Fes

Ugh. Don't bother.

[Update]

First: apologies. I (Lucy) posted this, but I accidentally did it under Brian’s login.

 

Second: no, nothing bad happened in Fes. We just didn’t like it there. It’s a very large city. It is crowded and dirty. But the real issue is that everyone is relentlessly, insanely pushy. Everyone wants to make you their mark. They are selling tours, goods, taking you to their father/uncle/cousin so he can show you their workshop. Taking you to a restaurant that their mother loves. On and on and on. It gets exhausting saying no, and you have to be an asshole to some people to get them to back off.

 

Maybe if we had been shopping it would have felt a little better, but I doubt it. And as we are on the road for 6 months we don’t have the space or desire to tote around more stuff.

 

Also off-putting, we had bad food the first two days. Luckily, we were able to remedy that the remainder of our stay by finding more palatable fare. We broke our dry streak by trying local Moroccan wines. The white was acceptable, the rose was less so, and the red was terrible. And considering the prices vs. what we paid in Spain for a good bottle of wine, I am reverting to our dry stance for the remainder of Morocco (Brian reserves the right to try some local beers).

Royal Palace. The only decent pavement runs to this gate then dead ends.

A decent hike up to the 13th Century Marind Tombs.

A tethered donkey, a cemetery, a city wall, and everything else.

Chefchaouen

Apologies for the delay in updates. We have been both very busy and very lazy. We're talented that way! We traveled from Granada to Algeciras (across the bay from Gibraltar) via train, then took a bus to Tarifa - the southernmost point of continental Europe. We gazed upon Gibraltar, then took the ferry into Tangier. We spent only two days there: just enough to get our feet under us, find an ATM for dirham, and get MorocTel eSIMs for our phones (20GB of data for 60 days is 200dh/$20 USD: cheap for us, expensive for the locals). 

Then we hopped a bus to Chefchaouen where we have been ensconced for a week. It has been much cooler here in the mountains, we caught a bit of rain too so we've spent a couple days hunkered down in our cozy warm Dar. It is chilly here - in the 40s most days, with sun. Morocco is completely new to us, so this has been a good spot to sink in and experience it. Language-wise we are completely at sea. Most of the people speak a Berber dialect as their first language, which is rendered with an Arabic script. I can understand neither the spoken or written word. Luckily, most people follow up with French, Spanish, or English. Signs are usually in at least one or two European languages. Officially French is the second language in Morocco (the first being Arabic). We've found that most Moroccans wish for it to be English though. Many people speak better English than French.

Food-wise we are in heaven. We have made a huge shift from our ham and wine days in Spain. The cuisine is tagines and couscous and mint tea and tasty breads. Plus the usual fruit, veg, etc. No ham or alcohol for us for the next 6+ weeks. Chefchaouen, however, is up in the mountains of northern Morocco and apparently the home of a large cannabis farming community. We are offered weed or hash daily, and have even been offered a visit to a local cannabis farm.

Chefchaouen is usually called "The Blue City", because both in the medina and beyond the walls the buildings are painted in several shades of blue. The way to navigate the medina is to enjoy the views but not walk up the blue painted walkways because they lead to the private homes. Other than that, enjoy being lost in the car-free byways. The entire place is filled with cats, which are fun to watch.

Despite some concerns, the vendors are generally very polite and not overly pushy. We have seen no hints of crime. People are friendly. The other tourists are (mostly) well-behaved. The prices are embarrassingly low. The practice of Islam seems to be fairly easygoing. Some women are in headscarves, but many are not. The prayer calls are not answered by the populace racing to the mosques. The food seems to be halal, but I am no expert.

However, we are here with colder weather which means people are covered up. I do wonder what it is like in the heat of the summer when tourists opt for skimpier outfits. More conflict possible under those circumstances. Also, probably smellier. All those cats....

A Classic Blue Stairway

Lucy and the Snack Bar Cat, at the Spanish Mosque

The kitty making dough on Brian's arm.

The View of Chefchaouen on our way to the Spanish Mosque

The Spanish Mosque from our roof

Reading on Our Rooftop Terrace

Our typical breakfast spread, so much food...

Obligatory Tourist Selfie

Somewhere in this photo is our Dar, taken from the Kasbah tower.

Lucy at the top of the Kasbah Tower.

Another selfie, from inside the Kasbah tower this time.

Lucy striking a pose.

Still pretty lush for winter in the Kasbah

Lucy cannot miss an opportunity to sniff a rose.

Fun with lens flare

Glamour shot

Our last sunset in Chefchaouen looking over the Kasbah

Our surprise on the way out of town. It snowed above us on our last night.

 

~Lucy & Brian

Alhambra Itself

We've skirted around and about the Alhambra. We explored the free areas pretty early in our visit, but waited until after the holidays to go through the ticketed areas. We are trying our best to avoid crowds, and the ticketed areas are the most indoors and congested. Unfortunately, the holidays here just seem to go on and on.... New Years is immediately followed by Reconquest Day, then Tres Migos, then Epiphany. 

When we finally entered the Nasrid Palaces and gardens, we also did the Generalife. But then we returned a second day to go to the Alcazaba, because it was socked in with fog our first day. We also circled back into the Alhambra Museum inside the Charles V Palace. I can see the tourist experience doing all this in one day as a necessity, but spreading it over three days was delightful. We got to sink in and really enjoy it. 

The gardens were quite a surprise. It's January and a bit barren, but roses and irises and snowdrops were blooming. The horror of ornamental kale is found here too. The orange trees lured us in and I peeled one of the fruits. Brian took a big bite and I'm lucky I was standing to the side, else he would have spit all over me. SO SOUR. I, wisely, only nibbled mine.

The artistry of the Alhambra is the major draw. The tiles and the woodwork and all the amazing architecture. Now that we have enjoyed this, we are all cued up to see Morocco and enjoy the same, without the Catholic overlay.

Alcazaba in the Fog

Brian in the Nasrid

Brian in the Generalife (post-orange)

Lucy in the Alcazaba (still foggy)

The towers of the Nasrid Palace

The Gardens of the Nasrid - they knew water

View from the Nasrid to the Generalife

Love among Topiary

Rosas

Bouganville and bright sun

The Charles V Palace

Back to the Alcazaba in the sunshine

The Alcazaba Belltower that rang all of 2 January. And yes, Brian lost his sunglasses in Philadelphia.

A few more observations: the Alhambra cats are delightful. The Wine Gate is a lie (no wine). And we had to show our passports to get to six different parts of the monument. We literally have only shown our passports at the airport before now. Bizarre.

~Lucy

Cementerio de Granada

Yes, everyone comes to Granada for the Alhambra. But if you go uphill east of the Alhambra, past the ticket sellers, car parks, up up up….you get to a really, really great cemetery. It has it all. Water features. Statuary and cool engravings. Orange, olive, cypress, topiary, and some other unidentified tree with an amazing scent. View points that look out to the snowy Sierra Nevada Mountains. An elevator – the first I have ever seen in a cemetery. Collective burial sites for members of religious orders. Memorials to those killed by Franco. History remembered. 

I'm a sucker for topiary.

The elevator in the cemetery - we opted to take it up, not down.

Franco's Victims - Remembered

Yes, I'm a little pink. Did I mention this is up a big hill?

And smack in the middle – a 13th century archaeological site. I swear, if they had tucked a library into a corner I would still be there. All my favorite things. 

 

Archaeological site, cypresses, and a view of the snowy Sierras.

Plus Brian and an olive tree.

Of course, it is also full of people (dead ones). The cemetery dates to the mid-to-late 1800s (long before Vatican II), so the majority of the gravesites are wall niches. Newer areas include columbaria for those who chose cremation. Since we visited just after Christmas there were flowers everywhere. Except for those spots slapped with the threatening sticker: rent due. 

Walls of niches, well decorated.

 

"You must pay the rent, I can't pay the rent!"

If you aren’t familiar with that situation, many European grave sites are rentals only. None of this “in perpetuity” nonsense. If your family and friends opt to not renew your lease, out you go. There are real concerns in the US funeral industry that with the Boomer generation nearing its expiration date, there are not nearly enough burial sites available. Expenses are already high and will get worse. The shift to cremation has lessened the pressure, but not nearly enough. Keep your eyes on that industry to see some real innovations in the coming years. 

In the meantime, this is a pretty sweet place to be planted.

A little more topiary to round it out.

 ~Lucy