Sunday, March 11, 2018

Just before the rain

Our next day began with another riad breakfast. This one was missing the jams, but still lots of delicious treasures. We checked out of the riad and met up with our local tour guide who happens to be a linguist. I was super nervous that this was going to be a bust of a day as the forecast said it would start raining at noon. I packed my rain coat with me and was ready for the down pour. Read on to see what happened.

Our first stop was outside the walls of the largest of the Moroccan king's palaces. More beautiful gates. Then we drove to one of two fortresses high up on the mountain to get some great views of Fes. There is apparently a tunnel that connects them, but the tour guide said we couldn't go in there. Bummer! But, we did get some great pics. Then it was off to another handicraft co-op. This one for pottery and mosaics. Amazing work goes on here and we were loving some of the pieces we saw. Mary Grace scored some nice salt and pepper shakers and a beautiful salad bowl. We should have taken a pic, but we forgot!

Then it was time to enter the medina and all the windy, tiny streets that lie inside. Down each one is a new smell and a new set of treasures to buy. We saw produce, spices, meat, street food, copper handicrafts, dresses, scarves. You name it, there was a street for it!

Next up were some great education related stops. First up was an old medersas--the Moroccan version of a high school. Inside our guide took time to do a math lesson for us. He talked about the development of the Arabic numbers (first defined at the university we'll mention later). He drew this cool diagram that talks about the number of angles in the way the number was originally written is how they got their names. And then some great stuff about why we know they're Arabic numbers (we add right to left...just as Arabs read left to right!). Then we also talked about where the words algebra and algorithms come from. Such good stuff! The school was also fun to explore.

Then, we stopped by the first university in the world. It's now a school for higher religious studies and a big mosque, so we couldn't go inside. But you see a pic of the inside below and the big white tower and the flat tower (an astronomy observation area) next to it are both parts of the university.

Next stop: more handicrafts. This time carpets inside of a beautiful dar (a home without a central garden). We took some great pics on the balcony and then came into a carpet showroom. Now, Alison was in stage 2 of hanger mode at this time as it was 1230 and we hadn't had lunch yet. Mary Grace had done the carpet show before and knew if they offered us tea we'd be there for hours. So she was super fantastic and made sure they didn't bring us tea and bargained with our guy to only show us 3-4 carpets instead of the 8-10 he planned on showing us. Thankfully the next stop was lunch and Alison survived her hanger attack.

After lunch, we saw three more handicraft co-ops. One that used huge looms to make scarves, blankets, and table cloths. I bought a fun scarf made of cactus silk. Then, the argon oil shop where we sampled all sorts of things that smelled nice. And finally the tannery! This was what we were waiting for! This place is nuts! They dye leathers from various animals here. It stinks....but you get mint to smell. The white pools are pigeon poop that help bleach the hides. Then they go into the various colored baths to dye them. After learning all about that, we tried on some sweet leather jackets. And that was the end of our tour! And just as we made it to the parking lot...it started to rain. Perfect!

We stopped at the wine cave to get some Moroccan beers, wine, and a champagne for our upcoming anniversary. Then, it was off to Mary Grace's home in Ifrane. We arrived just in time for a brief tour of campus and dinner made by her guy, Duncan. Their friends Thomas and Fazia also joined us for a lovely evening of yummy food and great conversation.

One final task before bedtime: laundry washing in MG's sink.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like an exhausting, but fun-filled day! I'm not sure I'll ever buy leather again-PIGEON POOP??? Enjoyed all the photos of the markets on your fb page! Keep photos and blog going! Enjoying another part of the world with you both!

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