KARETHE LINAAE
Spain is full of history, and the greatest heritage is often found in its buildings. When travelling around the country, you can visit some of these historical marvels, and if you are lucky and have the opportunity, can spend the night in one of them and really be immersed in the magic of…
‘What a difference a day makes’ sang Ella Fitzgerald, though when it comes to Cádiz, I would have to expand that to 30 years, as it was about three decades from my initial visit until I returned to the city. On my first time as a party-crazed teenager, I thought it was a terribly boring…
Imagine if you were a baby that was born in the past year and a half. Certainly, here in Spain all you would have seen on the street in your short life would have been masked people on the street. Anyone who leaned over your stroller with sparkling eyes, cooing noises and exaggerated baby talk,…
The other day my son sent me a WhatsApp video from Norway. He was out running by the Oslo fjord and had stopped on a bridge to film the view. Far below, I could see the water that I had sailed on so many times with my late father, the Norwegian coastline, the granite cliffs…
Imagine walking into a French palace back in the 16th Century, the golden age of leatherwork, and coming upon a dancehall lined with brightly shining polychrome gilt-leather panels with the most amazing intricate botanical and geometrical designs. The decor appears to be something out of 1001 Arabian Nights or a magical fairy tale, but in…
Now that we might soon be able to talk about the Corona virus in the past tense, it is time to reflect on how this global pandemic affected our love lives. If ‘Love in the time of Cholera’ had its challenges, I can assure you that ‘Love in the time of Corona’ did likewise. While…
Have you ever been struck by an odour which instantly took you back to a place that you had completely forgotten about? This happens to me quite frequently. I can turn a corner and suddenly I am there as a toddler in the land of the fjords, or as a 23-year-old living in Paris. The…
It is no secret that most Norwegians who live in Spain are pensioners who reside on the sunny Spanish coast. Which is why I admit to getting excited when I meet some of my fellow countrymen who are a tad younger, do something a bit different and who have hung their straw hats in somewhat…
One of the greatest pleasures of spring is watching the budding leaves on the trees. If you always have wanted to plant a tree in your garden, spring is also the best time of the year to do so. Planting a tree is surprisingly easy. Just find the right spot and start digging. The only…
“I choose April” my father would always announce in his booming baritone around this time of the year. He was quoting the first part of a Norwegian poem from the 1870s, though he never continued, so I doubt that he ever knew the rest of it. Exactly 26 years ago I was very pregnant. In…