Stuck inside of Volubilis with the Chefchaouen blues again.

We left Fez on a beautiful morning.

We had hired a taxi to take us on the three-and-a-half hour journey to the blue city of Chefchaouen. It was almost as cheap as taking the train and much more convenient. Our driver spoke pretty good English and gave us a running commentary as we motored through the green rolling hills of northern Morocco.

We sped past beautiful little hill towns.

And made a long stop at the ruins of the old Roman city of Volubilis.

Volubilis was a major trading hub for the Romans, providing a conduit for products from the far interior of Africa: wild animals for the games, foodstuffs, and exotic woods and spices. The site is physically beautiful and fairly well preserved.

You can still see how the city was laid out, with an administrative center, temples, and residential areas.

In some of the houses, the mosaic floors are still intact.

Many of the mosaics feature marine animals, even though the city is quite far from the coast.

Apparently they weren't quite clear on how to ride a horse.

And that must have played a lot of baseball.

The grist mill has been partially restored.

Locals have pillaged the site for building materials, but not as much as they would have if the city was closer to modern settlements. And that distance from the modern world also keeps it from being overrun by tourists.

We'd heard a lot about the blue city of Chefchaouen and were looking forward to visiting. On first glance, not so blue.

But after our taxi dropped us off at the main square and we rolled our luggage up the steep, narrow streets toward our riad, the blue grew.

P.