Fes the Incredible

Ah, Saturday morning found Todd and myself learning how to travel by train to the heart of Morocco, historic Fes.  It was a beautiful day and we briskly walked the .5 km to the Rabat train station.  The tickets were easy to get and the train was on time.  The cars were very  comfortable and we had a compartment to ourselves.  The train sped across the River Bouregreg through Sale and then East towards Fes.

Among other aspects of historical significance, Fes is the home of the Fez.  

We had the great fortune to be guided by Bakou Karim.  Karim is a Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) fellow and has spent 6 weeks in the U.S. participating in a similar program to TGC.  He teaches airline attendants.  He greeted us at the Fes train station with a contagious smile and boisterous laugh.  We met some of his students passing through the Fes medina and they had great respect for him.

One thing we noticed, was how Moroccans pay a lot of attention to children in public places.  It is not uncommon to see perfect strangers patting children on the head or putting a hand on the side of their faces.  More than once, Karim passed a child and acknowledge them, touching the top of their head.  The parents just smiled and Karim would compliment the child, then move on through the medina.

After a 3 hour train ride and some sightseeing, it was time for lunch so Karim took us through a very narrow side path from the medina to a restaurant called Cafe Clock.  Cafe Clock serves, among many other delicious dishes, a camel burger.  Three camel burgers it was.  The surroundings were what we were learning is classic Moroccan decor.  Clock has thick stone walls and narrow winding stairwells.  It was a very memorable lunch.

Afterwards, we walked through the medina, shopping in the souks.  Karim did some bargaining with the vendors and told the owner of a store grinding argan kernels and selling argan oil for both cooking and cosmetics to give us a good price because we were not tourists.  We were friends, he said.  At a kiosk selling handmade candies, Karim pointed at a package of peanut nougat and said "Before there was Snickers, there was this!"  His friend behind the counter made a give of small paper plates of several pieces of various flavors of nougat.  The sun began setting outside the city wall on a great day of learning about this ancient place.  It was time to race back to the train station.

Karim wove the car through some thick stop-and-go traffic and got us there in time to catch the train home.  We said our thank yous and good-byes and literally rode the train into the sunset.  I opened the gift plate of nougat on the train back to Rabat.  It was very good.  A sweet ending to an unforgettable excursion.  Todd and I had planned to travel to Marrakech the next morning.  We mulled over the prospect "should we stay or should be go?"  Sunday morning would tell or would we sort it out that night in Rabat?

Should we stay or should we go?  Hmmm.

OinM