KARETHE LINAAE
Several years ago, I received a rose bush as a gift from my friend, Jenny. She bought it at a street market in Pruna, a village in the Andalusian hinterland that few people have probably heard of. The rose lived on our terrace for several years in increasingly larger flowerpots. However, no matter where we…
On rare occasions when travelling, one finds a lodging where one feels completely at home. For me, it has only happened a couple of times. Once at an Inn on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, after a secret nuptial ceremony, and once in a picturesque Haveli in Pushkar (famous for its camel races)…
When the international press writes about the Andalusian inland town of Ronda, they almost always talk about the historic bridge or Spain’s oldest permanent bullring. Therefore, it was a big surprise when the prestigious American TIME Magazine chose a brand-new building in the Tajo-city as number one on their list of the World’s Best Places…
I’ve never been a conspiracy theorist, but has anyone else noticed that somebody or something is messing with our time? As a youngster, hearing older people complaining about how fast time passed, I wondered what their problem was since my time felt infinite. But now that I have become one of the ‘oldies’ myself, I…
Si crees que tienes un trabajo duro, piénsalo de nuevo. Una de las ocupaciones más exigentes aquí en España debe ser la de entregar las bombonas de gas a los hogares y empresas del país. Hablé con nuestro butanero local y descubrí que levanta cerca de 10.000 kg ¡por día! En casi todos…
What we think of as modern spa treatments are far from new. Mankind’s attraction to warm water and well-being goes back to antiquity. Both the Greeks and the Romans had very advanced public bathing cultures, but it was the Arabs who perfected it here in Andalucía. One can visit the ruins of these baths from…
“I’ll meet you at the plaza.” If you live in Spain, you must have heard these words a million times. The Spanish word plaza, which has been used in English since the 1830s, comes from the Latin word platea (meaning square or place), and originates from the Ancient Greek word plateîa. It can refer to a space…
Moving to another country can be incredibly exciting. Everything new can be quite intoxicating. You feel fully alive, almost like a child again. An adventurer or perhaps an explorer (although we are far from a Robinson Crusoe in today’s convenient jet age). However, an international move can also be challenging, difficult and…
Wine is mostly considered a man’s domain, but that is not always the case – at least not when it comes to port. This sweet wine named after the city of Porto is still drunk worldwide and is a timeless classic constantly being renewed. However, the history of port wine is not as well-known…
Every month, a small group of art- and history buffs meet in an esteemed library in Ronda, Andalucía to hear a Spanish philosopher talk about anything between heaven and earth. It can be a book, a piece of music, a painting, or some random object he chooses to elucidate – because that’s what philosophers…