Fes: A bit saner now…

Some of our "frazzlement" (Is that a word??) likely crept into our post.  After some time with a local anchor (i.e. our riad manager) and in daylight, albeit rainy, we are a bit more relaxed. 

Dinner last night wasn't at the riad -- there was no cook.  At first we were taken to a nearby restaurant that offered a show with local dancers and musician.  It was $40 per person!  It seemed a lot like any other tourist trap dinner show that I'd been to in other places (think Hawaii, Cambodia, Egypt, and probably a few others).  So we beated a swift retreat and opted for a local place, still likely catering to tourists.  I had a beef kebab while Sudha had a vegetable tagine.  Tagines are stews cooked and presented in conical ceramic dishes.  They are a staple dish here in Morocco.  I also had harira, a spicy pasta and chick pea soup.

Today, we hired a local guide to take us around the Medina.  The medina is the old city and is a warren of narrow alleyways.  No cars are allowed -- only donkeys and small handcarts.  I think hiring a guide was a wise decision.  We weren't bothered by touts and without one we'd quickly get lost.  For sites, there weren't too many big ones that we were allowed into.  The mosques are all off limits, though we could peek into them from the outside.  Kairaouine Mosque (pictured), the big medersa, both a university and a mosque, was one of the oldest in the world, dating back to the 14th Century.  Outside of it is a water clock that no one knows how it worked now.  Legend has it that a pregnant Jewish woman was startled by the tolling of the clock and had a miscarriage.  Her husband was so mad that he cursed the clock and it never worked again.

A good part of the tour was to take you to various stores and souks.  You're given a small tour of the building, often a riad, and shown how the craft is manufactured.  Then you're shown the wares and given a mild sell.  We went to a tannery for leather goods, a weaving shop, a rug place, and a herbalist.  You can see a picture of the tannery here as well as one of a weaver.  We resisted most stores, ending up with just a few leather goods.  It's almost certain that the guide gets kickbacks for taking us to the stores, but I guess you just have to accept it as a fact of life here.

I'll end this post here and talk more about lunch and after later…