Fez, Morocco
I again slept in and went out late morning. It's my vacation so it's okay. I did brave the shower--just a handheld model that cannot be placed on the wall to use as a traditional shower. And the temperature jumps up and down between icy cold to burning my skin. So that was fun. And the floor is still wet.
After wandering for awhile, I visited the The Musée Nejjarine des Arts and Métiers du Bois. It is a restored fondouk from the 14th Century. A fondouk was an inn for travelers. It featured rooms around an open courtyard where they could leave their animals, tools, and goods while staying there. The courtyard is now covered with a canvas tent to protect it. This one was known as the Inn of the Carpenters. It was classified as an historical monument in 1916, but had fallen in disrepair. A multi-disciplinary team was set up in 1990 to restore the building. One person financed the entire 25 million dirhams and the Wood Arts and Crafts Museum was set up and is now managed by a trust named for the man who financed it. It is filled with exhibits of different types of wood you can find used in Morocco and things that have been made with those woods. There were instruments, doors, windows, beams, screens, bridal boxes, and even customary law boards and special boards for learning and memorizing the Quran. It was quite the collection of items. The top of the building above the third floor is open to the outside so that you can take pictures and has a small tea shop. Oh-and it had very nice modern toilets, so I took advantage of that!
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| The entrance |
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| Some shelves |
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| More shelves |
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| These were to put the bride in and carry her around as part of the party |
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| beam |
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| screen |
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| screen |
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| a door |
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| The courtyard again |
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| doorways |
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| musical instruments made of wood |
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| More instruments |
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tablets that they would write verses from the Quran on to memorize,
then scrape it off and write another |
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| Candles are placed on those pillars |
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| These are for imams with the chiefs to write "customary laws" on. |
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After they are written, wax is applied to make them last longer.
They are then stored to keep them safe. |
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| Looking out from the rooftop |
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| the sign outside |
Next was going to the nearby Najjarine fountain, a ceramic-tile, cedar-ceiling public fountain and is one of the most beautiful and historic public fountains in the medina.
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| Details from the fountain |
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| the fountain |
After that and more wandering, I went into a restaurant and ordered a chicken pastilla. A pastilla is a savory-sweet meal. The meat, vegetables, etc are cooked in a flaky pastry which is topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar. The chicken pastilla even has chopped almonds in it. Before the meal came, I was served bread with a sauce and seasoned olives. All of it, very yummy. Luckily it was very inexpensive, about 8 dollars, because I was running out of cash. Everything here is cash. Next, I was directed to an ATM (which was not working when I got there), but I kept searching and found one for cash. It is hard to guess how much I will need. When I was walking, I stopped to look at some earrings and met a man from Brooklyn, New York. We talked a bit about current and past politics. I felt badly when I didn't buy the earrings.
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| The meal entree |
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| Another street view |
After I got back to the riad, I went online and researched and booked a day tour to Meknes and Volubis for Thursday and a day tour to Chefchaouen on Friday. So those should be fun! I also contacted someone who I had talked with online about drivers, he had offered to give me the name of a driver that he has used. I had originally turned him down, but re-connected to get the contact information after all (since I will not be using the driver that creeped me out and crossed boundaries).
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