From being tourists to being guests

The easy ride from Meknes to Fès took us a day. The first night in Fès (Riad Sahar) was disappointing. The self-made "guides" who are everywhere are really corresponding to the cliché. Finding - and checking into - the hotel was a rather unpleasant adventure with the tandem. Next morning, the receptionist at our hotel got very impolite when he learned that we had booked an official guide through the Medina on our own - instead of taking one of his "friends". 

But then the guided tour through the Medina with Rachid (which we shared with Susanne and Konrad, an Austrian couple whom we met in the riad and who helped us out with our luggage - thanks) was quite interesting. Luckily, we could then stay two nights with Siham and Fouad and their 3 marvelous children and learn a lot about middle-class life in Morocco. We are grateful for their hospitality and openess! We felt less like tourists and more like guests.

Rachid was from Sefrou, and made us curious about that small town south of Fès, so Heidi was ready to cycle that stretch right into the Middle Atlas. To make it short: The uphill ride on the national road wasnt nice at all. But then the hostel "Dar Karaz" turned out to be a very cosy place with friendly personnel. And we were quite surprised to see abundant jewish traces (the last members of the community left in the 1980s) in that small mountain town. We managed to pay a visit to the impressive jewish cemetary and the synagogue.

For the way back, we found nice small roads but, in turn, we ended up in Ain Cheggag, a small place where the only option for the night nearby was a drastically overpriced Fès airport hotel. We were lucky, Hamid, the owner of the café where we had asked where we could stay invited us to stay the night in his house.