Morocco Day 2 Part 3

After walking out of the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque we walked around the city towards the street of copper. I wanted to see this as I heard they will still hand hammering copper in all the shops. 

As we walked there were just so many great images to shoot, I love all the doorways and the architecture in the city.

As we were walking we were able to look into another on of the entrances to the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque complex. We walked all the way around to try to get to the street of copper. It really is unfortunate that we were unable to go inside, there just were so much to shoot in there.  The lamps hanging in the narrow streets I thought was another interesting feature of the city and in the narrow streets was something else to love about Fez. 

The street of copper was very noisy, everyone one hammering their works.  You can see them heating up the copper with burners and then hand hammering everything, then afterwards they polish it all by hand. The copper looks amazing too, really shinny and all of it is formed very nicely. 

And walking through this all is a guy carrying a bunch of birds for sale. I couldn’t help but ask him for a picture. He of course allowed me to and then as soon as I was done gave me the food motion so I gave him a couple dirham for the photo. 

Then off wandering through the streets again and into the Al-Attarine Madrasa. This was was built again in the 1300’s and the name actually means “Madrassa of the Perfumers” since it is right next to the spice and perfume souks in Fes. This was a tiny madrassa compared to the Bou Inania Madrassa. 

What was also really cool about this madrassa was that you could go up to the cells on the second floor and see the rooms where the students would live and study in. You had to walk up this narrow stairwell and then go through this tiny hallway where you could get into each of the cells. They only had a single window in each cell to look out over the courtyard. 

After this our tour was done and it was back to the Riad to relax a bit before our dinner. I had booked Dar Hatim for dinner. I had read alot of reviews about the restaurant and heard so many good things about it.  They driver came and picked us up right from our Riad, which was absolutely necessary. When we got out of the car, with a couple he led us through all these winding streets and we would have never been able to find it by ourselves. 

When we got there it was an amazing little restaurant. They showed us to this little corner area which was had these super soft cushions. The owner Kareema was so nice. She remembered me from my emails to her and was absolutely delightful to chat with.  They brought us out a huge variety of appetizers, including lentils, olives, zucchini, eggplant and more. This was all served with warm Moroccan bread. They were delicious.

Our host then recommended the Lamb Tanjin and the Chicken pastilla, which she said were her moms and her specialty dishes. She was right they were absolutely delicious. So much so, I started eating before I could remember to take pics of the food. 

Afterwards it was the daily dessert and fresh mint tea. After were done and paid the rather modest bill, the driver took us back to the hotel, even though the other couple was still hanging out and chatting. On the ride back we found out that he was Kareema’s husband. We thanked him very much for everything and told them it was an amazing time at dinner.