Paolo, our Airbnb host met us at the train and drove us to his house, a modern apartment a bit away from the centre of town. The apartment is very comfortable, has 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, couple of small decks, and a huge lounge room with enough couch spaces for 45 sitting or 10 lying down fully stretched.
We headed into town for dinner. The main square, Pl el-Hadim, is like a mini Marrakesh square complete with snake charmers, herbal remedies, storytellers and lots of stalls of food, fruit, belts, clothing. Basically anything you can think of as long as it's artfully displayed. We settled for a small snack at near the square, but getting placing orders was a little tricky. It's all French here, very little English (or even Arabic), and our French skills seem to be getting worse by the minute.
Kath and Kim would love the horse carts here, very pumpkin like.
On Friday we headed out to Volulbilis, the site of vast ancient Roman ruins. It took a bit of work to organise first a Petite taxi, that are licensed for three passengers so we needed one with no one else in it, and then a Grand taxi out to Volubilis, about 40 kms away. Anyway it all got sorted and Mohammed was our driver for the day. The ruins are great and over about 42 hectares, only half of which has been excavated. Guides are available at the gate, but Helen is our personal Roman Ruin expert, so we relied on her research. The earthquake of 1775 destroyed most of the buildings that had remained standing after looting by the ruler, Moulay Idriss in the 8th century, for precious building materials for his empire, such as marble. So, a lot of what is standing has been reconstructed but the big draw cards are the intricate mosaics depicting legends such as Hercules and a Roman life.
Mohammed then took us to the village of Moulay Idriss about 5 kms away. This village is one of Morocco's most important pilgrimage sites and is named after Moulay Idriss, one of Mohammed's great grandsons who fled Mecca in the 8th century and settled at Volubillis where he converted the local Berber tribes to Islam. He had a bit of a history as a ruthless ruler and fathered over one hundred children, but was unable to secure the hand of French Loius 14th's daughter in marriage. His tomb is here and is the site of the annual mausseum each August. For Morrocans, five visits to the Mauseleum of Moulay Idriss during mausseum is equivalent to one haj to Mecca.
We were dropped at the bottom of the hill to find our way up to the main sites of interest, though plenty of kids and men wanted to be our guide. We ended up with a dapper gentleman who showed us the sights and then demanded an exorbitant (compared to other Moroccan sites) fee and then tried to make us buy us almond cakes, five each for luck, of course.
Terraces overlook the village and Mauseleum.
The only round Minaret in Morocco.
The bakery.
The maze of tiny blue and whitewashed laneways, it is a very cute village which has only been open to non-Muslims since the mid 20th century.
More doors with the Hand of Fatima.
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