Fes

Morocco

April 21, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

The Medina in Fes is probably the world’s largest contiguous car-free area. 

The medina is a neighborhood of about 9000 narrow streets where people live and work and go to school. The tour guide doesn’t let us out of his sight for a moment.  If I get lost, young boys are available for a “small fee” to lead me out of the maze!

I asked my tour companions to describe the medina in Fes.

“Living museum”

“Contrasts in time”

“One thousand contrasts”

“Imperial city”

“Contrasts – Patterns – No order”

“Lost in time”

“Chaotic – Cacophonic”

“Labyrinthine”

“Slices of time”

The main streets are crowded with shops and quite narrow.  The side streets are slim.  And the passageways to the private homes are so narrow, pinched slices really, so that when I look up, I swear the rooftops of the buildings on either side seem to be almost touching!

Is there another place in the world where the local Coca-Cola Bottling Company must own a drove of donkeys to carry the cases of soda to make the deliveries?

Shopping, shuffling and snapping in the Medina,

Jan