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The True Face Of Fes
It’s hot again now. Gone is the mountain air of Chefchaouen, gone is the Atlantic breeze of Tangier, replaced by daily afternoon highs of around 36C, but it’s a bone-pleasing, perfectly dry heat with none of the humidity of Asia. Local guys tell us we’re “lucky”, just recently Fes experienced a prolonged spell during which temperatures were another 10 degrees higher than this every day. Fes is not always blessed with good press. “It’s too big, a massive city”…”you will be pestered by guides and touts every second”…”it’s too touristy, it’s not real any more”…”for hassling it’s worse than Marrakech” were among the things we were told, or had read,…
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Home from Madrid
Monday morning, and spreading olive oil and tomatoes on the toasted bocadillo bread is a whole lot better than going in to work! And so we wind up our stay in Madrid with that same breakfast, and a wander around some new quarters before heading back to the airport. We still haven’t found out what it’s about, but the military event around the royal palace today is even bigger, with massed ranks of uniforms filling the closed-off street, armed police guarding every corner. It’s an impressive display, whatever the story. Mercado de San Miguel is no longer a market but an upmarket foodhall, almost a tapas and pintxo equivalent of…