Second Day Out

On our second day out we made our way to the edge of the Sahara. This was a great deal of car time with young kids (but they were in the other car), so we can't really say we had it tough. Their parents on the other hand, had a lot of game playing, eating, singing, video watching, etc to do!

We drove until we came to a turn off that literally put us into pretty extreme off- road conditions. It was late in the afternoon and darkness was upon us. But our trusty navigators, armed with 3-G wireless, I-PADS, GPS and radios navigated their way to the Hotel Yasmina.

We were greeted by Yousef, the owner, given the traditional hot mint tea and fruit/pastries to eat on the back balcony, while we checked in.

The boys made a quick exit to The Dunes!

We had a nice dinner again prepared Moroccan style and retired for the night at the edge of the beautiful orange dunes of the Sahara.

The Fes Medina tannery

As I mentioned in the earlier post, we concluded our medina visit in Fes by visiting the tannery.

We had to walk outside of the narrow inner hallways of the medina.

We began to smell a fairly strong aroma. Then our guide stopped us temporarily, disappeared inside a building, then returned with several sprigs of mint for us to hold to our noses before entering the walls of the tannery. We climbed several flights of stairs before reaching an upper balcony where we overlooked the vats containing the dye.

We were told that the different colors of dye are created using natural products - herbs, flowers, etc. Every one of those vats is a different color.

The smell here was pretty awful! After this viewing we were taken through the shop below where clothing, purses, shoes and household decor products all made from leather was for sale.

This was the end of the tour. Then it took us another great while to find a taxi. But, we did. On the way back we crowded into two vehicles and made it back to our hotel!!

Back at our wonderful little hotel, Jenny and her gang were served a Moroccan dinner in their room while Philip and I ate in the dining room. The food was great, but we found ourselves eating at 11:00pm!!

Road Trip Through Morocco

Yes, I am behind in posting, but it is not for lack of trying. There are wonderful things about the places we have been on this trip but hotels that advertised about having WIFI, lie.  So, I have tons of pictures now stored on my computer. I will try and recreate our trip, but in no way will be able to use all of the pictures.
On Saturday, the 20th, our daughter and family piled into their big SUV and Philip and I got into the rented Land Cruiser and our caravan left Rabat.
Our first night out was to be in Fez. The trip over was spent getting familiar with the desert landscape, the roads and cars. Philip got used to the way the Land Cruiser drove and we tucked in behind Michael and took off.

 We arrived in Fez in the early afternoon and checked into the lovely little hotel (or Riad - a home now turned into a hotel) that Michael had set up for us. It was the Dar Ziryab and was in the new part of the downtown area.

 A beautiful young woman named Fatima met us at the gate. She helped us with the luggage, the parking and then promptly stole away the youngest grandson. Right now let me advise anyone wanting to come to Morocco should come with a baby. The Moroccans LOVE young children, especially babies. And there must be magic two ways, because babies who won't let anyone but mom and dad hold them will let a strange Moroccan hold them without a second thought!

This little hotel was very quaint, full of tiles and Moroccan decorating. We were greeted with the hot mint tea, fruit and pastries. Our rooms were very interesting. Jenny's group had a the big room on the main floor with a fireplace and a loft. Ours was on the third floor, small, but with a balcony. Lots of tile in the flooring and in the bathroom. The big deep bathtub and the copper sink made the bathroom very nice.

We grabbed a quick lunch at the Block House Italian restaurant just around the corner, went back to the hotel and rested.

After lunch, some of us took a nap - and it wasn't just the kids.... we headed off for the Medina or market. We had to split up into three cabs and trust that we would all end up in the same place. It worked and we started on our visit to the well known. It wass crowded, dirty in some places, but very tidy in others.  It is filled with every age person, every kind of Moroccon dressed in a milllion different styles of clothing. The "stores" in that market carried everything from food, linens, clothing, shoes, hardware, etc. But my son-in-law had a map and guided us everyhwere  and we made it in AND out. It was great.

I do believe you can purchase almost anything on a medina!!

Micheal found us a guide toward the end of the visit who took us over to the famous tannery which is also withing this medina. I will post those pictures next.

Doors, Gates and Arches

Not surprising, there are lots of doorways that are actually arches. That probably comes with the territory. However, it has been interesting to see all of the many different gates at each home or business. Since all of the homes appear to be behind tall walls, as do all of the government buildings and then some businesses - there are lots and lots of gates. So... I snapped a great deal of pictures. I don't know if this will be the same in the other towns we will go to on our upcoming road trip, but I will post some of those photos I have already taken.

More later!!!

Touring Ancient History

So after a day of resting yesterday, we ventured out today and went to the Supermarjane first (the grocery store). Sorry, we took no pictures. But this store had everything - food, clothes and even some furniture items. It was actually within a little mall that had other stores, pharmacy, etc. Then we went to Chella. Here is a little bit of historical information about Chella.

Chellah is considered to be the oldest known human settlement along the banks of the Oued Bou Regreg (Bou Regreg River). The site is perched dramatically above the fertile river plain of the estuarine portion of Oued Bou Regreg, two kilometres from its mouth at the Atlantic Ocean. The site is thought to have been originally a colony of Phoenician and Carthaginian exploration as early as the third century BC, but the earliest recognisable architecture dates from Roman occupation circa 40 AD. In any case, the site is one of the earliest clearly identifiable settlements of man in Morocco; the site is now at the edge of the city of Rabat, the present day capital of the Kingdom of Morocco

Jenny dropped us off and we ventured in. We had a guide who walked us through with some explanation, then we wandered back through at our own pace shooting more pictures. We probably have about 200 between us. I will skip the detailed pictures of mosaic, old wood, and plants. But, if you are interested, just ask and I will be happy to share with you personally!!

                                                       The front entrance. Philip with our guide.

Just inside.

                                                   The outer wall.

The view across the river.

A closeup of that same view across the river. This shows two of the mauselums that were on that hill side.

Lots of buriel sites to see and we were often told who was buried there and many of course, were important people. I cannot remember any names told to us, unfortunately.

The three arches are on the wall just above these three tombs. The one on the left was a king, the one in the middle was a sultan and the one with mosaic on the right was the wife of the sultan who converted from Christianity to Islam when she wed.

At the start of the trip, we were pretty fresh.

At the end, pretty hot and sweaty!!

By the way, Dave Piper, you can now show that your sandals have been in Morocco!

This pool houses some small eels. Our grandson wanted to make sure we saw them. We tried, but to no avail. There was even an elderly man there who threw pieces of hard boiled egg into the water so the eels would come eat. This pool of water was where the young women of the times would come here to bathe in the waters in the belief that it would help with fertility problems.

One last beautiful doorway on the way out. A beautiful green color.

We made it home via la petite taxi again. Our driver tried to teach us Arabic on the way. Our daughter's housekeeper had cooked a great dish of vermecelli, chicken, carrots, cabbage and a million other things.  It was delicious. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it. That's it for now. More to come.

Out On Our Own

So..... Jenny dropped us off this morning near the new marina with a cell phone set up to be able to reach both her and Michael, written directions and a hand drawn map to give to the Petite Taxi or Blue Taxi driver (this is the taxi that takes no more than three people at a time as opposed to the one that takes multiple fares) and a pocket full of dirhams.
And you know what happened? Not only did we survive the day, but we made it home safely. We toured the new marina, crossed the Boureigreig River in a rowboat, and were given a personal tour through the kasbah and the Medina. We were exposed to more history of Morocco than I could possibly remember. We took a million pictures, but I will just show you a few.

The new marina looking out toward the bridge and  then to the river.

It is hard to see in the picture, but all of these boats were displaying the Moroccan flag. Turns out - all of these boats belong to the King!

 Philip is walking down the sidewalk bordering the river just past the marina. This is just one of the rows of the new buildings going in along the marina and along a great deal of the river on the Salle side of the river. These will be shops and apartments/condos. Investors are from many different countries - Saudia Arabia, UAE, etc.

Salle is the town on the opposite side of the river from Rabat.

So, we needed to get from Salle to Rabat which meant crossing the river. And so we did...

This was the little boat that picked us up and our captain rowed us across. The whole ride took us about 5 minutes and cost two dirhams each.

There were many, many colorful little boats tied up in this area.

Once we made it across, as we walked toward the buildings on the Rabat side, we accidently met up with a gentleman who was to become our personal guide and history teacher. So for the next few hours we walked through the kasbah, the walled area of the city where 300 family dewllings are. At the top of the walled area you can see the fortifications that existed, the cemetaries, the lighthouse and the beach (and of course, a great view of the river and Salle).

Here, we left the casbah area, walked across the street and entered the Medina. Many people have shops in the lower level of the property and live in the uppper levels. Some, simply have homes here and no shops. We were cautioned not to take pictures directly of people out of respect. It was hard to take pictures without getting people in them, so we don't have as many shots here.

This was just the beginning. The main part of the Medina was crowded. However, we were there on a Monday which is a lazy day. Apparently the later in the week, the more crowded.

So, then our guide helped us hail a little blue taxi. We gave the driver our written directions and I did use some of my resurrected college French and we made it home okay!