So, this is the first entry, there will be one for each day, I’ll put a few photos in but if you want to see more they will be on my Flickr photo stream (at some point!). I wrote each day into a Moleskine book, so these entries will be taken from there. And I warn you now, these entries will be quite long.
I’d love your comments (either on the blog or on the individual photos on Flickr).
Day One – a very, very long day! (beginning as it did on February 29th!)
Kate arrived at our house after a long day’s work and the drive across from Liverpool at 11.30pm – just enough time for a shower and a cup of tea. Although our flight wasn’t until 6.30am, we needed to be at Luton by 4.30 to check, and anyone who knows me will know that I’m fanatical about being at airports really early – so we arrived at 3.00am. The journey was much faster than we expected, Colin just dropped us off and went back to Sheffield – probably back to bed.
Mind you it was interesting watching everyone come and go – two women who arrived at just past 3am and started demanding a bottle of wine at the café – only to be told that they weren’t going to get any alcohol as the airport isn’t 24 hour licensed – that didn’t go down well!
I was sure that my bags would be too heavy, not only do Ryanair charge extra for taking luggage (as if you would want to go on holiday with no bags whatsoever!), they try to screw you out of every penny by setting the baggage allowance really low and then charge a fortune for excess.
Airports are perfect places for people watching; like the very large woman stuffing a flap jack into her face, or the people at the bar drinking pints of lager at 5am (it seems that the departure lounge might have a 24 hour license).
People do some bloody strange things – Kate joined a sort of muddle of people waiting to be served at a juice bar, I’ll admit that the queue was not well defined. But it wasn’t until she’d ordered her drink that a man behind tapped her on the shoulder and accused her of pushing in! Get a life!
The flight was non-eventful, but as we were both tired it felt like an age. Given my fear of flying I did well with the brief turbulence and three and a half hours later we arrived in Fes.
And the fun began; the car to meet us hadn’t arrived and Kate had forgotten the papers which had the name and address of the Riad on it!!
After a while of wandering around Kate found a young guy who ‘claimed’ to be our driver – of course he wasn’t! But he did drive us to the entrance to the Medina near to the riad – and just pointed in the right direction into the maze of alleyways and thousands of people!
Luckily I had refused to pay him (we believe that the car was to be part of our room bill and since the cash point hadn’t worked in the airport we were short of cash), so he parked the car and came to find us- then took us to Dar Seffarine (our riad). Thank heavens he did as we would never have found the place, down the darkest dead end alley smelling of wee.
But once we were in – WOW! WOW! WOW!
What an incredible place to stay; from the alleyway you would have no idea of the beauty and luxury behind the door. The building is obviously ancient (700 years old) and has been wonderfully renovated with Arabic woodwork and tiles.
Our room is simply decorated with white walls, fretwork windows (to both the central courtyard and the outside), lovely tiled floor and traditional furniture.
After freshening up we were taken by a guide to a restaurant in the medina (on that he will no doubt get commission from). He wanted to wait and guide us back, but we decided that the only way to learn your way around is to ‘get lost’ on our own.
Lunch was incredible, but far too much – little bits of salad, beans, beetroot etc., then Kate had vegetable couscous tajine, and I had lemon chicken.
Just when we thought that we couldn’t eat anymore a massive bowl of fruit arrived, followed by ‘Moroccan Whiskey’ – Mint tea.
So, we ventured into the alleyways and promptly got lost! – well actually we did know exactly where we wanted to be but since it was the afternoon a couple of the gates had been shut – so our path was blocked. Either that or someone had been moving the alleyways around after we had walked down them!!
I could wander in them for days, there is always something new to see or photograph, different colours and smells. The people rushing around, and heavily laden donkeys being driven through the tightly packed alleyways. People saying hello and wanting to entice you into their shop – “just to look”! Of course most of the time it was even too busy to get my camera out and take a photo – the only time I could capture the alleyways and streets of the medina was in the brief moments of calm.
Anyway, after a number of dead ends and double backs, and being mildly harassed by young lads (who wanted to show us the tanneries or the way out) and shop keepers who wanted to entice us in – we finally made it back to Dar Seffarine.
The roof terrace is a little piece of heaven overlooking the medina, a lovely place to have a snooze – which is exactly what Kate did!
The owners of the riad (Kate and Alaa) were away until later, but we’d been promised a meal tonight with the other guests.
When the sun went down it got cold really quickly, Kate moved to her bed and I went off to a supermarket with two of the other guests (there were five others, two of them have bought a house here and are attempting to do it up – it’s possible to buy a massive riad for about £20,000 but they often have no roofs and need at least £30,000 spending on them).
Alcohol is not allowed in the medina so we had to get a Petit Taxi to the New Town to find a supermarket – where they have a small section with alcohol (hidden in the corner and called ‘The cave’), busy with men stocking up (I reckon there is a bit of an alcohol problem with some as we saw a number of drunks during our stay).
Dinner was totally amazing – breads, salads, veg and wine! Kate and Alaa hadn’t made it back, so Mohammad and the two maids cooked and joined us for dinner. Since Kate had slept most of the evening I left her downstairs and went to bed – very tired, but happy.
Photos of my trip are now being added to Flickr, visit here, and keep checking back as I'll be adding more.
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