Bringing out the inner mountain goat

Whether they are dusted in snow, covered in clouds or bathed in sun, the mountains around Ronda are nothing but spectacular. From our city, one can easily reach the Serrania de Ronda and the Sierra de las Nieves, some of Andalucias most picturesque hiking areas. We have been yearning to explore these mountain chains and…

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My long-distance bread-baking guru

I have made breads since I was a teenager – the majority hard as hockey pucks, and tasting as if I used tree-pulp and shredded bark to make the dough. I pity my son for all those uneatable loaves and not to mentioned his wheat-free birthday cakes, but I am trying to make amends by…

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Jamón, jamón!

There are butchers and then there are butchers and when it comes to Spain, these are a veritable institution in their own right. Sadly, when it comes to my own place of birth, butchers are dying breeds. Not because Norwegians necessarily eat less meat, but because supermarkets have taken over where neighbourhood stores and local…

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Ronda, ciudad soñada

  The other morning, on his way to his wood carving class, Jaime took this picture, looking out on the fields as one enters the old town. Every day the view is different. It doesn’t matter if it is rainy, foggy or stormy, Ronda is as they say un ciudad soñada, a city of dreams. Or…

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Our life in boxes

Next week we have been in Spain for 3 months – a quarter of a year. Somehow it feels much longer, as though our life in Vancouver happened decades back. Maybe it is because we moved to a part of the world where I was brought up and where we both have family. Or maybe…

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Another Camino

Il Camino simply means ‘the path’ or ‘the road’ in Spanish. Most people might think of il camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrims-route from France and all across the Iberian continent. However, there are innumerous known and unknown, longer and shorter caminos here. Every village has it’s caminos, and we discover new ones around Ronda…

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Yuletide interlude

What is Christmas? The birth of a man called Jesus? Santa Claus on his sleigh riding across the sky? Piles of presents and overstuffed turkey? To me, Christmas is traditions and family and this year for the first time in a decade I had the great joy of spending it with my family in Norway…

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House hunt and the secret of Andalucian sausages

With the present economic situation in Europe, Spain has thousands, if not millions of properties for sale. Anything from mansions to flats to utter ruins are at offer for those who have money to spare. Especially on the coast they are literally trying to pass on beach properties for almost nada, but the expat-infested, developer-ruined,…

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