Marrakech – 6th January

Tuesday 6th January was a lovely day where Captain Caveman and I would have a Moroccan breakfast, an Italian lunch and a Lebanese dinner. Marrakech was proving to be quite cosmopolitan with lots of food choices. We ate breakfast on the rooftop of our riad, earlier than usual as we wanted to make the most of the sunshine which was due. We’d missed out on seeing Jardin Majorelle as it was already booked up. Because of the predicted rain and less people going on other trips, this famous attraction had got full fast. Instead, we had decided to see if we could turn up at the Secret Garden and pay on the door. We got slightly lost at first as there is a cafe called the Secret Garden which is down a dead end alley way but it was quite interesting to see inside some of the open doors to local homes.

The Secret Garden had a big queue when we arrived and I already suspected it would take too long to get to the front. We waited and noticed that we were very close to Café Arabe, another recommended eatery which served alcohol so we earmarked it for lunch. The queue went down quickly, we paid just over £23 for the 2 of us for the normal ticket plus the guided tower tour and I really enjoyed the Secret Garden. It’s one of the biggest riads in Marrakech and I even found the film about the irrigation process interesting. Although he was feeling better, I saw that Captain Caveman had nodded off during that bit.

The tower turned out to be the highlight of the day as rain had stopped, the sky was atmospheric and the views were great. We also had a French couple on the tower tour who were hilarious and were either not listening or deaf. Every time the guide mentioned the 16th century, seconds later they asked when it was dated from (several times). The doors in the tower were beautiful and, as we were leaving, a rainbow appeared across the floor.

We decided to chance the cafe which was next to the tower and had lovely views over the garden. We just had a drink, which on the menu it said came with free water but we never received that. Instead we paid £5 for the tea and coffee but didn’t leave a tip.

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful spot so we left there and went to Cafe Arabe. We sat in the area which has views over the rooftops and towards the atlas mountains. We decided to share a pizza and had a glass of wine each. The pizza had smoked turkey ‘ham’ on which was really good. Café Arabe was very nice, lovely views and deceptively big. We got chatting to a couple, Colin and Jess – he was a bit of a one, but she was lovely (an American who had just moved to London to be with Colin). We ended up having another wine each and our total bill came to £27 for 1 pizza, 2 glasses of rosé and 2 glasses of red wine, which I thought was excellent value.

We had a mooch back through the streets of Marrakech and decided to use our free ticket to the Music Museum. As a music lover, I found it very interesting and even had a quick go on some bongos (as you do). I thought it was a well laid out museum and complemented the Photography museum – plus the bonus of the combined ticket made it cheap.

In the evening we went a little off piste and chose to try Naranj for our meal. There was a bit of a kerfuffle as we hadn’t booked but we managed to get what looked like the last indoor table on the ground floor. I went upstairs to the toilet and noticed the balcony dining area looked lovely but it had started to rain again and was a bit blowy for those diners. As we ordered, it was getting closer to 7pm and we were so glad to have come early as people were queuing to get a decent indoor table. We chose a mixture of meze style dishes, a chicken with feta dish and the usual soda water, coffee and mint tea. This Lebanese restaurant didn’t sell alcohol and our total meal came to £30 which I thought was good as the food had been amazing. As we left, it was raining a little harder so we hurried back to the riad for a spiced rum nightcap and some much needed sleep.

Gratitude List
1. The Secret Garden being a good substitute for Jardin Majorelle
2. The Music museum
3. Amazing food and drink.

Photo Credit – some photos by Captain Caveman