YK has arranged for a 4 day, 3 night desert tour that would pick up the 7 of us and eventually deliver us to Marrakesh. In many ways it was the highlight of our Morocco adventure.
Heading south, our first stop was the town of Ifrane (population: 73,500). It is modeled after a Swiss village with lots of expensive Swiss styled houses. It even features the Lucerne lion carved into a stone.
After our stop in Ifrane we continued south for a short while, stopping in a grove of cedar trees outside the town of Azrou. The grove is inhabited by a band of monkeys (actually Barbary Macaques). They are not native to the area but were introduced and make a very nice living from the food donated by a stream of tourists.
From Azrou we continued south, on largely empty roads, for several hours with the Atlas Mountains in the distance.
We stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant in the middle of nowhere.
Again, we continued south, stopping a few times at lookout areas.
Late afternoon we reached our hotel at the edge of the desert.
the rooms were spacious and comfortable; you could even get WiFi signal if you stood at the right spot in the propertyand the food was decent
We began the next day with a stop at a Berber village for some traditional music.
Gnawa music
Next we drove out to and onto an ancient lava bed.
lake Dayet SarjiBill brought out his frisbee.
We spent the rest of the day visiting some small desert towns where we had lunch and the opportunity to shop for spices, fossils, clothes, and, what I call, camel handlebars.
a lunch at this restaurant was quite goodespecially this type of pizza
Late in the afternoon we were dropped off at the camel lot for our trek to the desert camp.
After our one night in Chechaouen, we headed to Fez. As before the six of us had a hired car, and Bill, once again, set out to find a shared taxi to Fez. This time he was not so fortunate. There seemed to be no one else headed to Fez and Bill wound up taking several buses, arriving much later than we did.
The drive to Fez was similar to the prior day’s drive, but longer(3.5 hours). We asked the driver to make a lunch and bathroom stop and he pulled into a service station with what we took to be a restaurant behind it. We entered a large room with scattered plastic chairs and tables and a small room off to one side. In the small room was a counter dispensing coffee drinks and a cooler with assorted cold drinks. In the main room there was a stall that appeared to be a butcher’s shop. No sign or waiters or menus.
We pulled some tables together and sat down to see what would happen. Nothing happened. When it became evident that there were no servers or menus, I approached the man behind the butcher’s stall. It became evident that my French would not be helpful either. I pointed to a pile of lamb chops and held up six fingers. With nothing else to point to and conversation apparently not possible, I returned to the table.
tajine in front, grill in the back
Sometime later, a man approached and asked if we wanted the lamb chops in a tajine. Not knowing what else to say I said yes. The next visitor was our driver who informed me that a tajine would take 45 minutes and he didn’t want to wait that long. Neither did we. We switched to grilled. They were small but delicious. I still have no idea what else might have been available. We ended up paying about $6 for this meal. If we had time, we could have ordered more to eat to our heart’s content.
“the BEST lamb skewer I’ve ever had!” one of us had declared…
Fez:
We arrived in Fez (population: 1.4 million) late afternoon. We stayed at a modern Airbnb apartment outside of the old town section. Our host showed us around the apartment, arranged a tour guide for the next day and recommended a Turkish bath or hammam. The previous two nights our apartments were cold and no one had felt like showering. The idea of luxuriating in hot water was very appealing.
As it turned out, that’s not what a Turkish bath (about $10) is. We started in a sauna to work up a sweat, then went to a massage table where we were washed with soap and water and then scrubbed down with an abrasive glove, think sandpaper. A layer of dead skin and, I think, several layers of live skin were removed. Certainly felt clean afterwards.
The next morning we had arranged for a tour (about $150 for a full day of driver and a guide) of Fez and the medina (old quarter). Before entering the medina, we visited the outside of the old palace and took in an overview of the city. We also noticed the many storks on the rooftops of the city.
a door to the old palace
Our guide told us about the meaning of their flag: red means blood, green means peace and love etc. The official explanation for the color of red seems more tamed (strength, valor), but he said their independence in 1956 was earned after shedding lots of blood, and the flag reminds them not to forget that.
storks on rooftops
There used to be a sizable Jewish community in Fez, and this is the area where they lived.
The medina is a warren of streets and alleys, some quite narrow. It is very easy to get lost, and we were glad to have a guide leading us. It is believed that over a million people and 10,000+ businesses occupy the medina.
We did go to the world famous tannery, but nothing much was going on because it was not the right season.
the tannery in slow motionAl Attarine Madrasa
And, of course, our guide made the obligatory stops at various high end shops. Ceramics, textiles, and carpets.
the tour ended at the Blue Gate
We basically had one full day plus an evening in Fez, and we did get to taste the highlights of the city. Maybe we will try going to the medina on our own next time, get lost, and fight our way back through the aggressive shopkeepers. Will that make us feel a little more than pure tourists? Somehow I doubt it.
Then, it hit me: We visit friends through Zoom, learn through online classes, make music together virtually. Why not visit the French Alps virtually? So here it goes.
Thyez: photo lifted from booking.com
Day 1(M): an easy day to acclimate
We will browse a couple of street markets. Two weekly markets open on Mondays. One in Viuz-en-Sallaz (population: 4,200), just 10 miles northwest of our home base, Thyez (population: 6,000), and another one in Cluses (17,500) a neighboring city.
After lunch, we will drive up the road for 20 minutes to go to Saint-Gervais-les-Bains (population: 5,500; burgundy dot #6 on the map). Tour the town, then go to the spa for a relaxing afternoon.
We will first stop at the weekly market in Le Grand-Bornand (population: 2,150) on our way to Annecy (population: 125,600; burgundy #13). Walk around the photogenic town of Annecy, pick up some picnic stuff, and sit around at a lakeside park and enjoy a long lunch.
Day 4(TH): Geneva – Gruyeres – Lausanne (orange #1-3)
I personally prefer visiting small mountain villages over big cities in Switzerland, however, we are close to two of the major cities. So we will pay them a visit. First we will stop in Geneva (population: 500,000) for an hour or two and walk around.
Then we will drive to a well known cheese producing little town in the mountains, Gruyeres (population:1,800). Can’t think of this town without cow bells. Or the cheese named after the town. Our lunch will be at a totally touristy place because that’s who we will be: tourists!. Save room for drinks and desserts at the next stop: HR Giger Bar & Museum. What’s that? HR Giger was a Swiss artist and designer who has a cult following, and he founded a museum and bar in town. If you liked the movie “Alien,” you will be in heaven because he designed the set for the movie. We can have drinks and something sweet there.
On the way back, we will stop in the hillside city of Lausanne (population: 137,800) by Lake Geneva. One art museum I really like to visit is Art Brut, a collection of exceptional artworks done by non professional artists.
We are going to Italy today. First, we will have to go through the tunnel underneath Mont Blanc, considered an engineering marvel. It costs a lot (56.90 Euro r/t) to use that tunnel, but it cost a lot (roughly about 500 million euros) to build it & it’s not short (12 km). Then we will go to the first national park of Italy, Gran Paradiso National Park (yellow #2 on the map). Spend a couple of hours enjoying the scenery and meeting some wild animals.
We will go to Aosta (population: 34,000; #3) for a pasta lunch. Walk around town. Then there are many little towns within a 30 minute drive that we could visit. We will first go about 10 miles north to Etrobles (nickname: Jewel of Italy; population: 490; #5) and saint-Rhemy-en-Bosses (population: 370; #4).
Back to Aosta and turn east to visit Fenis (population: 1,820; #6) to check out a castle. Drive another 20 miles further and stop in Arnad (population: 1,260; #7), a wine producing little town. We can try their wine tonight. Stop in Aosta on the way back & pick up some pizza and Italian food for dinner back home. I will get a bottle of lemoncello to drink with appetizers.
Or we can spend the night in Aosta and visit the Matterhorn the next day.
Can you imagine a village in super rich Switzerland where people still live without electricity? We’ll go to Taveyanne (orange #4) this morning & see for ourselves.
Coming back to the civilization, we will stop in Montreux (population: 24,500; orange #5) and walk along the lake.
Next we drive to Yvoire (population: 950, burgundy #12) and have lunch. Walk around the village. Take the 20 minute ferry over to Nyon (population: 28,300; orange #6) and have some dessert and drinks. Ferry back to Yvoire & drive home.
There’s an international research organization whose main question is: what is the universe made of? CERN is right outside of Geneva & you can be treated to a guided tour led by a volunteering scientist. For now, you can get virtual tours.
After lunch, we will drive to a village right above our home in Thyez: Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval (burgundy #5).
We can have a nice leisurely dinner near our home tonight.
image lifted from theculturetrip.com
I devised a one week program because many of our friends planned to visit for a week. But there are so many other villages, mountains, lakes, wineries and museums to visit in the area. A week may have not been enough!
Small Wide World 