While we were super sad to leave our temporary home in Granada, we were very excited about where we were headed next: Morocco! We only spent eight days in Morocco, but it was a jam-packed eight days - so much so that I'm splitting the trip there into three entries, because we saw SO MUCH, did so much, and each and every day was full to the brim with adventure, culture, history, and so much more.

We did a bunch of research on where we wanted to go in Morocco and how we wanted to travel in this North African country. Ultimately, we stuck with our "breadth over depth" trend for this trip and decided to see a little bit of everything. After doing some research on trying to navigate the various parts of the country on our own, we decided to look into tour groups. We found a company that had great reviews, and was very reasonably priced, so we went for it. In eight days, we would see Casablanca, Marrakech, drive through the High Atlas Mountains, visit and stay in the Dades Gorge, ride camels and "camp" in the desert, spend two nights and a full day exploring Fes, tour around Chefchaouen (the blue city), and cap it all off with some time in Rabat, the capital city, before returning to Casablanca. 

We left Granada and drove the one-ish hours to Malaga with a stop along the beach for lunch. We dropped off our rental and hopped a short 1.5 hour flight to Casablanca. I'm a pretty confident driver, and have driven in many different parts of the world, but just during our trip from the airport to our first night's stay, I was quite happy that we decided to go the tour guide route (and this was reinforced throughout the trip, as navigating the roads in places like Casablanca, Marrakech, and Fes was no joke). Early the next morning, we were picked up by our tour guides, M'hammad and Abdul; we loaded up the car and began the three hour drive to Marrakech. Once in Marrakech, we were dropped at our first Riad to get settled in before our afternoon tour of the city. This was our first introduction to Riad living, and it was only the tip of the iceberg, we would soon find out. Riads are essentially hotels that were historically family homes with a courtyard garden in the middle (usually open-air to the roof)- they were typically owned by wealthy families, merchants, or even royalty. Our first Riad was gorgeous and felt really over-the-top, even though it probably ended up being the most basic of all of our stays on the trip!

After getting settled in and washed up a little after our long car ride, we were brought to a lovely restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was our first real introduction to the Moroccan-style meal, which seems to consist of anywhere between 4-7 courses. Even if you just order one thing, say, Chicken Tagine, you are likely to get a basket of amazing bread and olives (so many olives!), then a Moroccan Salad, then your main dish (we almost always got some form of Tagine), and then a plate of fresh fruit, yogurt, and always, always, ending with a mint tea (everywhere you go, they're always bringing you mint tea!). Other times, you might also get a bowl of Harira, a Moroccan soup, and some Briouat or Metaxas (like a Moroccan Baklava) or Moroccan Spiced oranges. Sometimes both. Or all. It's nuts. There's just so much food! And everything, everything is delicious. And everything has saffron in it.

After lunch, we met our local guide (our guides weren't "certified" to be local guides in all places on our trip, so they had other locally-certified guides that they would periodically hire to take us on tours) who took us through the winding and narrow alleyways of the medina, including the souks of the Jewish Quarters, and to the Bahia Palace. It was a whirlwind or smells, colors, history, and sensations. Though built several hundred years later in the 1800s, the Bahia Palace was incredibly reminiscent of the Alhambra in Granada, but still retained its incredibly vibrant colors, which really gave us an idea of how much more beautiful the Alhambra was in its earlier years. The tile work, stained glass, and intricacies of the plaster-work at the palace was simply stunning. Walking through the Jewish Quarters, and visiting an old synagogue in the area, we also had our first introduction to the immense Jewish history that we would encounter again and again throughout Morocco. While there has been a Jewish population in the area for over 2000 years (since before Roman rule), Jewish refugees arrived in Morocco in the late 1300s after the Spanish drove them out. Everywhere we went, there were relics of the influence of the Jews on the culture and history, and the stories we were told over and over were of great respect and civility between the Muslims and Jews. What we now know as the "Star of David," was also previously known as the "Seal of Solomon," which was prominent in Islamic and Jewish traditions dating back centuries, and was previously featured on the Moroccan flag before they changed it to the pentagram which symbolizes the Five Pillars of Islam. This part of history was evident not only in the Jewish Quarters in Marrakech, but also in the Bahia Palace, and literally everywhere we went in Morocco. 

While on our tour, we were taken to a women's co-op for Argan oil, spices, and other cosmetics and herbal "cures." We would soon learn that the co-op model was very prevalent throughout Morocco, and the government subsidizes the co-ops as a way to promote the history of traditional artisanal crafts throughout the country. Many, if not most, of these co-ops primarily feature crafts by single mothers, or women in difficult circumstances, who typically receive 90% of the sale price of any of their sold goods.

We were delivered back to our Riad mid-evening exhausted from the full day. The kids were beat and decided to stay home and Nicole and I headed out to the Jemaa el-Fnaa, which is the main square in the old-town medina, which was just a half-mile from our Riad. This is a good time to mention that we were visiting Morocco in the third week of Ramadan, so things were a little different everywhere than they might be normally, and we think it was an overall bonus. Basically, after fasting all day every day, the people of Morocco would all disappear at around 5:30 to break their fast and for their evening prayers. This meant that the main square, usually bustling with thousands of people, was almost dead when we first headed out at 7:30pm. This was a great opportunity for Nicole and I to walk around and get a lay of the land without being caught up in throngs of people. After meandering down one of the narrow side-streets laden with shops and curios of every kind, we returned to the square to find it filling in with people, entertainers, and a palpable energy. We met several artisans, grabbed some delicious dinner, and Nicole got to meet a friendly monkey. Overall, it was a great first day in Morocco!

The next day, we were picked up and spent a long many hours driving up and away from Marrakech into and through the High Atlas Mountains. Generally, we couldn't believe how much the landscape and terrain reminded us of Colorado and Utah, with high alpine peaks and desert climates intersecting each other throughout. Though we regularly stopped for pictures and to stretch our legs (and do some teeter-tottering) along the way, our first destination was Ouarzazate and the kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou. Kasbahs were initially built as protected citadels or fortified stops for caravans making their way through the country for one reason or another, and are usually situated on hills or hilltops as a form of additional defense. Ait Ben Haddou, originally built in the  11th century, was a main stop as people traveled from the Sahara towards Marrakech; it is largely an earthen-clay architecture, similar to adobe architecture in the southwest US. It has also gained most of its notoriety as the setting for many, many movies and TV series, such as Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, The Mummy, Prince of Persia, and most recently, Game of Thrones, and it's easy to see why; as we hiked up the winding road and through the narrow walkways, we could feel the history all around us. One of the coolest stops in the city walls was at an artist who uses saffron and indigo watercolor to make paintings that are initially invisible to the eye until held over heat. This "disappearing ink" was apparently a method used to send secrete messages between people traveling through the Sahara (and the artwork he produced was stunning). We have some really cool video of the process, but Google Sites doesn't allow for video posting in these galleries :(. We hiked further up to the top of the hill (past an ancient synagogue) where the remnants of an old outlook stood and the views of the desert were stunning (though we didn't stay long, as it was super windy and we were being pelted by sand and debris in the air). Our final stop for the day was the Dades (Dah-Des) Valley, with a quick stop in the Dades Gorge. Again, this area was very reminiscent of Utah, with desert canyons of sandstone and slickrock topography all around (complete with multi-pitch climbs in the gorge). Some might recognize the picture of the winding road as featured in a Cadillac ATS commercial from 2012. That night, we were brought to yet another insanely fancy accommodation in the valley with an amazing multi-course dinner and delicious breakfast in the morning. We then hopped back in the car towards Mizourga and the Saharan Desert. 

On our third day, we drove from the Dades valley another many hours towards the Mizourga Desert. For what it’s worth, this was the only downside of our entire trip: we spent A LOT of time in the car. Our guides were great at making sure we had plenty of stops along the way, but we spent between 3-6 hours driving most days. Today was one of the six hour days, but, having said all of that, like each other day of the entire trip, it ended up being totally worth it. One of our primary stops on our travel to the desert was to see the Khettara irrigation tunnels that were originally built to carry water to the Tafilalet region. As we approached closer to Mizourga, we noticed several parallel stretches of dirt mounds lining the landscape for seemingly miles and miles. Abdel explained that each of these mounds of dirt was a hole that had been hand-dug to extend the water channel beneath the surface to transport water from the far reaches of the desert to the settlements all around. They basically looked like a long series of human-sized ant-hills. We pulled over to explore the site some more, took turns cranking on the bucket system they used to pull the loose dirt to the surface, and then descended a steep stairway down into the earth below to find ourselves in the tunnel that had once served as the primary water source for Fezna. Where it had been a hot and dry 80-85 degrees above ground, it was chilly and humid underground. It was very cool (see what I did there?). These waterways exist all over various regions of Morocco and Abdel informed us that families in the settlements would take turns digging the tunnels further and further out into the desert to tap into the water table, with each line feeding a collective reservoir for the community to draw from (I included an aerial pic I found online). Abdul told us that his family helped dig them for his community when he was younger. They are not still used today, but serve as a great example of engineering and high-level understanding of hydrology, providing water and sustenance in the other inhospitable environments. 

After a little more driving, we arrived at what was probably our most anticipated and most memorable experience of our whole time in Morocco. We pulled over at a nondescript building along the road to find a small line of camels resting on the ground, waiting to carry us off into the Sahara Desert. We had stopped at a small women’s co-op earlier in the day to pick out hand-woven and dyed scarves, or Keffiyehs, to use as protection against the sun and sand for our excursion, and we were very happy we had them. Our guides helped us wrap and tie the Keffiyehs around our heads and faces and we loaded onto our camels, one-by-one. Climbing aboard a camel is a bizarre experience, almost nothing like mounting a horse. The camel is lying down when you climb aboard and then awkwardly stands, back legs first, then front legs, while you hang on and giggle. Once we were all situated, we began our nearly two hour stroll through the desert aboard these friendly beasts. It was SO COOL! We were incredibly fortunate to have pretty fantastic weather, with only a light breeze blowing some sand in the air, making us thankful for our Keffiyehs, but we weren’t being pelted the way we were at Ait Ben Haddou (after that experience, we were quite fearful for what our desert journey might have in store). We stopped about 3/4 of the way through the walk to enjoy the sunset from atop one of the sweeping dunes, then climbed back aboard our lumbering friends for the short journey to our “camp.” 

When we had heard about Berber camps out in the desert, we imagined maybe loose canvas tents with cots to sleep on, an outhouse, and we just hoped, again, it wouldn’t be too windy while we attempted sleep. Once again, however, we were blown away with the accommodations. As we approached our encampment, it was clear it was set up for luxury. We were greeted in the main tent with spiced oranges and mint tea (always mint tea!) and shown to our tents (one for the kids, one for us). They were canvas, yes, but they were far from flimsy, and far from rustic. Each had a HUGE and comfortable bed, a full bathroom with hot water, and was rock-solid to withstand anything the desert could throw at it (they even had radiators, which we didn’t need). We settled in and then joined others in the large dining tent where we were once again spoiled with a seemingly endless train of delicious Moroccan food. 

After dinner, we were invited to join others at the camp around a large bonfire where our guide Abdel joined the camp staff in an awesome display of drumming and singing of traditional Berber songs and invited us to join them for some fun dancing around the fire. Afterwards, Nicole and Miles retired to bed and Carter and I stayed up a little later to lay on a nearby dune and watch shooting stars flash across the sky. It was simply magical. 

The next morning, we had an amazing breakfast before loading back into our Land Cruiser and heading towards Chefchaouen, the “Blue City.”

After leaving the desert, we drove through Ifrane, known as Morocco's Switzerland (there's actually a ski area there that's apparently open for like 4-6 weeks every year), on our way to Fes. The weather was raining and cold, but we took a short break to say hi to some monkeys, who were happy to climb on our shoulders for peanuts (literally). Soon, we arrived in Fes. Every country, it seems, has great "rivalries" of sorts - between cities, sports teams, pizza (Chicago), etc. In the U.S., there's NYC vs Boston, LA vs San Fran, Cubs vs White Sox, and the list goes on. In Spain, there is great contestation between Madrid and Barcelona. In Morocco, it's between Marakech and Fes. For what we saw, we liked both places a lot, but I preferred Fes, and I think the rest of the family shares that sentiment. To be honest, it's entirely possible that has a lot to do with our INSANE accommodations. As mentioned, everywhere we had stayed on this trip, including in the desert, was way above our expectations, but this place took the cake. We had visited palaces, but this time, we were staying in one! The Riad Salam Fes is a restored historic palace that was a shared home of some royal descendants at some point in time, and that's exactly how we felt staying there. Inside, it was easily as beautiful as any building or architecture we had visited in all of our travels, with mosaic tile everywhere, intricate plaster work, hand-carved cedar wood doors and trim work, stained glass windows, gold and bronze gilded everything else, and several pools and fountains. It was just wow. What's even crazier is that our guides had booked us two separate rooms, and the kids were put in an expansive suite that the four of us could've easily stayed in (we even offered, but they said it was already paid for and couldn't be changed). Once again, we're pretty convinced they made zero money off of us.

The Riad was located right in the heart of the old medina, or walled city, down some of the narrowest alleyways we'd seen yet in our travels. I wrote earlier about how I called Granada the "Canyon City," because it felt like we were always walking down narrow cobblestone streets, but this was much more dramatic. There were many places we walked on our tour where folks who have a more robust body composition would not be able to go, and it was tricky to pass if there was oncoming pedestrian traffic. As with other places we had visited, the alleyways within the old-town medinas were a labyrinth where one could easily get lost, and we were told this was, in part, intentional design to defend against potential invaders.

We were led through this maze of narrow passageways by another local guide and this guy was fantastic. He led us through the markets where we saw just about everything you can imagine, from butcher shops to sweet shops, and everything in between (I'll spare you the pictures of the butcher shops). We went by another Berber rug co-op where we saw some of the most amazing and HUGE carpets, all hand woven. We went by the leather co-op, where they prepare and dye the hydes for what are considered to be some of the best leather products in the world (we're not big leather people, but it was still really cool). The treatment process doesn't smell the best, so they hand you a sprig of mint to hold up to your nose (or shove up your nose, as Carter did :)) while you take the tour. We stopped by yet another ancient synagogue, a metalsmithing and jewelry shop (one of the trades, we were told, that was taught to the Moroccan people by the Jews), a needle-pointing co-op, and a public bake-house and public clothes & yarn-dying stations. For both of the latter, the history was that many people couldn't afford to have ovens in their homes, or a laundering station, so there was an oven and a large dunking facility that were available to the public to use and folks would bring their prepared dough (in the case of the oven, or yarn/ textiles, in the case of the dunking station) and leave it to be baked during the day, then come back through later, before dinner to pick it up. 

After meandering through the marketplace some more and having another amazing Moroccan meal, we left the medina through the famous Blue Gate of Fes (which is green mosaic on the inside to represent Islam), and headed out to a few other sites in greater Fes, including a Jewish cemetary with gravestones dating back to the 1800s, another palace (seriously, our Riad was more impressive), and a ceramic co-op. The ceramic co-op was super cool. We watched the artisans use manual kick-wheels to throw their pieces, the kiln that is heated using olive pits (which are plentiful, as there are ALWAYS olives at every meal), and every step of the process for each different kind of pottery they produce. We watched one artist hand-soldering silver bands in perfect symmetry, another hand-painting designs in meticulous detail, and yet another who was chipping away at tiny pieces of pottery with rather crude tools to create intricate mosaic pieces that fit together with such precision, it was hard to believe. We were told here, as we had been told in several other artisinal co-ops, that many of the craftspeople who do the fine, meticulous and detailed work, only work for 3-4 hours a day, because the work strains their eyes so much.

Fes was the only time on the trip when we stayed in one place for two nights, and we didn't complain. After another good night's sleep in Riad Salam Fes, we were off to "The Blue City" of Chefchaouen. The story goes that the walls of the city were originally painted blue by the Jews who fled to the area in the 1930s, escaping Nazi persecution. While there are very few Jews still in the area, the tradition remains and some say the blue hue helps soften the glare of the hot summer sun. The old medina part of the city is built on a mountainside, with cobblestone streets winding this way and that throughout. We were dropped off and had lunch in the Plaza Uta El Hammam and wandered around for hours from there through the shops, homes, and historic sites. Something about that blue hue was incredibly peaceful and inviting, and we greatly enjoyed our time there. We stayed in a lovely hotel that was nicer than most anywhere we've stayed on our own during our travels, but felt incredibly modest in comparison to our stay in Fes or really any other accommodations we'd had on the tour. 

On our last full day of the tour, we drove several hours to Rabat, the capital city of Morocco and toured the Kasbah there, which overlooks the ocean, then had lunch on the waterfront before continuing on our way to Casablanca. We had hoped to visit the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, which is one of only two mosques in Morocco that allows non-Muslim visitors, but because of Ramadan, it was closed when we arrived. This was a small bummer, but it was still magnificent to visit from outside. The 200 meter minaret makes it the largest religious building in the world, and it can host over 100,000 worshippers. The entire complex is built right on an outcrop jutting over the ocean, and is stunning in its grandeur and beauty. After the mosque, we were driven to our Air B&B by the airport and said goodbye to M'hammed and Abdul. It was a jam-packed trip, and we were all exhausted and ready for some independent time. We are really happy we took the tour approach for our first visit to Morocco, but always being on somebody else's schedule, and in the car with strangers, pleasant and helpful as they were, is taxing. Another thing that wore me down, in particular, was how aggressive many folks were towards tourists. It wasn't always the case, and we had plenty of very lovely experiences along the way, but it often seemed that if you even poked your head into a shop, you'd be approached and instantly being sold this that or the other, and when you said "no thank you," many salespeople would continue to offer, bargaining and not taking no for an answer. That makes me terribly uncomfortable and was also exhausting. Having said that, we got away with some wonderful keepsakes and great deals :).