Sant Antoni

The North and East of Mallorca celebrate Sant Antoni every year on 16 and 17 January. This is a very local party, with bonfires lit in many places in town on the evening of the 16th. The neighbourhoods meet around barbecues that the city or local businesses erect close to the fires. The party then goes on all night with loud music and fireworks. On the 17th animals are blessed in the front of the church and later in the day, the youths show their mettle by climbing up a 25m high pine tree that is coated in soap. This year the weather was very windy, but that did not inhibit anybody..

Port de Pollenca

We are still in Mallorca, enjoying time with family and friends. This week my sister and her husband joined us. The weather continues to be sunny and warm.

 

Sunset in Port Pollenca

Back in Mallorca

We had a great time with the family over Christmas, and flew back to Mallorca yesterday. In the evening we met friends from our time in Canterbury for dinner, and it was great catching up after the hiatus caused by Covid. The weather is sunny and warm.

 

Sunrise in Port Pollenca

Merry Christmas!

We are in Kaiserslautern enjoying time with the family. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

In Orient for Sheila’s birthday

We came to the small village of Orient in the middle of the mountains (Tramuntana) to celebrate Sheila’s birthday yesterday. The hotel we are staying in, Dalt Muntanya, is run by an Austrian couple, who welcomed us warmly and provided an excellent birthday dinner. The weather is mixed, but the sun came out this morning.

View of Orient from our bedroom

Happy Birthday!

Palma at Christmas

We went for lunch with friends in Inca today, and then drove into Palma for some shopping. We also took the time to walk through town and enjoy the Christmas lights. Town was very busy and the traffic crazy, so it is nice being back at our quiet flat now, listening to the ocean.

Restaurant Es Garum, Lloseta

Today the sun came back out and it was very pleasant weather. We went to Lloseta, a small, attractive village about 30 minutes away from us for lunch. David Palamo at his new restaurant Es Garum (opened last April) provided us with excellent food, and also showed us his own garum, which he makes to flavour his dishes. Garum is a fermented fish sauce, invented by the Greeks or Phoenicians, and heavily used by the Romans throughout their empire. David´s modern version was certainly flavourful! A very nice afternoon out and about.

 

David with his garum fermentation (left hand) and finished product (right hand). Very tasty!

Puerto Pollenca

I came back to Mallorca yesterday, Sheila will follow on Saturday. The weather is sunny with top temperatures of 22 degrees, very pleasant and great to be back.

Still in Heidelberg

We are enjoying our time in Heidelberg, catching up with friends from our time here in the 90s and meeting new people. Setting up our place keeps us busy, and I still go into the Kopfklinik every day for radiation therapy (well tolerated up to now). Yesterday, I went to an exhibition on warfare in the local area over the last 10,000 years. Very interesting! The exhibition was planned to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the destruction of Heidelberg in the Thirty Year War, but the Ukraine war has made it that much more timely. The curator gave a fascinating talk as we walked through the small number of very amazing exhibits. The weather is very much fall weather with fog in the mornings, the occasional shower, but also a lot of sunshine.

View of Heidelberg Castle on a nice fall day

Krieg und Frieden, Kurpfälzisches Museum, Heidelberg

Echo from Canada

Came across a nice echo from Canada today: Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, discussing what has changed in the World since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how Western democracies should respond. Take some time, the video is an hour long.

https://www.brookings.edu/events/how-democracies-can-shape-a-changed-global-economy/