Hotel Zaki Meknes

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... the first time in five centuries. It is still regarded as morocco&#8217;s Golden Age. <br><br>After his death of natural causes at the age of about 85, his sons jockeyed for power and continued to develop Meknes, but the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 severely damaged the palace and the capitol&#8217;s buildings. In 1757 his grandson, Mohammad III moved the capital, salvaging and transporting the richest remains to Marrakech.<br><br>

... of it after Voubilis and went back and got him for the bargain price of 40 DM. He gave us a lot of useful information regarding the building, and the sheer scale of the place was impressive. Afterwards we drove outside past the reservoir, which had been used by the King's Cavalry for drinking purposes. We drove a little around the town, but had eaten up a lot of time and were hitting ...

... in your mouth with every bite.  Our next stop was at what is best described as a 'juice bar', a small whole in the wall store that sold freshly made fruit juice and small sweets.  We'd seen many of these stores all over Morocco but had never stopped in before.  We sat down at the tiny bar with freshly squeezed orange juice and a slightly sweet yogurt type thing that seemed to be a common local food. Sugared up and ready to go, we hit the ...

... an event will bankrupt me. Since our last little get-together I've been to Firenze (Florence), Sienna, Venice, Patras and Salonika (Greece), back to Venice, Paris and now back to Fez. In Firenze I somehow managed to miss the David statue despite being round he corner from it and I also failed to have a single good pizza. In Sienna (1hr from Firenze) I saw some magnificent architecture and an amazing square that is designed as if 7 streams ...

... lucky to get through considering all the "irregularities" so it seems the universe was helping me (I couldn't bear thinking about what I was going to do if I couldn't get through). I take the tollway for the first section to Tetouan and it's an eerie feeling being the only car on this brand new 4-lane freeway (obviously hardly any Moroccans can afford it). After the short section of freeway I meet the real Morocco - a narrow, windy road through the Rif mountains (the main town is ...

... to fill in time before dinner that we enjoy in a little restaurant tucked off the street that served basic Moroccan Harira soup (a lentil &amp; noodle number), brochettes (grilled shaslicks) and bread for the equivalent of about $7 for both of us. Squeezed in one last panache... sure not to be the last... and get ourselves packed again for the morning train trip to make our way to the city with a medina that boasts having the largest living Islamic medieval population in the world - Fes!

Volubilis, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is the largest and best preserved Roman ruins in Morocco and was once one of the westernmost outposts of the Roman Empire. The ruins are located on a broad plain, now surrounded by olive groves and not far from the shrine town of Moulay Idriss. The site is best known for its very impressive floor mosaics which once decorated the homes of wealthy Roman families are now open to the elements as the buildings around ...

... today'. Perhaps the biggest surprise I got in Meknes was a wholesale shift in food style and another step up in enjoyability. I say 'surprise' as my first dining choice was a poor one: I'm pretty sure that the meat contents of my BBQ'd sausage were predominantly horse. With enough chilli sauce you can eat anything though, and as I'd paid my $3 for it, I wasn't going to give up on it no matter how much it smelt like fresh horse manure. Which was a lot ...

... remontent, l'escalier. Moi aussi, je ressens plein de choses. Ensuite, l'église et puis l'immeuble dont Papa nous a parlé (où Pépé avait sauté). On va voir aussi l'hôtel Bordeaux où Papa et Tonton sont nés. Visite sur la tombe de Ana-Maria Gelesniakoff (père - Jose-Maria Espinosa), la grand-mère de Papa. Retour au souk, on se sépare. Flo et moi allons voir les fringues. On se perd dans les petites rues, ça pousse, ça ...