Aug 17 – Continued exploration of Meknes

On our way out, we are waylaid by the cooperatif manager, who took us up to the roof of the building to see the view. Naturally, on the way down, there is a carpet shop on the second floor. We begin another carpet session but try to escape after the unfurling portion. He does his best, even showing us the guest-book with all the wonderful comments from past customers (from Quebec no less!), but we are done with carpet-shopping.

Continuing our exploration of Meknes, we saw passed Bab El Mansour (pictured here) on our way to the Museum of Dar Jamai. The word ‘Bab’ refers to the massive gates set into the walls of all the cities, they are all name Bab something or other. El Mansour means golden so Bab El Mansour means ‘golden gate’ I guess - the Moroccan equivalent of Kim Moon. The museum had all sorts of large old carpets on display, but the building they were housed in was more interesting to us having been the former lodgings of some important minister.

After this, we attempt to explore the souqs but get more than horribly lost when we wander out of the touristy area into the local souqs. There is plenty to see, but after a while we are very hot and thirsty (it is noon-ish) and we cannot make our way back! More wandering later, we finally get directions and find ourselves back in the touristy square where we are accosted by our first sketchy waiter. The cooked salads are not too bad, though the brochettes were completely lacking in seasoning. All the cats hanging around the table meowing at me for meat make me a little nervous, I could never tell whether they were diseased or not.

We tried to find the Christian prisons after this but never did locate them. Finally, the heat and lack of shade drove us to taxi back to the bus station early to relax at a tea salon. This is our first true experience of midday Mediterranean type heat – I completely understand the concept of the siesta now. The bus ride on the government-run system is fairly smooth once we finally get our tickets. For whatever reason, they do not sell tickets before the bus arrives, so we sit around until the ETA. As the bus pulls up, everyone lines up at the counter (crowds around is a more correct term, Moroccans have no concept of queues) – but there is no one to be seen! No one else in the line/crowd seems to think this is unusual, but we are rather confused. Finally, we realize that it is prayer time and that the ticket-sellers have gone to the back office to pray. Once they finish, I am able to snag 3 tickets to Fes.

Next - Aug 17 – Arrival in Fes