More Meknes

We're having an easier day today. We've done so much walking and looking since we've been in Morocco that our feet will fall off and our eyes will seize up if we don't. Only problem is this is a tall old colonial building that serves as a huge echo chamber so every detail of the cleaners' cackling conversation and chiding of the now very hungover concierge can be heard from all floors.

This place is being renovated too so there is newspaper taped over anything useful like maps and places to go, and cloths cover the stairs.

The decorator just carries on as you squeeze past him though and flakes of old paint fall on your head if you're too slow. But the thinner fumes are great for unblocking any budding blocked noses. However , both of us had fuggy heads as a result this morning.

The main square was busier today, so we sat and people watched while trying to rehydrate and de fuzz our heads. A snake charmer was in full flight and we made the mistake of getting a bit too close and having snakes dangled around our necks. The man reckoned the snake was dead but it looked suspiciously perky when he put it back in its basket.

We had a look in Koubbat as- Sufara. The building there was once a reception hall for foreign ambassadors and beneath it lies a huge vault once used for storage. But local guides apparently tell tourists it was a dungeon where Christian slaves were kept. Moulay Ismail used the slaves to build his architectural endeavours.

The medina here us nowhere near as busy as in Fes but like yesterday, there was no hassle either which was a great relief. Found the Bou Inania mederssa which is a Koranic school and once again, we were allowed in and allowed to roam through it and onto the roof which gave a panorama of the medina roofs and courtyards.

Going back down through the old Jewish quarter, we bought bread, strawberries and melon, plus some pancakes from local women, then sat and ate in a shady courtyard while local boys played football on the square in front of us. The square is Place Lalla Aouda where Moulay Ismail inspected his Black Guard. They were black skinned men imported specially from sub Saharan regions and bred with local women supplied by the King to produce off spring to ensure the elite guard was kept going. The Black Guard was his personal militia which sorted out European invaders and the Ottoman Turks.

There is a very strong and almost rotten flower perfume hanging In the air in the Medina and also in the courtyard outside the Hotel Maroc. It's just too much to be pleasant and rather sickly; I don't like it but Nadine does and it turns out to be orange blossom. 

That's odd as oranges are one of my favourite fruits and they smell and taste great but I'll pass on the flowers. We've seen them drying in the medina didn't know what they were until the man in the mosque told us what they were and that they use them for flavouring sweets, scenting rooms and also for clothes and body washing.

So that's Meknes done now, and we're off to Rabat on the train tomorrow. We're expecting it to be a bit of a bland and modern city in comparison, but with some interesting bits lurking in between. We shall see.