Warning: This post has over 30 pictures. Yup.
After our time in Marrakech, we headed on a train for Casablanca on Sunday. Lincoln loves trains and enjoyed his ride. He sure exhausted his parents though.
Our place in Casablanca said it had a washer, so we planned on washing all our clothes so we wouldn't have to bring as much with us to Morocco. Well, when we got there, the washer was not working!! We never could figure out how to get it to work, so we ended up washing our clothes by hand in the bath tub and hanging them all our to dry. We left Monday morning for Fes, and our clothes were still wet... luckily they weren't too bad and we hung them in our room and they were dry by Tuesday.
The train stations, well some of them, were really pretty. This is the station in Fes and we loved the archways! So Moroccan :)
Our Riad in Fes was right in the Medina, which was great because we were close to all the cool stuff. To get to our Riad, there was this walkway that was not very wide and supported by wood. It was very cool though. Also, there were stray cats EVERYWHERE! Lincoln loved them and waved and said "Hi, cat!" each time he saw one.
On Tuesday we had the Riad owner draw us a map of the Medina and we headed out on our own. We did not get lost through the thousands of streets. We're pretty proud of that! There are a lot of really cool things to see in Fes. One of which is this tannery. This tannery is crazy old, we're talking 8th century, and has been used the same way for hundreds of years. The animal skins are first de-furred, then washed in lyme, then spun dry, then dyed a neutral color, and lastly dyed a second color and laid out to dry. It was really cool, but sort of smelly.
Later that day, after Lincoln napped, we walked up to some catacomb ruins near us. They were up on a hill and provided a marvelous view of the city! Lincoln liked it, too, because he was able to play with lots of rocks. Oh, on our way there, Emily had the best negotiation experience of her life! She bought a gorgeous lantern (which she held the whole way up the hill) for 180 dirham. The guy wanted 350 for it. Emily offered 150, then 160, then 180. The guy then wanted 200, but Emily did not budge from 180. After about 5 minutes, the guy finally agreed! haha. It was a fun experience and we are so excited that we got a Moroccan lantern for roughly $18!
On our way down the hill, three Moroccan teenage girls said "madame?" so Emily turned around. "Bisou?" haha. The girls then came and gave Lincoln and Zalie lots of kisses. These kids were a hit all over Morocco. I don't think Lincoln's been kissed by so many people ever before!
The next day, Wednesday, we went to the Madrasa in Fes. It was not as cool as the Madrasa in Marrakech, but it was gorgeous nonetheless.
After, we went to the local gardens. Lincoln loved pushing Zalie around in the stroller and we all enjoyed the beautiful plants and fountains.
After Lincoln's nap, we toured another part of Fes and found the Synagogue. Here we are in front of a Torah that dates from way back. It is over 15 meters long and is made of gazelle skin. Pretty cool.
After the Synagogue, we went back to the Medina. There was a big open space where people were just relaxing. Chad and Lincoln took their turn at this game. Chad almost got the circle on the bottle, almost. We then sat down on some steps among other families and let Lincoln run around with Chad while Emily nursed Zalie. It was so peaceful and nice. The people just come there at night and relax together. When Chad was ready to go, he came back to where Emily was sitting. Lincoln had other ideas though. "Dad, will you run with me?" Chad answered in the negative, so Lincoln kissed Chad and hugged him and then said "Now will you run with me?" haha that kid sure has figured it out!
On thursday we took two taxis and a train to Volubilis, an ancient Roman city. This city dates before Christ and was awesome! Emily took four years of Latin in High School and was so excited to see Roman ruins just like she's seen in her text books. There were lots of pillars, arches, and even some mosaics!!
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| A boy and his stick. |
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| Chad is a great fill-in for this missing column. |
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| Arch de triomphe. Paris has nothing on this. |
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| This was one of about 6 mosaics we saw. They were all so awesome! |
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| These orange poppies are all over Morocco. Gorgeous! |
Lincoln liked to help the cooks clean the rooftop terrace during breakfast in Fes. He really enjoyed it!
On Friday we took the train back to Casablanca. On our way to get a taxi, a cat lovingly peed all over Lincoln and the stroller. Thanks...
In Casablanca, we went to our place, had dinner and then we went to the biggest mall in Africa and saw the awesome aquarium inside it. Lincoln loved saying hi to all the fish.
Saturday morning we went to the Mosque in Casa. It was huge (supposedly the second largest after Mecca) and so pretty! It is right on the ocean and all the green and blue tiles matched the sea water. It was awesome.
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| Paparazzi pic? |
After lunch, we headed back to the airport and boarded the plane. It was an easy flight back to Amsterdam.
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