Morocco Day 2

Day 2 Meknes, Volubilis & Fes Apr. 15

We had an early start today – breakfast, check out and on the road by 8 AM. Although there are only 15 of us, we have a beautiful big bus all to ourselves. There is so much room we can each have our own seat on the bus and many of us did.

The day started out cloudy but it turned sunny later on.

Casablanca is home to the largest mosque in the country and the 7^th largest in the world. The minaret is the world’s tallest at 689 feet.

The Hassan II mosque was completed in 1997 and can hold 105,000 worshippers – 25,000 inside and 80,000 in the outside grounds. Thankfully it was much less crowded than that this morning. In fact our small group were practically the only ones there!

The architecture, doors and tile work were a marvel to behold. Our stop was short and my camera and I could have spent an hour there, but I was happy to have seen the mosque.

We drove out of the city and headed towards the imperial city of Meknes. The land was flat and everything was quite green. There were people herding small flocks of sheep, and every so often, a cow or two was grazing by the side of the road while being watched by a man or boy. I also saw women washing clothes by river and donkeys carrying loads of grass. I noticed fields of barley and many other types of crops. There were planted trees, figs perhaps, I had no idea. And our guide pointed out a forest of cork trees that get the bark stripped once every 5 years.

When we arrived in the imperial city of Meknes, our first stop was to see Bab Mansour, an 18^th century ornamental gate.

We saw a beautiful park-like area where the sultan, Moulay Ismail, stored water in case of drought. Next was a tour through the royal granaries and stable where he kept over 12,000 horses. The imperial city of Meknes is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is home to 1,000,000 people. I quite love the architecture, especially the arches, doors and wood work.

We took a break for lunch and stopped at a restaurant specializing in chicken. It was plentiful and very reasonably priced. It came with bread as an appetizer, rice, couscous and fries. What a lot of starch! Moroccans are big bread and meat eaters apparently. I had a Moroccan salad which was chopped tomatoes, onions and spices in olive oil probably. The meal was very filling.

We continued on to see more of the palace area and gateways, and we saw the mausoleum of Ismail. We had to remove our shoes and the marble floors were quite cold on the feet. 

The final stop in Meknes was a shop showing us traditional work in metal. The tradesman pounded impossibly thin silver thread into tiny grooves in beautiful patterns.

They even had earrings for sale but the price was much more than I was willing to pay for something I didn’t need. Meknes is also famous for beautiful embroidery work and I was tempted to buy a cushion cover, until I remembered I really had nowhere that I needed an ornamental pillow.

About a 45 minute drive away was Volubilis, the best preserved Roman ruins in Morocco. The site reminded me of Ephesus in Turkey but on a smaller scale. The sun had come out and it was pretty toasty, perhaps 25 C?

We had a different guide who led us through the site for about an hour. The stone and tile work were amazing considering the work was from the 3^rd century BC.

About 1/3 of the ancient city has been excavated and work is ongoing.

We continued on to our final destination, the city of Fes. The roadside changed dramatically as we drove along. It became quite hilly and the views were incredibly beautiful! Agriculture is extremely important to Morocco and there were continuous fields of crops, sheep, cows, trees, and people working at one task or another. The driver made a quick stop for us to get out and see a large lake created by a dam.

By the way, Fes is the city; fez is the traditional hat.

Our hotel in Fes is quite swanky but our room is very noisy. The busy traffic outside can be heard through the closed patio door as if it were open. I hope I will be able to sleep. A group of us went for pizza across the street and it sounds like we made a better choice than the ones who stayed at the hotel for supper. It is past midnight and I must hit the hay. It’s been a long very busy day and tomorrow is more of the same. Yahoo!