Fez

Looooong way from Marrakesh to Fez – the train was an hour late to arrive but not too bad – and was happy to see the end of the fat belching woman.

Bought 1st-class tickets to Casa for Wednesday morning, giving us 3 nights here in Fez (and time for a daytrip to Meknes or Volubilis). So that’s good to have that sorted – even though we were relatively lucky with our train seats from Marrakesh.

Then out to the street, where we hailed a Petit Taxi – the first guy wanted to charge us 50 Dh, which we laughed at and moved on. The second guy said 15, so we jumped in and he took us to the Bab Bou Meloud, the blue gate. From there it was relatively easy to find Talaa Kebina, even if it was challenging to find the first riad we wanted to look at: the Dar Iman. I thought the mosaicwork and painted doors were beautiful, but Wil hated it from the beginning. He didn’t like the terrace, the courtyard, and the immediate surroundings. So we moved on.

We checked our map and decided to try my first choice: Dar El Hana. We got lost a couple of times, and had to ask directions, but we found it and it’s gorgeous. More subdued, with a great big room and a lovely roof terrace. The room was, however, far more expensive – 890 Dh, but we talked her down to 700/night for 3 nights. The owener is an Aussie expat named Josephine, and she’s lovely and thoughtful, giving us tea and water and telling us about Fez and how she came to be here.

Our room is huge, with an anteroom and desk and couch, as well as a large bedroom and shower. Beautiful floors and wooden details, and a very cute “secret window” looking out over the street from the bed.

Got settled a bit and then headed out to the town. We made a loop through our part of the medina, stopping to visit the shop of the man who helped us find our way. (Wil hates the brass mirrors, I’m trying to think of a place to put one.) We ended up at Café Clock, a very cool “cross-cultural café” run by an expat Brit. It’s a converted riad, so there are lots of different seating areas and chill-out rooms, plus a great roof terrace. The food was good too – we split a falafel/tabbouleh/hummus plate and a “Fez tapas” plate with roasted beets, pickled carrots, little croutony things, an eggplanty pepper spread, some very soft goat cheese, a tomato and onion salad, and a couple of dates. Which made me sorta wish I had a date shake.

Now back at the riad and thinking about tomorrow. Would like to get a look at the tanneries, which might be a great place to start.