Leaving our hotel in Fez is an experience. We left our room and walked down a flight of stairs to a sitting room, a sofa with cushions. A baby grand piano is in the next room. Portraits of men in Fezs’ and women in veils. Soldiers with carbines and horses with elaborate saddles. In the third room, I pause. Every time since we’ve been here, I pause. A little anteroom to my left is where I want to spend the next seven years. If you know anything about me, you will understand. Look for yourself…

[I am Sherlock. My friend, Watson and I play chess and discuss the fate of mankind. Photo is mine.]

I enter the library and stand looking at the books, most in Arabic. To my right is a small room with a table and soft chairs. Here I take my meals. Further on I pass small fountains, the water dribbling from a spigot emerging from a facade of colorful tiles. In the next room I pause by a fountain in the floor, the pool brimming with rose petals. So this is where rosewater comes from…

[The sound of the water is hypnotic. Video is mine.]

Our main guide and driver was waiting. He introduced us to Mohamed, our local guide for Fez. We drove to our first stop. A tile factory. As in most places I’ve visited on this trip, I could have spent hours here. I will post photos and a description of how the decorative tiles (and a thousand other items) on a later blog where I will have more time to flesh it out. I am working on these posts late at night, after a day of heat, sweat and walking (and climbing countless stairs and more than a few ramps.

Here is a teaser:

[Try finding something like this at the Mall of America. And this is only one of a dozen showrooms. Photo credit: Mariam Voutsis.]

On to the Medina of Fez, more officially known as Fes el Bali. This is a very important place. It is the largest Medina in Morocco and is a UNESCO Heritage Site. It is very hard to describe what lies inside the gates of this sprawling market, holy site and homes for hundreds if not thousands of residents. A warren of kiosks, shops, factories, eateries and more.

[In reality, this map, though helpful to some, will not save even the locals from getting lost. I had absolutely no clue as to where I was, where we were going or how to exit. Photo is mine.]

The only thing missing was an Apple Store, but even one of those may be found somewhere around a corner or down an alley.

What follows is a photo gallery of a small sample of what I encountered this afternoon:

[Yes. A donkey. The other non-human creatures in the Medina are the cats. A lot of cats. Tiny kittens to scrawny Toms. Photo is mine.]

[So many alleys and lanes. Photo is mine.]

[The ubiquitous cat. Photo is mine.]

[In the corner of a room that housed an oven for baking bread, I found this stairway to somewhere. Photo is mine.]

So, that was my few hours in the Medina of Fez. I cannot show all the photos and videos or share all the impressions and thoughts; I’m still sore from the walking and trying to call after Mariam and our guide to please hold up for a minute while I get just another photo or buy just one more sweet almond treat.

All I could say was, Hey, hold up, please. I need this.

And I did. And they did.