The Medina of Fes

Visiting the Medina in Fes can be an amazing, yet intimidating experience.  Tiny streets (over 9,000 apparently), some covered, some uncovered twist and turn in every direction.  When you travel to your accommodation, the taxi can't drive up to the front door.  It stops in a barely wide enough street some distance away and you load up your luggage into a handcart for the rest of the journey to your Riad, generally an old house that has been turned into an accommodation oasis for visiting tourists (Elise is writing more about Riads in another post - suffice to say we were fortunate enough to stay in Le Grand Alcazar, one of the most luxurious in the city).

Elise taking tea in the Riad courtyard on arrival next to the enormous door to our room

Our Riad was near the blue gate which provides one of the more impressive entryways to the Medina.

Walking down the shopping streets in the Medina is very interesting. You can buy all sorts of trinkets and souvenirs, although we left our shopping for late in our visit to Fes when we were more confident in knowing our way around.

Many of the quieter streets are impressively narrow with barely room for two persons to pass.

This is one of the narrowest streets but also perhaps one of the straightest!

A map (accurate) of all the streets apparently doesn't exist (unfortunately for orienteers since the Medina would surely be the greatest location for sprint orienteering anywhere on earth).  When exploring I (Eric) used the compass on my watch to choose the streets going roughly in the direction I wanted until emerging at a point I recognised or could find on the limited map I had (a mosque, a main street or tourist landmark).  For people used to navigating using their phones and getting around in western cities, it's hard to feel comfortable unless you have a guide - which we did use later in the week to visit some of the key landmarks.

Sunset over Fes from the roof of our Riad