Day Nine: FesWe started off the day by having breakfast in the rooftop restaurant. All riads offer a complimentary generous breakfast of which we were able to parcel out a couple of things, and supplemented with our own food.
We then made our way our over to Poterie de Fes, a pottery cooperative. It’s a fascinating place where you can see how the craftsmen mold, glaze, and paint all things ceramic like big fountains, tables, and dishes.
The oven where the pottery is baked:
Some of the items being sold:
I got a stern lecture from the Muslim worker when I dared to call this a menorah and not a chanukiah:
The zellige (mosaic tilework) is all done by hand:
Beautiful table getting ready to be shipped out:
Fes is famous for its leather products and is home to ancient tanneries, which is almost a thousand years old. There is a tannery in Marrakech too but it’s not worth visiting if you will be in Fes.
There are numerous vessels filled with a vast range of dyes and liquids spread out like a tray of watercolors.
The best views of the tanneries can be found from the surrounding terraces where the leather shops are located. The salesperson from a shop will give you a rundown on what products are used (all natural) and how the process works.
The hides are soaked for a few days in vessels full of cow urine, quicklime, water, and salt before being picked at and dried. Next, they are sent to a different set of vessels filled with diluted pigeon poop and water to be softened. It’s really fascinating to stand on the rooftops and watch the tanners standing in the vessels using nothing but their bare hands and feet to dye the leather. They then turn the hides into high quality leather products such as bags, coats, shoes, and babouches.
There is a pungent smell so everyone gets handed sprigs of fresh mint to help overcome the odor.
Keep this in mind when purchasing any leather items (from any city), as it will have a rather strong smell for a while.
Hides being hung out to dry:
Some of the leather products being sold:
We made our way to the mellah of Fes, making a stop right outside at the king’s palace. The king, Mohammed VI, has several palaces located throughout the country, with the main residence in the capital, Rabat. In Marrakech there are 2, one for him and one for his family.
There are 7 golden gates to represent the 7 days of the week.
After walking through the mellah, we went to the home of the Rambam. It’s been completely renovated and is now a restaurant, but you can see the alley outside and exterior of the home.
Jewish cemetery:
One of the things we had been really excited about visiting in Fes was the grave of Sulika. This is considered an extremely holy site by Jews and Muslims alike and everyone there knew immediately what we were referring to.
You can read her story here:
We walked through the souks and spent some time shopping. After that we went back to the riad where we had dinner and cooled off for the rest of the evening.
Views from around Fes:
Day 10: Fes -> CMN -> NYCWe woke early, packed up our things, and had a quick breakfast. We warmed up our remaining Pomegranate meals to be eaten later that day and headed out.
The evening before we remembered that we had completely forgotten to go to the Jewish synagogue in the mellah, so we asked our driver to make a quick stop on our way to Casablanca.
There a few synagogues in Fes, one of the oldest being the Ibn Danan. It’s interesting to see, and they have a Torah from the 17th century. The caretaker is an elderly Muslim fellow, whose face literally lit up when he found out we were Jewish.
We were running a bit late by the time we reached CMN airport. The security is the most intense I’ve ever seen, with there being a security line just to enter the airport.
We went straight to the gate and boarded. By the time we took off and were ready to eat it was about 4 PM. We hadn’t eaten a thing since our meager breakfast at 7:30 AM and we were famished. To our chagrin, when we pulled out the Pomegranate meals, we saw that the wrapping and seals on all the meals were opened. I’m not sure what happened since the same riad had warmed up our food the previous 2 days and listened to our explicit instructions, but either way, we were out of food.
The airplane food was barely edible - a bottle of grape juice and some crackers. We had a couple of snacks with us, but NY pizza never tasted so good as it did 8 hours later!
With our unbelievable and incredible trip coming to a close, we all conclusively agreed that we wouldn't have changed a thing about our itinerary. If we’d been able to stay a couple days longer, that would’ve been ideal as we unfortunately didn't get to the Sahara, Essaouira, and Chefchaouen, all of which are supposed to be beautiful.
Morocco was an unreal experience and we are thrilled to be coming home with memories, gifts, and photos that will last a lifetime (or at least until our next excursion!)
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.