcrumbs ourselves as we don’t think we’ll ever find our way out of the maze of alleys.
There’s a food market selling camel meat and tongue, weavers and dyers, a tannery where they use pigeon poop to remove hair from the hides and a shop selling brass plates with patterns painstakingly chiselled by hand.
Our guide doesn’t leave us and we’re quite relieved to make it out through the exit.
Back to the hotel and down the street to the Yuba Spa for a Hammam and massage. Washed from head to toe on a heated marble slab then a skin scrub that leaves us looking rejuvenated. A relaxing massage follows and we’re all mellowed out ready for a good night's rest.
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