\u201cYou took a lot of pictures today?\u201d I asked, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn our walk,\u201d Dad replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur walk\u201d is, of course, the tour that I took my family on. (Think: Dad navigated and I just read from the guidebook.) Our walk took us through Fes Jdid, or New Fez. We started at Point 1, which was a long walk from the nearest Medina gate. It was warm (first time in two days), and my down jacket with the guidebook in a pocket was hanging over Mom\u2019s arm to protect her sore, swollen, sensitive hand.<\/p>\n
We started the official tour at the palace gates.<\/p>\n
\u201cMade in the Andalusian-Moroccan style, this gate was built in the sixties.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNineteen-sixties?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know! The book just says \u2018sixties!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how most of the tour went\u2014me mindlessly quoting the book and Mom asking for more detail.<\/p>\n
We ended up at the Moulay Hassan Square, where we interrupted a game of soccer just to get to the center. From the center, we could see Bab Sb\u00e2a (Lion Gate) and Bab Sagma, which is named after the pious Amina Sagma. She was buried there in 1737.<\/p>\n
Dar Makina forms part of the square\u2019s high walls. It was the weapons factory ordered to be built by Sultan Moulay Hassan I in 1888. The factory was designed by Italian architects. Another Italian part of the square was the gondola, randomly sitting in a corner. Cats (some fat and some not) were huddled around it\u2014trying to keep warm?<\/p>\n
As we walked toward Bab Sagma (we\u2019d come in Bab Sb\u00e2a) a man, who had been standing by the gate, came towards us, telling it was forbidden. We\u2019re not sure what was forbidden, but he let us out the huge gate anyway.<\/p>\n
Ciao!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cYou took a lot of pictures today?\u201d I asked, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice. \u201cOn our walk,\u201d Dad replied. \u201cOur walk\u201d is, of course, the tour that I took my family on. (Think: Dad navigated and … Continue reading