Ok – this seems to be a theme…it is impossible to express everything we did today.  But here are lots of photos, and a guest blog post from Marc:

We’ve had a very interesting day in Fes.  Lori organized another walking tour for us with 2 tour guides since we are a group of 19 now.  Fes is very different from Marrakech.  Within the medina, the old city that’s surrounded by walls, there are no cars – it’s all pedestrian traffic – and of course donkeys and mules.  The streets are very narrow throughout – no more than 6 feet wide in most parts – sometimes even more narrow.  It’s like a maze and I have no idea how we would have made it through without a guide.  There are a total of 460 quarters in the medina, making it the largest in the world ahead of Istanbul and Cairo.  The guide said it would take 2-3 weeks to explore the entire Medina.  He led us through this maze of cobblestone streets, all in disrepair.  It was fairly hilly in some spots.  All of the streets are lined with shops, much like Marrakech, selling all sorts of things – from chickens to spices, pottery to rugs, produce to leather goods.  There are certain streets that felt clearly geared towards tourists, but many that we went down were where the local people shop for their everyday needs.  The streets are dirty and trash is a problem here as well.  And there are lots of cats – all strays that people leave food for but do not belong to anyone.  The streets were busy with people, but it felt safe.

A lot of our tour was just walking through the streets but we also stopped at some of the sights.  One of our first stops was a Koranic school where kids go to study the Koran.  The architecture was incredible – marble slab floor, fountain in the center, carved wood and tile walls.  The door to the school was huge – each side was easily 6 feet wide by at least 15 feet high.  It was made of beautifully carved wood and brass.  We also stopped at a place that sold handmade rugs.  There were thousands of rugs.  The owner explained the different styles of Moroccan rugs from the different regions.  Had we been in the market for a rug this would have been the perfect place to buy one.  Lori bought a small one and Elizabeth also bought one.  They were beautiful.  We also went to the tannery.  That was an experience.  The guide warned us that the smell would be strong.  On the way in there’s an attendant at the door handing out fresh mint to everyone that enters.  They tell you to hold it up to your nose to help mask the smell.  Then we climbed 5 flights of stairs to get to an open deck above the tannery so that we could see everything.  I wondered “how bad could it smell” and took the mint away from my nose.  Big mistake. It was putrid.

Below us was the entire process.  Huge piles of fresh hides from goats, sheep, cows and camels.  The hides are bought from local butchers.  There’s a process for cleaning them and removing any residual flesh from them – it includes soaking them in a solution that contains pigeon poop which apparently acts as an acid to remove any flesh.  Once cleaned there was another section with huge vats of different colors.  The hides are soaked in these vats to give the leather color.  This week they were doing shades of browns and reds.  It seems like the rotate the colors every couple of weeks because he mentioned that in other weeks they do blues and purples, etc.  Once the hides are died they are laid in the sun to dry.  The entire process is manual.  We saw men hoisting cleaned hides into the vats to start dying them, and others carrying the dyed hides to another area.  The work was beyond smelly and incredibly label intensive.  Our guide said that over time they get used to the smell, but it was so strong I have no idea how they ever could.  Some of the kids said it made them sad to know that these skins came from animals.  On the other hand, we’ve learned that in Morocco, nothing goes to waste, so given that these skins coming from animals that are killed for food, it’s a good thing that they are making use of the rest of the animal and finding a way to earn money.  None of these products are exported – they are only sold locally.

Our next and last stop was at a weaver where we saw men weaving fabric on old fashion looms.  All of the fabrics were traditional Moroccan patterns and colors, and they sold the textiles they wove on sight.  We bought a gold and red and orange scarf that Gia plans to use as a table runner in our dining room made of wool, silk and cotton.

This is the gate that is commonly called the Blue Gate:

The kids, at the Bou Inania Madrasa:

In the market, the kids found a hedgehog to give them a diversion from the thousands of cats:

This riad was refurbished and is now a beautiful restaurant.  The kids were dying to jump in the pool.

These rectangles painted on the walls are for the political parties to advertise:

These traditional windows are to protect the modesty of the women:

Sophia with sphinge:

We went to a rug co-op, where we learned all about Moroccan rug-making.

Elizabeth bought the blue rug in the foreground of the photo below.

I bought the rug in the white rectangle.  I LOVE it.

At the tanneries, the mint helped to temper the smell.

Hands-free!

Tomorrow we are heading to Chefchaouen at 9…more to come.

I knew this would happen…I’ve fallen behind.  We’re doing so much and my limited down-time is split between answering emails, updating both blogs (here’s my work blog), sleeping, and drinking wine.  The day of the souk, we also picked up the Pearce/Lehnertz crew at the airport, scrounged up 3 cars to drive to fantasia only to find that it doesn’t start until today, had a henna artist come over and give us protection from the Evil Eye (photos to follow), and had a trip to the hammam (public bath).  I have video reviews from each person who went to the hammam, but the videos are too large to upload so I’ll save that for later.

Yesterday we took the train to Fez.  We had to get everyone ready by 9 a.m., which is not easy when you have 19 people who just ate dinner at 10 or 11 the night before.  It was quite a victory to get everyone up and out the door.  Uncle Abdullah drove Lana, Larry, and the bags to the train station.  The rest of us went on a 25-minute stroll through Mohammedia and arrived at the station with plenty of time to spare. 

The train was about an hour late – not uncommon here, and when it showed up it was not announced over the PA like the rest of the trains had been.  We jumped on and looked for our seats.  We had purchased first-class tickets so that we could gather everyone in compartments rather than spreading out through the 2nd-class seating, but all of the compartments were full.  The train agent kicked everyone out of 3 compartments and gave us our seats. 

The train was really comfortable – great AC, a sliding door on each compartment to keep out the noise/cigarette smoke/heat, and cushy seats.  I think the Moroccan train system is having some technology growing pains, because many other people got on the train after us and had tickets with the same seats as ours.  Apparently, the fact that we were there first gave us some sort of seniority. 

We made it to Fez by about 3 p.m., and made what was supposed to be a quick pit-stop at the bathroom.  There were about 30 ladies in the bathroom trying to wash so they could pray, and because waiting patiently in line is not a virtue that is shared by most Moroccans, a fight broke out when an old lady cut the line, pushed Aliya out of the way and ducked into the stall.  The drivers for the mini-bus and MamaHonkieMobile waited patiently for us and then drove us to a parking lot, where a couple of guys with hand-carts grabbed our bags and walked us to the two guest-houses we have taken over for 2 nights.

Here are a few photos from the train.  What is most amazing and awesome to me is that the kids have adapted SO WELL to being here.  They’re waiting patiently, chillaxing, playing games, finding something to eat even when the menu is a little limited, and my most favorite adaptation example…one of the kids was on the toilet and couldn’t vacate (a common issue right now), and another kid had to pee urgently, so Kid #2 took a bucket into the shower and took care of business.  I’m not mentioning any names, but it was AWESOME!

I was at the airport when the Jobins and Norah went to the souk, so this post features guest blogger, Marc Jobin…

This morning Ben and his brother-in-law Mustafa took the Jobins and Norah to the souk – the local market in Mohammedia that is open every Sunday.  It was about a 5 minute drive to the outskirts of town.  The roads were dusty and littered with garbage.  The main road was lined with vendors selling anything and everything you can image – old shoes, microwave ovens, drills, rubber buckets, watermelons.  It was almost like a giant flea market, but most everything for sale looked beyond used.  

Further down the road we turned into the main market which is in a large open space on the side of the road.  Each merchant has a tarp above their area and each is selling something different – spices in bins at one, vegetables at another, mint at another, dates and nuts, etc.  Stall after stall of things for sale.  Ben explained to us that most people in Mohammedia where his family lives go to the local butcher, produce market, etc. during the week.  However people from the countryside do not have a butcher, fruit stand, etc., so each week they come to the souk to buy everything they will need for the week.

As we walked further in we got to the livestock area where people were buying live animals (chicken, sheep, cows, etc.)  We did not go very far into this area before we realized that people were picking out their animals and they were being slaughtered and butchered on the spot.  We actually saw a man pushing a wheelbarrow full of “fresh” cow hides from animals that had just been killed.  Thankfully the kids did not notice this, but Norah did announce, “hey, I think I see a chicken with no head.”  We stopped by the cow butcher that Ben knows.  He was selling everything – all of the organs, the brain, the head – all on display.  Keep in mind that the temp was probably 80 degrees and this is all in the open air.  Incredibly eye opening and stomach turning all at once. 

All photos by Gia Jobin.

This morning we had a shopping tour scheduled for the moms, but Aliya and I didn’t feel great so we stayed at the riad with Andi and relaxed.  Gia and Lana took off with Ahmed (our guide from yesterday) for a couple of hours of shopping, while the dads and kids went to Djemaa el Fna to buy a few chatchkes and take a caleche (carriage) ride.  I’ll have to have some guest bloggers cover those excursions for you.

We settled up with the riad, and set out for lunch at Kui-Zin, which I thought was very good.  Getting around in the medina is not easy.  Whenever anyone asks how long it will take to get somewhere, I always say “10-15 minutes.”  I’m usually wrong, and I think the group is starting to catch on.  After lunch we went to the assigned street corner to meet Dani, loaded up, and hit the road.

We had promised the kids a camel ride.  There are lots of camel ride establishments in the Palmeraie outside of Marrakech, so we stopped at the first one we saw.  In hindsight, we should have driven past all of them, yelling “bsh’haal?!?!” (how much?) out the window, but we didn’t think of it and Ben just haggled a bit to get the price down.  It ended up being about $15/kid which is kind of pricey for Morocco.

There was an extra camel so we urged Andi to climb aboard.  I almost peed my pants watching them load everyone on and head out for the ride.  I will let the photos speak for themselves…

Adlani jumped right on like he rides a camel to school every day:

Camels stand up in several stages…

Amine thought he was about to be eaten (photo by Gia):

Larry in Camel Pose (photo by Gia)…

We’re in Mohammedia tomorrow, waiting for Elizabeth, Chloe, and Hannah to arrive!  Then it’s off to Fez!

There’s no way for me to describe everything we did today in detail, so here are some photos to give you an idea.  If you have questions about anything just leave a comment and I will elaborate.

The kids decorated the breakfast room for my birthday!

Our guides for the tour of Marrakech were Ahmed and Abdul.  Ahmed was clearly a pro and spoke perfect English – he told me that he learned English in Marrakech, with British and American teachers.  Abdul’s job was to make sure nobody got lost or flattened crossing the street.  When we reached the first crosswalk, Ahmed said, “We have now reached the most dangerous part of the tour – crossing the street.”  He wasn’t kidding.

It was a little crazy walking through the tight streets with cars, scooters, motorcycles, and other modes of transport whizzing by, but nobody got run over (knock on wood).

At the Koutoubia Mosque, Ahmed explained the significance of the 3 balls on top.  There are several theories, but one is that the largest ball represents Judaism, the medium ball represents Christianity, and the smallest ball represents Islam (in order of when the religion was established).  Larry, Marc, and Ben created a visual representation of the 3 balls of religion.

Ahmed was very interesting but the kids weren’t really into the historical parts.

These are traditional water sellers…I don’t think they really sell water any more.  They just earn money by taking photos with tourists.

The Bahia Palace is BEAUTIFUL.  Ben and I have been here before – it was one of the locations featured in my Doors of Morocco photo essay in Doors & Hardware magazine.

If I wasn’t into doors, I’d be into ceilings – so amazing.

There were 3 niches in the courtyard for meetings.  One for Muslims, one for Jews, and one for Christians.  That way, when someone arrived for a meeting, the big guy knew a bit about their perspective depending on which niche they were seated in.  This is the one for Christians.

And this is the one for Jews…the Star of David is evident in the decoration.

We mostly hopped from one shady spot to another, and surprisingly it was not super-hot.

For lunch, Ahmed dropped us off at Terrace des Epices – a beautiful and delicious rooftop restaurant.  We would never have known it was there.  The menu is on the big blackboards, in English and French.

My couscous…

Ben and Gia ordered this special beef dish that is buried in the fire to cook for 4 hours.

After lunch we went back to the riad and chillaxed for a few hours until it was time to venture out again.  Dani drove us in the Party Bus.  The Marrakech medina is surrounded by walls, and has 12 doors into the city which used to be closed at 7 p.m. to keep out invaders.  This is the one closest to our restaurant for dinner (Café Clock), which was in the Kasbah.

There are huge stork nests on top of the walls.

On the roof at Café Clock:

The boys ordered these amazing pancakes:

Norah and Andi making camel faces…

A birthday cake for me, arranged by the lady (Helen Ranger from Fez Riads) who helped me book the riads and a few other details for the trip.  There was drumming and singing by the staff.  My wish was that nobody would get diarrhea.

After dinner we walked the treacherous route to Djemaa el Fna.  I agreed with Ben that it was a must-see, but it was a little hairy.  Adlani was SO TIRED, I heard him say to himself, “I’m going to die here.  This is how I’m going to die.”  It doesn’t look so bad from this photo…

To really see what it’s like you have to look from above, so Ben marched all 16 of us up the 98 flights of stairs to get to the rooftop.

And we were finally able to get wine when the stores reopened after the holiday.  It made us very happy.

We lost an hour of sleep when the clocks jumped forward.  The end.