Fun in Fez with Babbo!

Babbo, Hillary's dad, blessed us with a quick visit (Fri. to Mon.), while on his way to Portugal... So we decided to go see some of the country together. We picked him up from the airport and drove 3 1/2 hours, northeast to an ancient city called, Meknes. We stayed two nights in a beautiful Riad (a traditional Moroccan house where entire families live, with a closed in courtyard in the center) right in the walls of the city. This is the view from the roof of the riad.

Then, we drove one hour to Fez, the second oldest ancient city in the world. It was founded in 808AD by Morocco's first king and is still functioning. We felt like we had stepped back in time, it was incredible... narrow, winding streets (just big enough for people or donkeys), different people were all working in their different trades (woodworkers, blacksmiths, weavers, people dying clothes, people dying leather, bakers, everything you could imagine) in an ancient working environment. There are at least 300 Mosques in the city walls and the oldest Koranic school is in Fez. It is impossible to navigate this walled city without a tour guide (which we had:).

One of the many highlights was seeing the leather tannery. They use all different types of animal skin (cows, sheep, camels, etc.), put them in an chemical mixture of amonia, animal dung and other things and after a week, all the hair comes off. Then they dye the skins in these vats. Every week, they dye with a different color, when we were there it happened to be red week.

We ate at an amazing Moroccan restaurant that we would have never seen if it weren't for our guide. He walked us through two short doors through a narrow passage and "wahla!" there we were in a riad that had been turned into a restaurant. The man in the picture is pouring Moroccan tea (Mint tea), made with a big bunch of fresh mint and at least 6 sugar cubes. This is very traditional and all Moroccans drink it at least 5 times a day.

Here we are visiting the place where scarves, blankets, table cloths, etc. are made.
Just below is a picture of the men chiseling away at concrete to make Mosaic tables. This was amazing and very cold.

Finally, before we headed home, we drove another hour up in the green hills, full of olive trees and orange trees to see some ancient Roman ruins.
Amazing history... amazing food and culture... amazing sights and sounds... and best of all...
an amazing time with Babbo!!!