Harira in the medina

After a very restful night in Errachidia, we left Friday morning for Fes. We crossed the mountains again, peaking at 2910 m. There was no snow this time, but it was still quite chilly. Unlike previous times where we hit the peak and immediately descended, there was a high plain that we had to cross.

As we neared the town of Ifrane, we discovered a national park that had wild monkeys! We saw several of them along the side of the road, but we were more interested in getting to warmer, lower elevations than stopping to take pictures.

We made it to Fes, and found our riad, located in the heart of the old medina. After securing parking, we made our way into the loud, vibrant market area in search of food. Nearby was a highly rated restaurant, but a combination of deafening music and a dirty table setting turned us off, and we wandered down the street to a much quieter restaurant, where we tried harira, a delicious spicy soup, and a vegetable couscous, which was bland. Apparently couscous is normally only served on Fridays. Not sure why, as it isn’t difficult to prepare.

The sun set, and so did we, tucking in early on a rock hard mattress for a long night’s sleep prior to attending church in the morning.