May 17, 2025
We all slept until 8am this morning and even then it took some effort to rouse the group. We again started the day with breakfast at our Riad which starts with 5 different types of breads and pastries before we even place our order. Ollie has taken to making mini peanut butter and jam/ marmalade sandwiches each morning with the baghrir (Moroccan spongy pancakes) and Lenny has loved the local chocolate cereal. Mine and Kyle’s favorite is the msemmen bread which is super flaky— reminds me a bit of scallion pancake or roti. The boys have been most intrigued by the sugar cubes served alongside our coffees, though. This time in Morocco has been their first encounter with sugar cubes and to say they are obsessed would be an understatement.
Our first adventure today was 30 minutes outside of Marrakesh for a clay pottery workshop. We met Abdel and Tariq inside a nondescript dwelling and were then given aprons to start the workshop. Abdel runs the artisan cooperative and Tariq is one of the artisans who would be showing us how he and his colleagues prep, throw, fire and decorate their creations all by hand. There were first multiple steps involved in preparing the clay to be used. The boys were hesitant to get dirty early on and there were many requests to wash hands after each wet clay touch. Thankfully they soon got used to the feeling of clay drying on their hands (and soon arms, legs and feet), and the hand washing pace slowed.
Tariq showed us two different methods to remove air bubbles from clay before throwing it on the pottery wheel. The first was by using a modern extruder machine that would forcefully push the clay together with pressure and push a homogenous rope of clay out one end of the machine. The traditional way, though, involved throwing it forcefully onto canvas mats on the ground and then stomping it with your feet “like you would wine for grapes.” Tariq even put on traditional Berber music for the boys to dance to while they stomped the clay. Ollie was breakdancing and throwing his gritty dance and Len was swung around in circles by Tariq and then hitting the clay with his hands like a silverback gorilla.
It was then time to try throwing some clay pieces on the pottery wheel. Tariq demonstrated how it was done and then me, Ollie and Lenny took the first turns on the wheels. This was one activity where we were all equally interested at the task at hand. While Len liked playing with the clay at the wheel, he truly enjoyed turning his thrown piece “into a super volcano” by adding texture with a tool and smaller pieces by hand. He sat quietly for nearly an hour while diligently perfecting his volcano.
Before “the incident.” Notice the bare feet!
Ollie really enjoyed making “trophies” at the pottery wheel. He would occassionally ask for help but was quite insistent to do most of the work himself. He had been working happily for a while so when he started freaking out and screaming about his water, we were all confused. He would touch the water with a fingertip and then scream, “OWWWWW!!!” Tariq and Abdel offered to get him new water as they thought he was upset that it was dirty. We asked him if that would help, but through heaves and cries he said he wasn’t sure. We encouraged him to try touching the water again but it led to the same result. At this point, he was full on crying and screaming with displeasure and we were all stumped. He then stood up from the wheel, flipped a folding chair over and stormed off in fury yelling, “I hate pottery!” The four adults all looked at each other in shock and confusion. Thankfully, Tariq soon solved the mystery. Oliver had been given a pair of rubber sandals to wear after his clay stomping exercise. The sandals were much too big so they slipped off his feet while he was straddling the pottery wheel. He was sat at an older wheel that was encased in metal and his water bowl was also metal. Without the rubber shoes on his feet grounding him, he was actually getting electrocuted by the water he had been touching! Ollie didn’t have the vocabulary to convey the feeling of being electrocuted so he instead was saying that the water hurt him which unfortunately made no sense to us. I then kicked off my sandals to touch the water to test it out and was soon electrocuted myself. It was quite the jolt! We were all apologetic to Ollie about the misunderstanding and after a few minutes, he was ready to get back on the wheel and continue his work. Not to miss out on a dramatic storm out, Lenny soon flipped over a chair himself “to see what it felt like.”
The clay workshop wrapped and we were served tea and a mountain of cookies and pastries. Instead of the traditional green and mint tea, they made rosemary and lemongrass tea from their garden. The lemongrass made us think of Queen and the boys both remarked how much they miss her and that, “we hope she can take care of us again back in America.” Tariq then asked if Kyle and I would like soup and we of course obliged. The soup, Moroccan Harira, was thick with chickpeas, lentils and noodles and gently spiced with turmeric and cumin. Abdel and Tariq shared that they eat hot soup all year round, regardless of the weather. We also learned that they pour their tea from high above the glasses to form bubbles at the top of the liquid in the cup to protect the drink from any swirling sand. The boys were not interested in the soup but easily ate 5 or more cookies each including a peanut butter and chocolate cookie they remarked, “like the ones Meme makes!”
Before leaving the workshop, we had to whittle down the pieces we wanted Tariq to fire and glaze before shipping to the US for us. The boys, Lenny especially, had a hard time narrowing down which of their creations to choose. Other than the special dinosaur figurines, the boys were allowed to choose one item to ship home. Len at first chose his volcame but we learned it was too big and had an air pocket which made the firing step impossible. Each boy eventually decided on their trophy that they promised to swap with one another once we got home. I opted to keep one of the narrow neck vases I made with Tariq’s help and Kyle and I also selected a platter and large vase from the artisans’ finifhed work display.
Back in the van with Abdul, he asked if we were ready for lunch. Since we had already eaten the soup and a pile of cookies, we chose to instead forego lunch for some rest and pool time back at the Riad. Thankfully, we were the only ones in the pool at the time and the boys were free to play how they pleased.
Soon, we were heading back to the van to visit the Majorelle Gardens and Berber Museum. The gardens were beautiful but the heat and exhaustion we were all feeling made then hard to fully take in. We also had tickets to the nearby Yves Saint Laurent Museum but decided to not push our luck with the boys and instead opted for ice cream.
Abdul took us to a nearby corner store where we paid 60 dirham for 4 ice cream pops versus the ~360 dirham ice cream at the museum restaurant. We ate our quickly melting ice creams in a hurry on a sidewalk by a stray cat. A local man walked by, pet Lenny’s head and gave him a thumbs up then yelled, “beautiful family” and kept walking. We’re finding that for some reason, adult men have been drawn to Len and constantly asking him for a high five or fist bump. Our theory is that they presume Ollie might be a girl so he doesn’t receive the same favor. Just a theory!
In the van, Ollie was doling out pretend points like the house cup in Harry Potter. “And now, to Slytherin, I give 50 points!” Lenny responds, “No, no I’m not Slytherin. I’m Michael Jordan!”
There was a dinner reservation mishap but that ended up being a blessing in that we instead got to try a restaurant near our Riad called Limoni. The restaurant was open to the sky inside, just like a Riad and had lemon trees growing. We often call Len “Lenny Lemons” so he has adopted the lemon as his “spirit fruit” and get excited whenever we see them. Another surprise was that the restaurant served Italian food! Kyle and I were pleased to have freshly made pasta and gnocchi and the boys a Margherita pizza that resembled a Dominos pie. The boys also ate another 5 pieces of bread each that they dipped in balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt— their new favorite way to eat bread. The balsamic lid was loose and Kyle dumped ¼ of the bottle onto his plate but by some miracle none of it spilled on him or the table.
The day was already feeling quite full at this point, but we were off to a motorcycle sidecar sunset adventure. Len teamed up with Kyle and me with Ollie and we were soon being driven out of Marrkesh and towards an oasis for sunset. One of our guides shared that the Sultan planted 8 million palm trees and rerouted water from the Atlas mountains to make an oasis on the outskirts of Marrakesh. Unfortunately there have been many issues with the area including an ongoing drought and a pesky butterfly that lays eggs in the palms and then larvae eat the plants. The butterflies alone have killed ~70% of palm crop. The government tried bringing in a bird from Australia to eat the butterflies/caterpillars but it didn’t work. They’ve since made the oasis a national park and some of the farmers now give camel rides to tourists on the land they used to cultivate.
We then rode back into town to visit one of the oldest Riads in northern part of the Old Medina. Our Riad is in the center though we would enver know given how confusing and winding the streets are. We were given a tour of the old Riad and the history behind the design, but it was hard to follow along and pay attention as the boys were fully losing it at this point— playing tag amongst people eating dinner, Lenny continuing his “tornado kicks” and Ollie casting made up Harry Potter spells. All done at volume 10 out of 10. I managed to pick up bits about the Moors invasion of Spain, similarities between Seville and Marrakesh, that Marrakesh is major city in center of country because Morocco used to cover land as far south as Senegal.
We were soon back in our sidecars, zooming through the narrow streets and heading back to our Riad. After a brief detour because we got lost, our guides were able to bring us just a few feet from the front door— a feat our huge sprinter van could never pull off. We were all feeling deliriously tired at this point and were grateful for the door to door service.
