January 28, 2016
Finally getting to Afria! And we're starting out stong visiting the Blue City Chefchaouen, the ancient ruins of Volubilis, and Fez. Two Unesco world heritages the same week!
Time for Africa! After a short ride accross the strait of Gibraltar we reached Tangier, Morocco. But this wasn’t really going to be a stop. As soon as we had gotten urselves and the truck through customs and immigrations we set off for the first actual stop in Africa, Chefchaoun, also known as the Blue City. The Blue City might seem like a weird name at first, but it makes sense as soon as you see it. Almost every building is partly (sometimes entirely) blue. A beautiful town to wander around in, and also really impressive from the mountain-side walks with all the blue colours.
After Chefchaouen we headed for Fez, with a stop at the Unesco world heritage site Volubilis on the way. Volubilis is an archeological excavation of an ancient Roman city, fairly well-preserved, and especially famous for its many mosaics. A must see for anyone interested in Roman history, or just ancient ruins in general.
Upon reaching Fez we visited the second Unesco world heritage for the week, the Fez medina (old town), the oldest medina in Morocco. We had a tour guide for the Medina, which was probably good as the streets were narrow, windy, and the entire area basically a maze harder to navigate than Venice. The guide showed us around the main sights, covering the oldest mosque, the famous tannery, a spice shop, and a carpet factory and shop.
To wrap up Fez we visited a local hammam, or Turkish bath, where we got the deluxe treatment. This was really not a tourist place though, this was a proper local hammam. The deluxe treatment here was not a massage or anything, it was more like not having to scrub yourself, and it included some violent stretching and scrubbing. But it worked really well. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so clean before!
