Blogs from Anti-Atlas, Morocco, Africa - page 3

Fez, the Imperial City, has the original old part called the Medina and a modern new town. We stayed in a beautifully restored Riyad in the Medina and walked throughout the medina. We tried to get lost, but only got really lost on our last day there. Fez claims to have the oldest University in the world, predating the Oxford religious instruction period. The Kairaouine Mosque and University in the centre of the Fez Medina is still considered the second most important place of Muslim learning in the world, after only Cairo. The medina is basically one huge souq ... everything from fruits and vegetables to your inevitable carpets and leather goods. You can smell the tannery long before you get there. As mentioned, getting lost here is a right of passage, but we kept finding ... read more

We had our second of many bread-only breakfasts in Morocco this morning, but there were several different kinds of bread, one being very much like my grandmother's cornbread, and lovely jam and butter and coffee. Enis was functioning much better than I thought he would without his Turkish tea. Moroccans drink mint tea, which I loved, but they didn't serve it at breakfast at our hotel. Our breakfasts were good in Morocco, but consisted mainly of bread. That is very French and the Moroccans have definitely been influenced by the French - food, architecture, language, and attitudes were all reflective of their time as a French colony. Unfortunately...' After breakfast we walked to the medina and immediately found a spice store featured in Lonely Planet. The guy working there told us his father was Mr. Spice ... read more

Merzouga to Goulmima Leaving the camels and dunes at Merzouga we stopped first to see a factory and showrooms where the local fossil filled marble is worked. It is beautiful and especially striking when used for washstands and larger items. Between Erfoud and Goulmima we passed through many palmeries with their ingenious irrigation systems from the wadis and a few ksours or fortified villages. Goulmima was a typical small village and enjoyable as a stop over as it was well off the tourist trail. We looked around the old ksour without any hassle. Amazing that they are still inhabited. Just beaten earth floors and a warren of tunnel like alleys connecting cave like living spaces. All water has to be collected outside the walls, animals are kept in compounds just outside the wall and washing is ... read more