Slightly Younger Tiles — The Towering Travelers

On Saturday, we ventured out to visit a tannery. The tanneries of Fes are famous for their age and methods — the oldest dates to the 11th century, and they still operate essentially the same as they did then. The tanneries are on everyone’s must-do lists for Fes — they are smelly, but visually fascinating. Men pre-treat goat, sheep, and dromedary leather before moving the pieces into large vats of dye. When the leather has been sufficiently treated, it is taken up to the hillside to dry for a day. When the pieces are dry, they are brought back into the Medina to be cut and sewn into belts, bags, jackets, pillows, and shoes.

Ally walks through our riad (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The tanneries are surrounded by shops, and in order to see one, you essentially have to look like a tourist until someone offers to take you through a shop to see the tannery. We were picked up by someone who belonged to a cooperative, and they started us out at the leather shop.

It was a clear, cool morning, and the smell was surprisingly mild from the terrace at the top of the leather shop. The man who was showing us around handed us all mint to hold under our noses and then explained the details of the tannery to us as we took pictures.

A man works in the dye vats (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Afterward, we were taken through the shop and encouraged to purchase a variety of products. There’s a tension between the tourists who want to see the tanneries without paying anything and the cooperatives who want to make money, but we had already decided to look for some belts. Jason also found a jacket that fit shocking well, so we more than paid for our pictures.

After the tannery, we were swiftly guided to an argan oil shop, where we re-learned about creating argan oil (I hadn’t realized last time that the seeds are toasted to make edible oil and left untoasted for cosmetics). This shop had a few additional scents and products that the last one didn’t, and it also had Moroccan spice mixes and saffron, which we stocked up on. Saffron is expensive anywhere, but it’s much cheaper in Morocco.

Our third stop (I was starting to worry how many stops there would be, as it’s especially difficult to un-entangle yourself once you’re in the co-op circuit) was a weaving shop where men wove blankets, scarves, bags, and pillows from a combination of cactus threads and sheep’s wool. The man who owned the shop called himself Mohammad Couscous, and he was very excited to show us around the shop and tell us about the different products they made. He also taught us how to put on scarves for trips into the desert — we had a lot of people tell us that coming back to Morocco for a few days in the Sahara was essential.

Emilie learns proper headscarf use (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the weaving shop, we were guided to an embroidery shop, where women were doing some insane double sided embroidery onto table cloths, runners, napkins, and pillows. If you’ve never embroidered, I’m not quite sure how to explain to you how crazy double-sided embroidery is. Usually, you have a pretty side, and an ugly side, and that’s just how it is. The women in the shop in Fes were using a crazy double thread technique that allowed the pretty side to be both sides, so everything they made is reversible. Along with the addition of multiple colors, it was very impressive.

Crazy double-sided embroidery (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In the afternoon, we headed up to the Marinid Tombs, which was supposed to have the best view of the city. It’s the place to go for sunset, but we went up a couple of hours before sunset, which was actually really nice because it wasn’t crowded.

To walk up to the tombs, we exited an outer bab and headed up the hill through the cemetery. The remains of the tombs are at the top of the hill, and they create great frames for the views of the city. Apparently not much is known about the tombs because there hasn’t been a thorough archaeological dig in the area, which is kind of crazy since it is believed to date from the 14th century. It’s a really cool area, and a great way to get a panoramic view of the city.

Hiking up through the cemetery (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Fes, with the Atlas Mountains in the distance

More views of Fes through ancient walls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Arriving at the tombs at the top of the hill (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Some of the more adventurous climbers (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset from a teahouse in the city (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One thing that’s difficult in the old medinas, and especially in Fes, is that only half of the streets/alleys are on any map, even a downloaded Google map, so it’s difficult to figure out how everything connects. This creates some wonderful quiet wandering, but it also leaves obvious tourists susceptible to local teenagers, who will tell you that you’re going toward a dead end, guide you in a different direction, and ask for payment. At one point this happened when we were actually lost and unable to just brush the kid off, and he started yelling at us for not paying him enough. It’s uncomfortable, and difficult to always avoid.

For dinner, we went to a place that served both traditional Moroccan food and what I would call interpretations of other foods. We were constantly amused that the depictions of tacos were clearly pressed burritos. Ally and I both got pastillas, a traditional Moroccan dish consisting of meat and nuts wrapped in phyllo dough and covered with cinnamon and icing. It’s weirdly sweet for a savory dish, but sweet-savory combos seem to be a favorite in Moroccan cuisine.

A pastilla (yes, that’s sugar) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Sunday, we explored some more of the central medinas of Fes before catching our flight to Lisbon.

We first visited Al Attarine Madrasa, which is a 14th-century center of religious learning. The courtyard is incredibly intricate and beautiful, and the student’s quarters above are much more plain, but also provide beautiful views of the surrounding city. The tile work at this madrasa is really insane — there’s a bunch of Arabic calligraphy tiles, which are incredibly beautiful.

Another incredibly ornate room (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Emilie and Ally with some of the calligraphy tile (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Views through a window (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also walked by the nearby Kairaouine Mosque and University, which is considered the oldest university in the world. We were not allowed to go in, but there were a couple of spots where we could look through open doors onto the beautiful courtyards within.

We also wandered to the river, took pictures of one more bab, and had some tea before finding lunch.

The river through Fes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

For lunch, we ended up at the restaurant of one of the bigger riads near ours. It had a really large, beautiful inner courtyard, and it was a lovely, quiet, green escape from the surrounding medina. I immediately made a cat friend, who jumped on my lap, purred, and snuggled before the riad owner came and picked him up, saying that he usually puts the cat in his room for meal times so he won’t harass the patrons.

Nicole’s new cat friend (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunlight through a big tree in the courtyard (have you noticed Jason’s trip-long sunstar obsession?) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The lunch was a perfect goodbye to Fes, and we headed to Portugal full and happy.

Monday was our full day in Lisbon, and we all immediately knew that we wanted more time there. It’s just a very appealing city. The buildings are colorful and interesting to look at, the hills keep things interesting and beautiful, and the food is great.

Nighttime streets in Lisbon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One thing that we had really missed in Morocco was good coffee, so we visited two coffee shops on Monday morning. Both were delicious. We also dropped by Bertrand, which is the oldest operating bookstore in the world — it dates to 1732.

Emilie in front of Bertrand (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In order to get a feel for the city without stressing ourselves out trying to see all the sights in one day, we signed up for a free walking tour. This was a lot of fun and made us realize how little we knew about Portugese history. The 1755 earthquake, which was one of the most defining events in Lisbon’s history, was the most frequent topic as we walked through some of the central neighborhoods of the city.

Narrow original streets in Lisbon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The 1755 earthquake happened on November 1 (All Saints Day), which meant that most of the Christians in Lisbon had lit candles in their houses and gone to church for the morning. When the earthquake, which was an estimated 8.5-9.0 in magnitude, hit in Lisbon, the churches and other large buildings collapsed, the candles set the city on fire, and the tsunami killed an enormous number of survivors of the first two catastrophes. While there were more surviving humans and buildings in the Jewish and Muslim communities on the hillsides, the center of the city had to be completely rebuilt. It’s really interesting to see the differences between the old surviving architecture and the much newer template of the rest of the city — the buildings are all colorful, and have similar architecture, but the grid, including streets and buildings, is much wider in the rebuilt part of the city.

One of the churches that lost its roof in the earthquake (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also learned about the 1974 revolution, which felt surprisingly recent. A military coup marched into Lisbon to overthrow the authoritarian regime, and an unexpected civil resistance joined in. Impressively, the government stepped down with almost no violence, and when the public took to the streets to celebrate, someone put a red carnation into a soldier’s gun. The symbol spread through the streets, and became the namesake of the peaceful Carnation Revolution.

Our guide also walked us through Alfama, one of the original remaining neighborhoods in Lisbon. It features tiny, narrow apartments inhabited by mostly older residents, and it feels like stepping back in time.

A view over the Praça do Comércio (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up toward the Alfama neighborhood (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The residents of Alfama still use by-hand communal laundry (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A resident of Alfama looks out over the street (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After our walking tour, we went to the Time Out Market, which is a very cool (and quite crowded) indoor market with a bunch of shops and places to eat.

Tasting an egg tart in Time Out Market (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A Santa driving a streetcar (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After lunch, we went to a wine tasting shop, where we could use a pre-loaded card to purchase small pours of different Portugese wines. Green wines, or wines created with young grapes, were one of our focuses — we think they might become trendy after rose.

After sampling a considerable amount of wine, we got a ride down to LX Factory, which Emilie aptly described as “Hipster Disneyland, in the best possible way.” It’s a collection of shops and restaurants in old factories and containers, and there are different kinds of visual art everywhere. We walked through some shops and had a craft beer at some tiny old school tables, which were cute but problematically small for Jason and I.

An adorable plant shop (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A combination bookshop and artist workshop (Photo/Jason Rafal)

For dinner we went to A Valenciana, which was written up in an Eater guide we found. It was a really nice example of a traditional Portuguese restaurant — the other people in the restaurant were mostly locals, and the dishes were simple and delicious. We ordered a lot of Piri Piri chicken, which we learned was from Portugal, which came with rice and French fries. They actually forgot Emilie’s vegetarian dish (we never actually figured out what it was), but she was a very good sport and ate carbs instead. It felt like a very Portuguese way to end the trip.

That evening, we walked back to our hotel, wandering the streets nearby for a while. Everything was all lit up for the holidays, and we even found a Feliz 2020 sign. We’ve all decided that we’ll try to come back to Portugal soon.