After an ordinary night and an even more ordinary breakfast, we were introduced to Khadija, our local guide for the day. She was fabulous and showed us a steady stream of highlights of Fes and shared some of her cultural insights … she’s also a mean negotiator helping a number of us to secure a better price on our purchases.
Onto the bus and off to the Royal Palace..
– indigo = for knowledge (Fes is the knowledge capital of Morocco)
– green = for Islam because paradise is green (Fes is the religious capital of Morocco)
– red= Berber history, (it is the national colour)
Ceramics cooperative outside the medina:
Into the medina…
Out to the leather tannery… (with a bouquet of mint to help with the smells)
Back to the medina…
Visit to a silk factory…
It was home for a rest (and a new room for us). Some of us had booked to top the day off with a trip to the hammam … now that was an experience!
It starts with a massage, then sauna, bathing and hair wash, scrub, then jacuzzi. I thought we could wear our bathers… but a combination of my having no idea what was going to happen, absolutely no common language, and their assumption (I think) that I had some clue what was going on … saw me stripped bare and handed what looked like a face mask that was in fact the disposable panties (and I use that term very loosely) I was expected to wear. OK I thought, this is just for the massage bit… how wrong I was. After a massage (that included areas I had never had massaged before) I was given a robe and escorted down to the bathing area… where Loie and I got to know each other a lot better than we had ever expected to as we saunad together, were bathed, scrubbed and oiled extensively before sharing a jacuzzi… all wearing our little “face masks”. By this stage mine looked more like dental floss… poor Loie, I think she’ll need therapy!
Beth (Butt) joined us in the wet area for her bathing etc while we were in the jacuzzi, but she had insisted on wearing her bathers… clever girl. However, watching her proceed through the steps, I did smile when I saw the hammam lady’s hand disappearing down the back then front of the bathers to ensure she got the full treatment!
That said, despite all that, and once I’d parked my western inhibitions and gone with the flow (what else can you do!), it was quite an enjoyable experience … but not one I’ll rush back for!
Morocco Food Tour 