May 22, 2025
We started our first full day in Fes with one of my favorite breakfasts in Morocco. Shakshuka, which is an egg, tomato, and garlic combination cooked in a tagine. We get a preview of what is cooking from our room in the riad. The bathroom has a small window that opens to large open air internal column that the kitchen is on the bottom floor of. Open the window and the bathroom smells of delicious cooking.
After we finished breakfast, we met our guide Elhaddied to start our day of touring through Fes. He was a nice man and we would learn throughout the day that he was like the mayor of Fes. He had spent his whole life in Fes and was a teacher. He would stop to say hello to people as we walked the streets and a few of them told us how lucky we were to have him with us and what a great man he was.
Elhaddied tried to keep the stops short for us with the kids but even so they were quick to turn to their tired, hot, hungry routine at the slightest feeling of boredom. Our first stop was the Royal Palace which had multiple large stunning gates or tile, metal, and wood. We then headed back into the car for a quick drive to a lookout point to see the full city of Fes. Elhaddied explained there were wholes in some of the walls of the armory and other buildings to allow for ventilation but swallows make their homes there as well. Lenny then asked “Wait why do the swallows just eat their food fast and not crunch it?”
Next stop was a large ceramic cooperative that only worked with white clay. The boys were excited thinking they were going to get to make more pottery but that was not instore. Our guide gave them pieces of damp clay to play as we walked but the rest was educational tour and sales pitch. He was quick to explain why Fes pottery was the best due to only using white clay which was best to cook with due to no lead needed in the glazing or painting. He also said it was the easiest to clean. I tried to verify all of this with Elhaddied and he confirmed that generally the white clay was always better quality. Aside from the sales pitch the workshop was filled with all different kinds of beautiful pieces; tables, fountains, pots, giant vases, plates, bowls, etc…. They had an impressive shipping operation to get them all of the world. We showed mild interest in a table for our backyard but ended up getting a few bowls and Christmas ornaments. The boys were done by the time we left, taking the cashier’s calcilators to play with and then attacking Abdul at first site. They have grown quite find of him and Lenny often suggest we bring him to Spain with us. We told our guide we may want to order a table when we got home next year and he quickly said it wasn’t worth it if we didn’t buy it today and disappeared...
We headed to the old Old Medina Market back in Fes’s Old Town section. It was similar to Marrakesh but no motorbikes allowed so easier to walk. The market was large but felt smaller than Marrakesh. There were all kinds of shops but the most memorable was the butchery section due to the quantity and variety of heads everywhere. We walked through the dying section where today was the day for black coloring. The narrow road was filled with watery black dye from the process. Elhaddied said that many people would bring old faded clothes to be dyed as a money saving trick.
We stopped at a metal working area where they work mostly with bronze and brass. It was at the intersection of multiple roads and crazy to see man using grinders and swinging hammers with people walking among them. We picked up a few things and moved on to see an old university tucked away in the winding streets before heading to lunch.
Lunch was at another riad. It was good and I tried their chicken pastilla which is a a thick pancake made from phyllo dough and filled with chicken, veggies, and a variety of spices. Oddly enough it is topped with cinnamon and sugar. The boys ate chicken kebobs but only after we made it a competition and promised to award points to the winner. Ollie by far ate more and I think enjoyed eating it off the skewer. The points are a loose reward system we have yet to fully implement to try and get them to behave. They get points for doing various things we want them to do and eventually those points can be turned into iPad games or other things they want. They can also lose points for not listening so currently neither has gotten any iPad games.
After lunch we headed to a metal craftsman shop. We met an older man who was working on designing a beautiful plate with just a hammer and small chisel. A younger man giving us the tour of the workshop said he had been doing it for over 30 years. We wandered the shop that was packed with anything metal you could think of but also some old guns and ceremonial knifes which intrigued the boys. Kayleen and I focused on finding a hanging lighting fixture to have shipped home and quietly agreed on one so we could negotiate the price down without them knowing we really liked it. A lesson we learned from the rugs! While we did this the boys were reenacting the Hamilton duel with old pistols and then attempting to play rugby with a metal lamp. The other guys working in the shop were happy to play with and monitor them for us.
Next was a quick stop at a weaving craftsman shop. They had scarfs, bags, blanks, and wraps but the highlight was watching the man working on the horizontal loom in the shop. We found out that typically woman work on vertical looms and men work on horizontal looms. The boys loved watching him whip the thread spool back and forth by pulling a long rope as his legs worked the loom.
Our final stop was an old leather tannery. The boys were on their worst behavior at this point so luckily our guide had a little boy at home who loved to fight. He welcomed battling directly with the kids which they loved but Kayleen and I were extremely unhappy with them. The whole process was very interesting but hard to take much away due to the boys. The most interesting points were that the best leather is camel and goat. Camel for bags and other items and goat for clothing. Also, if you have a true leather product made without chemicals, such as a jacket, you can press a lighter to it and the fire will cause no damage at all. We were not in the market for anything, though I wish I was after seeing all the work that went into the items. Any browsing and trying on jackets was out of the question with the boys.
On our way back to the riad we stopped for ice cream but only for Kayleen and I. The boys had to watch us eat it as their punishment though they were calmer than expected about it.
We went back to our riad to rest before we met Elhaddied again for a walking dinner tour through the market. The boys played their iPad learning games while we did some life admin. The deal was after their learning games they needed to agree on something to watch together and if they couldn’t agree they would watch nothing. After three fights over what to watch, or not watch, we told them they failed and would now watch nothing. This led to one of the biggest meltdowns yet. I think the whole riad heard it. They screamed, cried, yelled at us, and Ollie even threw pillows at me in his rage. Eventually they calmed enough to take a shower but would fall back into despair throughout the process. By the time we had to leave the room they had fully calmed down.
We started our dinner walk with Elhaddied and I was hoping none of this would take place in the heads section. Luckily none of it did. We stopped at a little stand outside the main market first to have harria, chebakia, dates, and pulled beef that was cooked over steam. It was all good and the boy ate the harria by dipping their bread in it and Ollie ate a date or two. Next, we stopped for almond briouats which everyone but Lenny ate. Then we picked up some onion & herb meloui to bring to our kebab stop. We had chicken and a spiced beef kebab with some mint tea while the boys had fresh orange juice. Elhaddied had the boys race to drink their juice which they were happy to do. Lastly for the boys they each had an éclair but Lenny declined after a bite so Ollie got two. Kayleen and I sampled honey from a variety of different flowers for our desert. Elhaddied brought us to another stand but we all declined due to how full we were.
