The story of a rose
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 …
Our ‘Home’ in Tangier – Boutique hotel with rock band owners
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 …
LA Almazara – The World’s First Signature Olive Mill
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 …
Who is messing with our time???
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 …
¡Ya viene el butanero!
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 …
HAMMAM حمّام Andalucía’s Arabic Spa Tradition
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 …
LA PLAZA The heart of any Spanish town
“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 …
The Newcomers
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 …
The Widow Who Changed the World of Port Wine
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 …
The hourglass
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, …