We had a slow start after our late arrival. Breakfast was in the second courtyard, adjoining a small pool. After breakfast we ventured out to take in the El Bali area. We got a quick orientation from Said, the riad manager, and then we were off.
We finally got to a bigger street lined with shops. We followed it up and up to Bab Boujeloud, the blue gate. We paused to reorient ourselves and were set upon by the nearest guide. Official guide Abdul turned out to be quite charming. We agreed to have a half day tour around the sights of El Bali.
We wandered around through some of the small streets off of Dar Batha. We then descended through the market and passed by Medersa Bou Inania, opting to visit it later by ourselves. We ducked into a showroom stuffed with over the top wedding seats designed to be carried to two bearers.
We fought off a throng off German tourists for Duygu to enter Kairaouine Mosque, the largest old mosque in Morocco ( only recently eclipsed in size by the monstrous Mosquée Hassan II, built by King Hassan II in Casablanca. ) I made the mistake of saying I was not Muslim and was not allowed to enter. Duygu reported the floor to be incredibly hot as she crossed the main courtyard barefoot.
We stopped briefly at a weaving collective. They wove with cotton, wool and a plant silk made from an agave. They had some very beautiful pieces, but we had been warned that the prices would be higher by having been brought in by a guide. We begged off shopping.
Then, much to Duygu’s trepidation, we were off to the tanneries. We were passed on to a worker from the ‘collective’ who escorted us up through an extensive shop to a viewing gallery. Duygu was issued a ‘berber gasmask’, mint leaves inserted into each nostril. The softening and dyeing vats have been at the location since the 12th century.
After getting our fill of the view and the ammonia produced by the pigeon dropping softening agent, we headed downstairs, carefully avoiding the sales pitch with tales of Istanbul from Duygu. Somehow the manager of the collective has his daughters in a local school run by Turks. The girls are supposedly learning Turkish in addition to Arabic and French.
We rejoined Abdul to head to the Place Seffarine, an open square with a large tree and blacksmiths along one side. We wound our way from here to the Nejjarin Fondouk, a beautifully restored three story house on a central courtyard. Following a six year restoration, the fondouk houses a nice collection of woodwork. I found a map of the dispersal of tree species across Morocco to be of particular interest. From the room, we had a nice view down across El Bali.
Abdul tried to steer us toward an expensive meal at an obvious tourist trap. We begged off and bid him adieu, after he presented us with a pair of Fatima hands. Duygu was thrilled, as she had been looking for one the whole time we had been in Morocco. She had worn a plain gold chain necklace out and now had a nice plain hand to put on it.
We got some further hustle from a guy on the street for a restaurant. At first showing us another overpriced tourist trap that was completely deserted. We promptly walked out. He chased us down and showed us another place that looked a bit more promising. We ended up on a rooftop with a good and an excellent chicken tajine.
After our meal and obligatory mint tea, we headed back onto the street and got sucked into a ceramic shop. They had some very nice things and we spent the next 30 minutes selecting and haggling over the price. Back on the street we walked through more of the market area and stopped to look at a game a couple dried fruit vendors were playing. It turned out to be a variety of parcheesi according to a gentleman standing nearby. He chatted us up and we were suddenly in a carpet shop being shown carpets. We begged off after being shown half a dozen. Our companion was persistent and found that Duygu was looking for lamps. He of course knew just the place. We had passed by it before…but now we were inside looking over the wares. The lamps that Duygu liked were still very expensive and not super exciting in the price range we were looking at. Imagine an ostrich egg sized and shaped brass lamp on a base. We eventually found a different style that we both liked and got the price down below half of the initial offer. Our purchases n hand, we managed to extricate ourselves from our persistent companion and made our way back to the riad.
After freshening up, we headed to the rooftop terrace to relax. I managed to fall asleep for a couple of hours in the warm night air. We finally descended after 9:30PM and had a bit of soup and ‘salad’, a collection of cooked vegetables including eggplant, lima beans, zucchini and carrots. We finally showered and slid into bed exhausted.
