With our homemade breakfast in hand we enjoy some down time in the sun, overlooking the city, while listening to the sounds of the waterfall in the near distance, birds chirping and roosters "cockle-doodle-do-ing". Can't get much better really...
By noon we decided to head out and take a closer look at the medina. Our first stop was the community oven. Here dough is brought in from local homes and for a small fee a baker bakes it in the wood fired oven...very cool to see!
We actually walked by while they were baking bread...we also bought some butter and cinnamon cookies while we were there...yum!
Next stop...the Kasbah at the center of town. When we first arrived in Chefchaouen it was closed, but I'm so glad we returned, as the views were beautiful and it was very peaceful inside.
When we entered the gates we met a funky couple from Belgium and Liechtenstein who we chatted with about our travels throughout Morocco and shared details of our Riad in Fes....love chatting with fellow travellers.
Inside the Kasbah we took in the views of the hillside, mountains and the city...gorgeous!
We were also there during the call to prayer which felt kind of magical from inside the Kasbah.
We only had 45 minutes to look around as things closed during the heat of the afternoon, so from here we decided to wander around and look at the shops...and of course take pictures.
The shop owners are much less aggressive here and during the afternoon many are even sleeping inside, so a great time to take a peek.
Lots of Berber wool carpets, leather goods, wool clothing, pottery and blankets. Some of the shops were like little museums and the amount of carpets available was incredible...so much work goes into making these pieces of art.
When we were buying some bread from one of the locals we were approached by a young man asking us to come and see some Berber artisan work.
Down a couple alleys we arrived at a Berber carpet shop...Machkour Mohamed.
The best part of our time here...aside from looking at a number of Berber carpets...was chatting with one of the workers, Abdu Salam. It was amazing how much he knew about Canada...it even turned out people who took the bus from Fes were there the day before and he described them perfectly...it really is a small world. While there we were served mint tea as carpet after carpet was pulled out for us to look at...they really know about customer service here! Although I didn't buy anything while we were there, I'm still contemplating a possible purchase.
We gradually made our way back to the main square where we decided we would have some dinner at a restaurant, the Morisco, were we had coffee earlier in the day.
It was great people watching location from the terrace. The service was good...the cats on the table maybe not so much...and the food was so flavourful. We both had tagine and spent the next hour watching the goings on from below...great way to spend our evening.
We headed back to our apartment around 8:00pm and once back we spent the next hour or so sitting on the terrace by candle light enjoying some wine...so peaceful here.
While writing this blog post the call to prayer began...how magical to sit and listen to the various mosques while seeing them lit up at night under the stars...welcome to Morocco.
Tomorrow we plan to do a bit more exploring up the hillside and also take in the Thursday market where people from the countryside come in to sell their goods.
Until then...
L & L
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