local saturday market

Saturday morning.

An early visit to the local market for fresh vegetables and flowers.

We chose anemones for the kitchen table.
Ingredients for tonight's tajine; carrots, fennel, sweet colored peppers, potatoes, snow peas, garlic olives, a preserved salted lemon and chicken.
Fresh figs and chocolate for dessert.

Today Dietske, owner of the coolest house in Amsterdam East, will visit us. She is a sweetheart, whom I met in May as a participant of the Green Gardens workshop in Marrakech. We obviously cook a proper moroccan meal for her. Tajine is already simmering on the stove...

modern marrakech

After a slow Sunday in the desert, we took a taxi ride in an old yellow Mercedes to Guéliz on Monday morning and started with an espresso on a bamboo sofa at the popular Grand café de la Poste.

We walked back to the Medina through the Cyber Park. You might not associate 'cyber park' with a park from the mid eighteenth century. The park is a fascinating experiment in mixing old and new and re-opened in 2005 as a public park. The name Cyber Park is only about the deal that Maroc Telecom would pay for the refurbishment and upkeep of the park, in exchange for the commercial right to exploit part of the site as a multi-media and cyber-space exhibition area and theatre. It's one of the many urban gardens in Marrakech and part of the Green Gardens workshop.

Once we returned within the ancient walls of the medina, we had lunch at the enchanting Hotel El Fenn. (which deserves its own blog post, shortly...)

columbia road

When in London on Sunday... you obviously have to visit the flower market on Columbia Road.

It's ridiculous crowded, but that didn't stop us.
What an amazing atmosphere on this sunny day. Together with my niece Afra and son Minne we enjoyed the beauty of the street lined with flowers, plants and colorful crowd.

Afra bought some cherry blossom and a miniature palm plant - we are family ;-)