Riad Noujoum Medina
The train arrived about 10 minutes late into Rabat, but our carriage pulled up directly in front of us – thank you kind station guard – and we boarded. At first it appeared we would only have one other person in the carriage with us, but then a mother, grandmother and two children joined us. Children don’t seem to require a seat, so when another woman joined us at the next stop, our cabin was rather crowded with six seats and eight people. We were certainly not feeling like we were travelling first class, especially as the air-conditioning was set at about 28 degrees.
After about four hours we arrived at Fes which welcomed us with more baking heat. I had arranged a pickup through our Riad and we quickly found the taxi driver holding up a sign with my name. So far, all our travel arrangements on the ground have been excellent. The evil blue dot had the Riad at about 12 minutes away, but the taxi trip seemed much longer as we drove around the walls of the old city. Once our driver manoeuvred into a very tight park and help us transfer our luggage to the cart, we met Yusef who walked us to the Riad.
Yet again, the Riad is beautiful, and we sat in the courtyard as we waited for our room to be cleaned. Being on the ground floor was a change, and one that we would come to appreciate. Our room is large, with a sitting area and TV! The bathroom is even a good size, with shower over a bathtub – likely to get some use.
We set off to explore the nearby streets of the medina. Fes medina is the largest in the country, with more than 900 streets, so the chance of getting lost is high. Fes is also hilly, so the quads will be getting a workout. We played it safe and kept to one street, walking downhill until we decided that the climb back to our Riad was going to be challenging enough in the heat. I like the old feel of this medina, which is defined into two sections – the old part (al-Bali) established about 1100 years ago, and the newer section (Jdid) founded in the 13th century.
We stopped in at a restaurant advertising tapas for an early dinner and hopefully a chance to cool down. This country could really make use of more fans! Very few restaurants are air-conditioned, and while the thick walls help, it is really difficult to cool down once you get hot from walking around. We almost inhaled our (almost) cold drinks while we waited for our tapas, which was edible, but sadly disappointing. We easily made our way back to our Riad and cranked up the air-conditioning.
Our first full day in Fes was already hot by the time we finished yet another bakery-based breakfast up on the terrace. As mentioned, if you are staying at this Riad, ask for one of the ground floors – there are five levels and the stairwell is dark and very narrow, winding its way to the terrace where breakfast is served. We set off following the evil blue dot to find al-Qarawiyyin, the world’s first university established in the 9th century. We found the location, but confusion reigned as everything, including the associated mosque, was closed – ah, Friday!
Frustrated, we fended off the ‘guides’ and continued to wander the streets until the heat sent us scurrying back to the sanctuary of our air-conditioned room. I sat in the courtyard for a couple of hours, writing, researching and chatting with Yusef, learning more about Moroccan life. Yusef has seven siblings and lives at the Riad. We arranged a day tour for tomorrow to Meknes and Volubilis, ancient Roman ruins that are touted as the best-preserved ruins in North Africa. Yusef also said he could help us arrange our transfer to Chefchaouen, so I took advantage of the offer.
Later that afternoon, Yusef let us know that all the buses to Chefchaouen were fully booked for Monday – yikes! We have noticed that it seems really busy with Moroccans travelling for the summer so I got my fingers working and found a shared taxi transfer for not too much more than the bus would have cost. I also booked a bus from Chefchaouen to Tangier and good thing too…the only available departure was 6.45 pm. It meant we wouldn’t arrive until 8.45pm, but hopefully our Airbnb host won’t be too upset.
Our day trip to Meknes started with a walk to the transport and we were delighted to hear that their were two other people also doing the tour. We were first pick up, and after we had picked up the young Spanish couple who were our travel companions for the day, we set off in the minivan, psyching ourselves up for a 44-degree day, traipsing around in the sun.
We arrived at Volubilis at 11.00am and our guide let us know we had an hour and a half to explore. After purchasing water and fending off the guides, we set out to discover a fascinating site. First established in the 3rd century BCE, several cultures used the site until it was finally abandoned about 1100 CE. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, once the capital of Mauritania and was an important outpost for the Roman Empire, and later was briefly the capital of Idris I, founder of the Idrisid dynasty.
Volubilis contains essentially Roman vestiges of a fortified municipium built on a commanding site at the foot of the Jebel Zerhoun. Covering an area of 42 hectares, it is of outstanding importance demonstrating urban development and Romanisation at the frontiers of the Roman Empire and the graphic illustration of the interface between the Roman and indigenous cultures. Because of its isolation and the fact that it had not been occupied for nearly a thousand years, it presents an important level of authenticity. It is one of the richest sites of this period in North Africa, not only for its ruins but also for the great wealth of its epigraphic evidence.
The archaeological vestiges of this site bear witness to several civilizations. All the phases of its ten centuries of occupation, from prehistory to the Islamic period are represented. The site has produced a substantial amount of artistic material, including mosaics, marble and bronze statuary, and hundreds of inscriptions. This documentation and that which remains to be discovered, is representative of a creative spirit of the human beings who lived there over the ages. The limit of the site is represented by the Roman rampart constructed in 168-169 AD. The features of the site reveal two topographic forms: a relatively flat sloping area in the North-Eastern part, the monumental sector and a part of the sector of the triumphal arch, where the Romans employed an urban hypodamian system, and a rougher hilly area covering the South and Western parts where a terraced plan was adopted. The vestiges bear testimony to diverse periods, from Mauritanian times when it was part of an independent kingdom, to the Roman period when it was a metropolis of the Roman province of Mauritania Tingitana, a period called the « dark ages » with towards the end a Christian era, and finally an Islamic period characterised by the founding of the dynasty of the Idrissids. (UNESCO).
We were well and truly ready for our pickup by 12.30 and eventually discovered our driver 20 minutes later. A bit of miscommunication but we were soon back on our way to Meknes where we would have time to explore of this city, which is reported to have beautiful medina. By the time we arrived, the temperature was well and truly in the mid 40s and with everything closed until 3.00, we looked for somewhere to eat and hopefully cool down. We found one of the few open restaurants, which looked really fancy, and with a warm welcome from our Berber waiter, we ordered – Pasticcio for Colin and mixed fruit crepes for me. Both were yummy.
As we were feeling rather uncomfortable with the heat, the thought of walking to the medina held no appeal, so we ambled to a nearby Mausoleum – that of Moulay Ismail. He used some of the stone from Volubilis to build the fortress housing the Mausoleum in early 1700s, which has beautiful mosaic work, and, to our eternal gratitude, was about five degrees cooler inside.
Our pickup time to return to Fes was at 5.00 so we still had an hour to kill before we could leave. We went back to the restaurant nearby the minivan as it had air-conditioning. Even though we were not hungry, we needed to cool down, so we sat down for mint tea and juice, anything to while away the time. By 4.30 we were the only guests, and it was time to set up for the dinner crowd; we eventually got the hint when the air-conditioning was turned off. Finally, we were back in the blessed cool of the van and heading back to Fes. After the heat and our tasty lunch, neither of us was interested in dinner.
With the heat knocking us around, our last day in Fes was pure recuperation and preparation for the share taxi. As pick up time was 7.55am, we skipped breakfast and left before anyone stirred at the Riad to make our way to Bab Boujloud (Blue Gate). Evil blue dot was kind and as we walked through the gate we were greeted and led to the other side of the road. So far so good…
A short ride in a minivan took us to another meeting point where we met some of our fellow travellers. Thinking this was going to be a shared minivan, we were surprised when more people arrived, and then gnome bus. Chaos being the order of the day as men conversed on their phones trying, we gathered, to organise a group of people that just kept getting larger. The gnome bus was shunted away and a slightly larger bus pulled up. Our luggage was loaded and we boarded the bus.
The next thing we knew, we were being asked off the bus, our luggage was unloaded and squeezed into the back of the gnome bus. We boarded and waited, utterly confused and just hoping we were going to end up in Chefchaouen.
As it turned out, our tour coordinator let us know that there were many more people booked for the shared transfer than just one bus. As they don’t have a central booking system, they need to shuffle vehicles on the day to meet the demand for each of the small agencies who take bookings. As we set off, it became clear that they had the English speakers on our bus and the Spanish speakers on the other bus so that the appropriate guide could be on the bus. Chaotic, but it worked – we were on the way.
See you next time Fes.