Day 17: Fez Morning and Mosiacs

On Sunday morning, we woke up to another beautiful morning in Fez.   Our train didn't leave until almost 4pm so we had time to have a leisurely breakfast that was included in the price for our room at Fes Yamanda.

We later decided to rent another tour guide - this time getting a mini bus so that we could drive to see some of the sites outside of the actual Fez Medina area.

The pictures below are from our breakfast at the Riad and then some of our tour stops at the King's Palace, Military Fort, and Mosaic factory.

View of the breakfast area as seen from our room that over looked the lobby area. 

We were served juice, coffee, homemade breads with jelly, butter and goat cheese.  It was very good.   It is going to be difficult to get back to my normal coffee only breakfasts when I return to Austin.  :-)

Picture of Karen, myself, and Mihoko in our room by the stained glass window.

Our first stop was at the King's Palace in Fez.   This is where he and his family stay when they visit the city.

This is a military fort that we visited.   Although we couldn't enter the building, it had great panaramic views of the city from its high perch on the hill.

Group picture at the Fort.... great views of the city of Fez below.

We later stopped at a mosiac factory where we saw many beautiful pots, fountains, floors, and tables being hand made.   This man showed us how to make a tangine.

Rahul getting in on the fun.

This is an example of the clay fire pit that they use to bake the pottery.   I thought my son Thomas would be interested in this since he takes Ceramics in high school.

This is one of three men who were hand carving individual tiles.

This was an example of a completed fountain that was handmade here.   The estimated cost was 55,000 dirhams which is a little less that $7000 dollars.  They estimated that it would cost nearly this much to ship it to the US as well.   Very beautiful though... unbelievable the amount of hand labor that goes into each one.