KARETHE LINAAE
Where are Dior’s handbags, Prada’s fashion accessories and Cartier’s leather-covered jewellery boxes made? In a sweatshop on the outskirts of Paris? In a factory in China? Or perhaps in the fashion district in Milan? No, many of the leather goods of these and other exclusive brands are made in a remote rural Andalusian village…
If you believe you have a tough job, think again. One of the most demanding occupations here in Spain must be to deliver the gas bottles to the country’s homes and businesses. I had a chat with our local bombonero and discovered that he lifts close to 10,000 kg – per day! In almost every Spanish neighbourhood…
We know it is summer in our Andalucian hometown when the only time it is liveable outside is before 9 am in the morning or after 9 pm at night. The hottest we experienced was the day we passed a thermometer outside a pharmacy, measuring 52 degrees. Not to forget that time during our first…
In the early days of passenger flights, air hostesses needed to be small and slender, yet strong and steady enough to carry heavy serving trays with smoking dishes on stilettos through constant turbulence from take-off to landing. These are some of the memorable encounters my mother, Aase Linaae, had in her ‘flying days’…
As you read this, my husband and I are travelling around Morocco by rail to mark my 60th birthday. I am NOT sharing this news to attract felicitations (Please don’t!) or sympathy. Rather the contrary. I usually keep very quiet about such occasions and am no great celebrator of birthdays in general. I cannot remember…
After living in Spain for a decade, it is almost unavoidable that we have begun to inherit some Spanish habits, attitudes, and even ways of being. It isn’t as if we suddenly start dancing Flamenco in the streets and speaking while everybody else is talking. The changes are more subtle than that, as we, of…
«In the end, it is about the essence and quality of the products, and the care one takes in preparing the food. There is no greater secret than that.» This year, 289 Spanish restaurants received stars from the world-renowned French gastronomy-bible, Michelin. 23 are in Andalucía and eight are found in the Málaga-province, more specifically…
She is Norwegian. She is Basque. She is an internationally awarded Architect & Interior Designer, and she is only 33. If you haven’t heard the name Kristina Bråteng in connection with architecture and interior design, you are bound to hear a lot about her in the future. Despite her young age, Bråteng is the…
Unbelievable, but true! Exactly ten years ago to the day, on a stormy night on November 3rd, 2012, my husband and I arrived in the small town of Ronda in Andalucía with a couple of suitcases. Our few other earthly possessions that we hadn’t given away, donated, sold, recycled, or thrown away, sat…
Photo from the front page of the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, February 1957. Aase (right) together with the Swedish captain and air hostess from the first commercial flight over the North Pole. One of the many times that I have flown across the Atlantic, they showed a video of Air Canada’s 75+ years…