Visiting Kasbah Taorirt in Ouarzazate

After our traditional Moroccan lunch, the group headed to Kasbah Taorirt. It is the former residence of Pacha Glaoui, the ruler of Marrakesh and the south of Morocco.



Many thanks and special mention to UNESCO for funding the renovation of this Kasbah and for paving the streets in the medina. Entrance to the Kasbah is 20 DH per person and this is exclusive of the tour guide. So the group arranged a tour guide for the Kasbah who will act as our guide, as well as later for the medina walking tour.







I forgot the name of the guide but he was quite good. With a smirk on his face, he narrated to us the history of the Kasbah including the love affairs of the Pacha who had four wives and several concubines. I guess this is pretty normal here in Morocco even up to this day, if you have the power and money that is. Anyway, he continued on that the wife who bears him the first son will become the favourite wife, or in other words, the ‘head wife’. The head wife will be entitled to better benefits in the marriage. She will have her own big (let me guess, the biggest) extravagant and ostentatious bedroom, a long entourage of maid servants at her beck and call, she obviously has the Pacha’s favour and interestingly, a special viewing room for festivities happening below in the inner courtyard.



Women back then are not directly shown to the public so the wives and concubines are literally stowed away. So during festivities, while the Pacha sits in the open balcony together with his officials and escorts being entertained, the wives are hidden away in their viewing rooms, the windows protected with iron grills. The head wife has her private viewing room of course while the 3 other wives share a smaller viewing room.



Honestly, I will not last a day being a wife of the Pacha, even if I become the head wife. No, thank you.



Here are my pictures of Kasbah Tourirt:







View from the balcony of the Pacha down to the inner courtyard.







Painting exhibit.







Left picture is the lovely wooden ceiling, more information below. Right picture is our tour guide (he was quite good) standing on the open vestibule, it is like a chimney or garbage chute that is used to bring food from the kitchen basement up to the rooms by using the simple lever and pulley technology system.







The ceilings in floral and geometrical patters are lovely even in their bad state. The paint used are henna and other natural ingredients. UNESCO I believe channeled a lot of money into the Kasbah’s renovation but perhaps more money is needed to fully preserve and renovate them to their former glory.







I believe this is the viewing window of the 3 wives. The right picture is one of the restored rooms.



Of course being in Morocco, the Kasbah is not complete without a hammam.



The hammam was quite primitive though and I can only surmise that women were so tiny back then. The entrance doorway to the hammam was so small it can be mistaken as a children’s playhouse. Inside the hammam you can find another hole, albeit tiny. If you slither yourself into it (I cannot imagine I would do that) you can enjoy a much warmer treatment.



OK, I would rather stick to the hammam at Club Med Marrakech!









View from the Kasbah to the medina.



Next: Walking Ouarzazate’s medina.

More Nisqually Icecliff

Here is another image of the upper Nisqually Glacier, with the route lines drawn. The BLUE represents the line Hannah climbed on the Nisqually Icecliff. The PURPLE is a variation on the Nisqually Cleaver, and the GREEN is the standard Nisqually Cleaver Route.

Photo by Gauthier, Feb 12th, 2006.

Minnesota Corn

Blomkest Corn, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Looking down on sweet corn in a field in the rural town of Blomkest, MN.

I've grown 'Golden Bantam' sweet corn. I only got a few ears of corn, but that may have been due to our sun-baked California clay soil. Not the best for growing vegetables.

In Bloom

So it's mid August, the sun has been shining and the remaining snow has been melting fast. This means that it is the time of year for blooming wildflowers! The subalpine meadows around Mount Rainier are home to many types of wildflowers, most of which are in the midst of flowering and adding beautiful colors to the landscape.

If any of you have been up climbing or hiking I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. The Paradise Meadows have been ablaze with Broadleaf Lupine, Cascade Aster, and Pasqueflower Seedhead just to name a few. Paradise isn't the only place to see fields of red and purple though. The subalpine ecosystem that is home to these flowers surrounds Rainier and is usually found between the 4,500' and 7,000' elevations. This being said climbers are sure to notice hardy plants and flowers growing in the rocky areas of Rainier at all elevations. Look around and you will surely be amazed when you see a hummingbird feeding on a flower as you approach 10,000' on Steamboat Prow or Muir Rocks!
These are some pretty hard core plants that survive year after year while spending eight or nine months buried beneath snow and ice. The best way to keep these guys around for future climbers to see is by not stepping on them, so on your way up to high camp please be sure to set a good example for the rest of the parks visitors (yes they are watching!) by staying on the trails, and not walking all over the fragile meadows.
The photos on this post were taken by Steven Redman one of our Interpretive Rangers here at Paradise. Interps work in the visitor centers throughout the park and are a great resource if you are looking for non-climbing related information. They have the most current beta on everything from flowers and animals to park geology and history. They are always amped to help you out with all the questions climbing rangers can't answer!
One thing climbing rangers can say with authority is that climbing on the mountain is still great. Check out new updates on the Kautz and DC. Don't forget about Little T (with a side trip up K Spire!) along with the Tatoosh peaks as climbing destinations.

Fruits de Mer at Hotel New York Rotterdam

After much googling of possible cool with great reviews places to eat seafood in Rotterdam, I came across Hotel New York’s Oyster (& Seafood) Bar. Ah, give me seafood anytime and I am a very happy island gal.



Fruits de Mer at the Oyster Bar





Platter of Fruits de Mer.





Souvenir shop of vintage items at the Hotel New York Rotterdam located beside the entrance of the restaurant.



So glad MadamE could join me for Saturday lunch when I was staying in Rotterdam for a weekend. She told me that she had some clairvoyance moment, that she was picturing herself eating seafood very soon. Well she’s right.



We arrived at the height of lunch time and it took awhile before we were led to our table. This place is incredibly buzzing! It is hands down a super popular place for people from all walks of life to lunch during weekends. I cannot blame them really because the Oyster Bar alone is enough to tempt and beckon seafood lovers like moi.



Finally we were seated and pouring over the lunch menu.





Cheers for chardonnay!



It didn’t take a long time to decide what lunch will be. MadamE beamed in delight when I ordered the fresh seafood platter, ‘Plateau Fruits de Mer’. Oooooh, we cannot wait.



While waiting for the seafood bounty, our Chardonnay drinks arrived. Cheers! Proost!





Busy preparing for our fresh seafood platter?





And here she is. Plateau Fruits de Mer. Love.











I wished I ordered an extra half dozen of fresh oysters.



Creme Brulee



For desserts, we both had creme brulee which was quite good. Creamy, and the sweetness is bearable. Then I had coffee of course as well. Lunch is not complete without this.







I love the ‘Oyster Bar’ at Hotel New York Rotterdam. I can come here every week!!! I will definitely come back.



Hotel New York Rotterdam



Here’s some history of Hotel New York Rotterdam, excerpt taken from their website:



“In earlier times, many Europeans escaped poverty and/or religious persecution by leaving from Rotterdam. These emigrants usually left for North America, hoping for a better life. In 1873 the Nederlandsch Amerikaanse Stoomvaart Maatschappij company was founded, officially renamed ‘Holland America Line’ in 1896. Emigrants embarked in Rotterdam in large numbers, most of them debarking in New York City on arrival in the ‘Promised Land’ of America.



In 1971, after more than 100 years of transporting passengers, the Nieuw Amsterdam left the city on the Maas for its last crossing. An important episode in Rotterdam’s nautical history had come to an end.”



The New York Hotel Rotterdam was previously Holland America Line’s headquarters. And New York City, USA was previously called New Amsterdam.



And the pictures of this bygone yesteryears hotel:















So there, some history lesson about Rotterdam. The hotel, a bit nostalgic isn’t she?



It was a lovely fresh seafood lunch and catch up with MadamE that spontaneously got extended to having tea in North Brabant.

Adventures with Twine

The most typical use of twine on a bicycle, is to secure the inner edges of handlebar tape. Normally, bar tape is secured with black electrical tape and left as is, but I find that this looks unfinished. With twine, the handlebars will look more appealing and the tape will be more securely attached.

I use cooking twine, which is softer to the touch than industrial twine. It is white in its untreated state and turns caramel-brown when amber shellac is applied.

After wrapping your bar tape and securing the inner edges with electrical tape, the twining can begin.

First apply a layer of clear double-sided tape over the electrical tape.

Cut a half-armlength of twine.

Apply the twine over the double-sided tape by simply wrapping it around the handlebar and placing it down neatly onto the sticky surface of the tape. There should be no gaps and no overlap.

When the surface of the double-sided tape is covered with twine, cut the remainder off. There is no need to secure the twine, since it is stuck to the double-sided tape. This will provide a good temporary hold until shellac is applied.

Using a paintbrush or a sponge brush, cover the twined area with amber shellac following the same principles described here.

After three layers of shellac, the twine should feel completely solid and have a deep amber colour to it, at which point the project is finished. Your bar tape will be more secure than ever and will look great.

If you've finished twining your bars and still crave more, do not despair: There are lots of other places on a bicycle where twine can be used. I twined the chrome connector piece between the rack and the rear stays on my Pashley, because I was not satisfied with how the expanse of chrome stood out in an otherwise green and black colour-scheme. The dark amber twine softened that area up, and integrated it nicely with the wicker basket, brown leather saddle, and handlebar grips.

Here is a close-up of the twined rack connector. I thought that this was a failry subtle detail, but to my surprise, several people commented on it while examining my bicycle.

My most daring use of twine thus far, has been the twining of my Shimano Nexus shifter. My reasons for doing this were two-fold: I thought that the big rubber shifter was too modern for the aesthetic of the Pashley's handlebars, and I also found it unpleasant to the touch, especially in the sumemr heat. Covered with shellacked twine, the shifter blends in better and is more comfortable for me to use, as the twine provides a better grip than the rubber. There was some concern regarding whether the twine would adhere well to the rubber, but this was not an issue; just wrap it tightly prior to shellacking.

Of course, once you do this to your shifter, there is no going back: the shellac will disfigure the rubber if you ever decide to remove the twine and you will need to buy a new one. Twine at your own risk!

For more twining ideas, Rivendell has some nice pictures and instructions, as well as hemp twine for sale. Also have a look at this marvelous twined water-bottle pictured on The Epicurean Cyclist.

New Kids on the City Block

It is always exciting when a new bicycle company appears on the market, and so it was doubly so when two new brands of city bikes were introduced at Interbike this year: the Toronto-based Simcoe and the Detroit-based Shinola.





The Shinola display greeted visitors as they entered the front hall of the show. Above the yellow French-inspired city bike were the intriguing words "built in Detroit." Walking past the display several times, I listened to attendees debate whether this claim could be true. After all, many bicycle manufacturers state that a bike is "built" locally, when what they really mean is assembled. If it were true, however, wouldn't it be wonderful and ironic to bring domestic bike production to a city known for the former glory of its automotive industry. That was the gist of the buzz.






Later I spotted a company representative and spoke to them about the bikes. Some may recognise the Shinola name as a brand of shoe polish from the early 20th century. Recently, the name was resurrected and turned into a lifestyle brand that plans to sell not only bicycles, but also watches, leather goods and notebooks - all made in the US.






In the bike industry that kind of approach does raise some eyebrows. Can a manufacturer be serious about bicycles if it is not their sole focus? Then again, there are those brands that start with bicycles, then expand into bags, clothing and other items. In that sense, the main difference in Shinola's approach is that they intend to do this from the start.





As for the bicycles themselves, yes the frames will indeed be handbuilt in Detroit. As I understand it, the initial prototypes were built by Ira Ryan and Tony Pereirain Portland, OR, but production models will be made by Waterford. Prototypes of the first bikes - the diamond and step-through Bixby - were on display at Interbike.






There are some handsome details on these steel frames, most notably the biplane fork crown.






Points of entry for the brake and shifter cables are subtly incorporated into the frame design.





The copper headbadge is embossed with the bicycle model name.







One benefit to the company being involved in the production of other products, is its ability to outfit the bikes with its own accessories - such as these Shinola leather grips.






To create the Bixby, Shinola recruited designer Sky Yaeger - who has previously worked at Bianchi and Swobo and is credited for bicycle models familiar to many. Reading that she was responsible for the Bianchi Milano design, I realised that the curves of the Bixby remind me of that aesthetic. I wonder how they will handle racks and lighting once the bicycles go into production.








While I can't speak for the ride quality, the finish and components of the Shinolo Bixby bicycles are of a higher caliber than what one will see on a typical city bike in stores today. This, combined with the Detroit-built frames, will make for a high retail price. It remains to be seen whether customers will appreciate the bicycles enough to pay it.






At the other end of the spectrum, Simcoe's focus is on classic, affordable city bikes. It is the new house brand of the Canadian bicycle distributor Forth Floor. North American retailers have been familiar with Forth Floor for years, as they've been responsible for importing a variety of European city bike brands, including the latest brand to hit North America - Bobbin. The high demand for Bobbin's looks/quality/affordability ratio is in part what inspired them to start their own project. As a distributor, Forth Floor has gained a reputation for being knowledgable, reliable and easy to work with - which makes many optimistic about the success of their manufacturing practice.






The introductory line of Simcoe bicycles is uncomplicated: traditional diamond and step-through frames made in Taiwan, equipped with swept-back handlebars, fenders, rear racks, chainguards and a choice of 3 or 8 speed gearing options.






Like the Shinolo frames, Simcoe's are welded, but the forks feature attractive double-plated crowns. It is no secret that I love these crowns; I am pleased to see them become a trend again.






The models will be available in a small range of colours, both bright and subdued.






The slate gray step-through is probably my favourite.






Complementing Simcoe's new line of bikes, Beacon is developing some basic accessories - most notably these fits-all-racks panniers.






"Through this ride, freedom..."






These are all simple, been-done-before ideas; nothing radical or new. But retailers are paying attention, because frankly there is demand for more bikes of this category without the hassles and the markups that come with importing from Europe.






Interacting with the fellows at Forth Floor is a pleasure as usual. I learned that Donny (on the left) has recently taken a framebuilding course with Mike Flanigan and made himself a nice touring frame.






Steve is working on a side project making tiny, affordable LED bike lights (Beacon Bike Lights) that can be zip tied to any part of the bike.






The guys are, first and foremost, cyclists. They love bicycles, all kinds of bicycles, and they communicate a sense of commitment to being in the industry for the long haul.






How that will translate into the quality, appeal and sustainability of the Simcoe brand remains to be seen, but retailers seem cautiously optimistic.




Both Simcoe and Shinola represent the North American market increasingly embracing transportation cycling and seeking to establish itself as independent from European culture and European bikes. These brands will be welcome additions to Linus, Public, Urbana, Handsome Cycles, Heritage Bicycles, Brooklyn Cruiser and other American-based companies with a focus on city bikes. I will share information on pricepoints once the figures are available, and will hopefully get a chance to test ride both bikes.