Day 73 - 2/10/11 - Sunday - Fes - Meknes

It was finally time to say goodbye to Fes, after what would represent the longest single stay at any location on our trip. We hadn't set out to spend 5 nights in Fes, however it is colourful and interesting, and a great place to shop like Marrakesh, however with less hassle.

The trip to Meknes cost us 50 Dirham (equivalent to 5 Euro or $A7). This included a 10 minute taxi ride and 2 rail tickets. One certainly wouldn't get very far in Australia for that. Ironically, some locals (who were not a taxi) stopped and asked us where we wanted to go and said they would take us to the railway station for 5 Euro. We laughed at them and walked away.

The system in Morocco of grand taxis and petit taxis is quite interesting. The grand taxis basically go intercity, do not have meters, and have set prices. Everyone we have seen are old Mercedes. The Petit taxis are Fiat Unos, a tiny taxi that requires luggage to be placed on the top rack of the car roof. (Not such a problem given it rarely rains). In NFL talk, our dark skinned driver could be described as a solidly built 6"6" and 250 pound linebacker. Whilst he lifted our luggage as easily as a preschool child lifts a lollipop, fitting in to the petit taxi was much more of a challenge for him. I thought of telling him he should be driving a grand taxi, however refrained, in case he didn't like the joke, and decided to crush me.

It was Sunday, and Meknes was mostly shut, so was difficult to get a feel of what it was like. We ate in the main square, surrounded by cats at our table, and the restaurant dished up our worst meal thus far in Morocco, which was disappointing.

Walking around Meknes wasn't awe inspiring like Marrakesh or Fes, so we kicked back in the hotel, and for the first time since Russia I watched some TV, as the room had satellite channel. An interesting mix of 500 channels, which takes a while to surf through. Why do the porno channels always start at 100 I wonder? Anyway, I didn't come to Morocco to watch documentaries on the rise of communism in China, however it was relaxing and a break from medinas for a while.

Cinthia caught up on her photo backlog, being the administrator of photos, backups, etc. I must say it is reassuring to have someone who takes so much care of the photo backups and files...... it allows me to do other important stuff.. like surf the internet for sports news.....and watch docos. ;-)