Fez: Tanneries and Dar Attajali

We started the day with a spectacular breakfast up on the terrace – fruit salad carefully arranged into patterns on the plate, an egg with olive oil and cumin, bread, feta, Moroccan better, coffee … delicious. Our stuff was packed in preparation for a move to another room. Back out into the maze-like medina, we headed east to find the famous tanneries of Fez. Of course it wasn’t long before we were lost, but the appearance of numerous touts trying to lead us to the tanneries told us when we were back on track, and eventually we gave in to one, who led us through a leather shop, up some stairs and onto a roof from where we could view the smelly pits where animal skins are prepared and dyed. The stink was pretty strong, and it’s hard to believe that men work in those conditions a good part of their lives.

Our ‘guide’ had no English, and kept trying to lead us further down to see more, but Carol had read it wasn’t a good idea and we could see all we wanted to see from where we were, so I tipped him (an outrageous 40 dirham – Still getting the hang of the money) and we extricated ourselves and moved on.

We wandered through a particularly crowded area of narrow alleyways, eventually finding the ‘heart’ of the old city, the Zawiya of Moulay Idris II. A few police were about, and groups of middle-aged men wearing fezzes and jellabas, a hooded, ankle-length robe. We couldn’t go in, but saw inside where men milled about and from where we could hear chanting. We later discovered that the moussem (festival in honour of a saint) of Moulay Idris II, the city’s founder, was on (there was a procession through the medina later), hence all the activity.

Via a long walk we made our way back to Café Clock, our unofficial home base in Fez. Then we visited the Medersa Bou Inania close by, a theological college built in the 1350s. It had an incredibly ornate courtyard, with men praying in a room at one end in front of the mihrab (the niche facing Mecca). For some reason non-Muslims were allowed in. A beautiful, quiet place in the medina.

Eventually we set off back along Talaa Kebira, feeling like old hands in Fez now. Our new room in Dar Attajali was smaller, with a low ceiling, but cosy. We had showers, got changed, and walked north to the Palais Jamai, a late 19th century palace, now a big luxury hotel with views over Fez, and had extremely expensive drinks. Then a long walk back to – you guessed it – Café Clock. We bumped into our host Kleo on the Clock’s roof terrace and had a long chat over a late lunch/early dinner, with some interesting insights into the renovation and running of a hotel in Fez!

Back at Dar Attajali and more tea on the roof with the English couple, the American girl, and another Australian couple from Melbourne, from whom I got a few good tips about the other side of the Atlas Mountains.

Another early night, but not a very good sleep – the bed was a bit hard, the pillows crap, and the ceiling a bit low. Tomorrow we move on!