Day 13: Fes

We'd booked a tour but emphasised 'no shopping' as many reviewers had complained that their tours were little more than a trawl round carpet and other souvenir shops. Our guide doesn't disappoint. A socialist who had been jailed for his anti-authority activities, he takes us speedily round the maze of alleyways, showing us the only mosque non-muslims are allowed to enter, the tanneries and other sights. We do stop at a handicraft centre (carpet shop) with a roof terrace with impressive view but he'd obviously had a word beforehand as the sales patter is decidedly low key. A couple of carpets are laid out on the floor after which they are all but ignored. The owner is friendly and speaks some Polish he's picked up from other visitors and we leave without any real attempt to get us to buy anything.
The tannery dye is less bright and less pungent than we expect. We buy a belt in the shop through which you have to walk to get to the viewing point but later discover it is damaged and without our guide we don't feel like returning.
As we continue our wandering we spot a shop selling ornate tea pots, the owner busy making something decorative from metal. Everyone in Morocco seems to be busy making something from whatever comes to hand. He seems shocked that anyone would want to look round his shop and our guide comments with a chuckle that he thought we didn't want to do any shopping. We leave with a beautiful teapot which everyone assures us is of a very high quality but which, when we get back home and make some tea, turns out to have minute holes in the spout through which the tea leaks when being poured.
The tour finishes around lunch time and, in the afternoon, we wander out round our own, now familiar, section of the market. After dinner, we chat to Joelle and she tells us about how she ended up running a hotel in Fez and what it's like to live there.
It's a fascinating place, nowhere near as wild and impenetrable as many people say and with very little hassle or sales pressure. You're liable to get stopped more often between Florianska Gate and Wawel Castle in Krakow than you are in the alleys of Fes.