Palma de Mallorca - Details

In a comment to yesterday post, RuneE asked for some details. Understandingly from a photo blogger with professional equipment and more focused on the photography than describing experience and environment and document the text as I see it.
Nevertheless some details can be presented.The temperature at the marketplace in Soller, and the old Majorcan resting in the shadow below.The decoration over the main entrance to La Seu:and below here, parts of other facades and doors in the streets of Palma:

If entering the patios behind the front door different staircases can be found.The reception at our dinner restaurant:
At last and as a special tribute to GundaM and her "wreckage" or "drifting timber" found at her seashore. They sell your products in Palma too.

Palma de Mallorca - Street strolling

Strolling Palma de Mallorca street after street without having focus on all the shops, may be tiring if you do not look up and see all the beautiful houses and facades around avenues, plazas and corners.
Below the castle and La Seu the entrance to the city starts with S´Hort del Rei. After Passeig des Born and Plaza J. Carlos I, you find the entrance to La Rambla guarded by statues.The shopping street Jaume III (going west from plaza J.Carlos I ) has these spectacular arcades that give you a covered walk along the shops on both sides protected from the heavy trafic.

The streets closer to Plaza Major have many interesting buildings from the Art Nouveau / Jugend style period. Strolling in the Old city gives you a much more narrow view and the photo below is from the walls outside the Arab Baths.
Before the circle once more is closed, you have the possibility to use your tele lenses and catch a view of the more "modern" style buildings at Passeig Maritim, and beyond that the Castello del Bellver.

Palma de Mallorca - Culinary delights

As mentioned yesterday Mercat de l´Olivar is the main food market in Palma de Mallorca. Visit the indoor mall in the morning. Meat, vegetables, fruit and cheese are lined up in separate stalls in a delicious presentation with good documentation of type, quality and prices.
The Serrano cured ham is sold in a variety of prices and the top quality is called Jamón ibérico or pata negra,
Fresh vegetables (see fruits in yesterday post) are lined up and not covered in plastic as we see in ordinary supermarkets.
In gardens the lemon trees are carrying mature fruits, and if traveling by train from Soller the track goes through lemon farmland.
Lunch menus are normally standardized and pastas, pizzas, tortillas and salads can be found all over the island and cities. The salad portions are large with mixed lettuce and tasteful sauces. Recommendation goes to Salad Roquefort and Spanish Omelet.
In public areas entertainment (and begging?) are normal, and we were surprised of the quality by the performers. No "Rose of Donau" on Accordion in Palma as we are more than fed up with here in Oslo
After lunch visit some of the small specialist shops selling Sobrasada, a Majorcan sausage, and a typical Spanish Mediterranean product. This one is located in C. St Domingo 5.
Tapas is the name of a wide variety of appetizers you can get at almost all bars and restaurants. Instead of peanuts and olives Tapas can be taken together with a drink on your way to your dinner restaurant. Forn des Teatre became our "local" during these days.
Tourists are normally recommended to visit the Sa Llotja area of Palma, crammed with (international) restaurants, bars and clubs offering live music from flamenco to jazz to blues. Many stay open until 3pm or 4pm, although officially 2pm is wind-down time.
We found "our place" not far from the hotel. At Celler sa Premsa you can have suckling pig or shoulder of lamb which are culinary delights.

Palma de Mallorca - Highly recommended

From Tuesday to Saturday last week we spent 5 days and 4 nights in the Capital of the Balleares, Palma de Mallorca. I have been to Mallorca before (early 70s (six consecutive years), same hotel (Sofia), same time (end August), same people (Germans, Swedes, Danes and some housewives from Lillehammer and Orkdal, Norway)), but never had more than a short visit to Plaza Promilla (Gomilla) in Palma.
After last week I highly recommend those of you who are in favor of spending long weekends or a few days on city holidays to put Ciutat Palma de Mallorca on your shortlist.

Taking almost 180 photos I have to decide which to be presented each days to come, but start this Monday with what covers most "to be seen". At the top you see La Seu, the cathedral.The Cathedral area with the royal castle is huge but I recommend a walk along the old walls and Parc de la Mar with extension to the west and Passeig Maritim.When tired of walking and looking at boats and yachts with their owners or crew with friends:you may take public bus no 1 back to the centre up the Passeig Mallorca with the beautiful channel and bridges:Shopping is a natural part of city vacations. The streets are full of shops and boutiques for every budgets and tastes. I believe Jaume III have more exclusive brands, but after passing Plaza Joan Carlos I with Loewe, Zara and H&M, you can enter the narrow streets toward Plaza Major.Do not forget to stop for a coffee or a drink (with some Tapas?) at some of the lovely places you may find.On the other side of Plaza Major (outdoor lunch area with good and reasonable prizes) continue through Carrier de Saint Miguel to Plaza d´Espana where all busses and trains can be found. On this stroll do not miss the Mercat de l´Olivar with food beautiful presented.At Plaza d´Espana the modern underground station (train and busses) can take you to Valldemossa for a concert based on Friedrich Chopins works and after a spectacular journey on narrow roads along the western coast and Deia you reach Soller with the city tram.In Valldemossa at La Cartoixa you may find a gallery with some of Juan Miro´s works, but this below is from the newest museum in the city (c de San Miguel), Es Baluard:Nightlife in Palma is in this post only limited to a photo of Grand Hotel.

From shopping to farming

The gap between two worlds is sometimes only hours and an airplane.
From Carrier de Saint Miguel in Palma de Mallorca where the "black belt in shopping" can be conducted with elegance, credit cards and high heals, to the spring activity at our summer residence in working habit where last year leaves are removed.
My wife is extremely competent in both worlds.
I am indeed more relaxed when a cold beer is to my disposal. This pint disappeared in Soller, Mallorca where the temperature on Thursday reached +33 C during lunchtime.

Today´s flower goes to Palma de Mallorca

Returning from a short visit to Palma de Mallorca (don´t be surprised for the posts coming up next days) my Sunday flowers this week go to the Flower street "Las Ramblas."
Palma is highly recommended.

Warm and lazy

Palma de Mallorca is å town to visit end April

Summer is great

Today´s flowers

Some of my blogger friends use the Sunday to publish photos of flowers. I have never joined this meme previously, but why not take a photo of my window frame where the sun is giving all the power required for nursing the plants. Water is needed under these conditions, but please don´t ask me of names.I have no clue.

A young boy and his experiences

Yesterday I received this photo through iPhone from Wales. A Hedgehog was found in the garden and young Henrik wanted to touch it. Happily with his hand and not going for hugging this alien creature. He immediately withdraw his hand; an experience earned.
An other experience, to the appreciation of the grandfather, was his first painting of spring. Continue working with colors and my studio will be here for you.

April is capricious here in the northern hemisphere.
Friday was warm and sunny where chaos at outdoor restaurants was the correct description. Everyone wanted a seat at Aker Brygge, and sun protection cream should have been served together with pints and white wines.
Yesterday the wind turned chilly coming from north again and almost cold air made it impossible to sit outside if not using overcoats, caps and gloves. Indoor lunch in front of the fireplace and the same at home in the evening was not only cosy, but almost necessary. The red Bordeauex superior Chateau de Seguin and some mature cheeses made the evening delightful.
Since the weather forecast for the upcoming week in Oslo is predicted like the figure above, we look forward to a better anticipated forecast in a town more south.
Have a nice week with your weather wherever you are.

Tamil People demonstrates in Oslo

The Tamil People is an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, a state in India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. They speak Tamil, with a recorded history going back two millennia. Tamil was the first Indian language to be given classical status. The art and architecture of the Tamil people encompass some of the notable contributions of India and South East Asia to the art world. The music, the temple architecture and the stylised sculptures favored by the Tamil people in their ancient nation are still being learnt and practiced.

During a period of years Norwegian diplomacy has been active in the process of trying to create peace in the island of Ceylon (before 1972) where Sri Lanka Armed Forces and the Tamil Tigers have been at war. The effort failed. The present situation for the Tamils is very problematic. The whole people may be exorcised, and many refugees from this area have been given asylum to Norway.
Today Tamils from all over Scandinavia have been in the street of Oslo demonstrating for a new and extensive effort by the Norwegian government to make the Tamil people a possibility to have their own Nation safe and prosperous.

The Door to island Dimun and Aurora

This painting by the Norwegian artist Ørnulf Opdahl (born in Ålesund 1940) shows an open door and view to the island Dimun at the small autonomous province of Denmark: the Faroe Island.Painting of nature is not "difficult". Making art out of the painting is much more challenging. My own painting of nature with Northern Light Aurora Borealis is probably not categorized as art by critics, but an example of what you can see when opening a door in the northern areas of earth. Maybe some bloggers can open their doors in southern Australia or Tasmania and show us the Aurora Australis.

Norwegians and the sea now and then

Norwegians have always used the sea and oceans to conquer new territories and make profit. Thousand years ago the Vikings made many voyages, and the map below show some of the routes our ancestors used on their visits around Europe:Around 1001 ac Leiv Erikson made visits to Markland and Vinland and thus "found" America almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus. I have never been an active sailor, and never experienced the once in a life time like the painting above (by the Norwegian painter Chr. Krogh) when Leiv discovers America, but I have been some hours in sailing-boats not only in smooth weather. If you think I look familiar, maybe you just have read Snorre´s Heimskringla, the history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history.
I received a facsimile from a friend some days ago, remembering our management and employee development program "Motivation for Change" that took place in 1990 - 1991. In presenting me in that context our internal news magazine found a certain similarities.

M is for Mental floss

Do you like Quizz ?
Test yout knowledge of Dogs in this QUIZZ or in other Quizz challenges.

M is for Mental Floss (Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix) this week.

Other M go to Mrs Nesbits place

True or False - Your choise

Is this statement True of False??

Sudoku is actually a Swiss invention.
The game was designed in 1783 by mathematician Leonhard Euler, who called it “Latin Squares.”

During our stay in the Land of the Rising Sun. we had a lot of the S-Dishes like Sushi, Sashimi and of course Sake. We heard about Tamagotchi a few months after our repatriation, but had never heard of Sudoku until the new millennium arose Above a lunch box with Sashimi, and below from Kyoto where we joined a company dinner with colleagues in November 1995 consisting of everything including hot and chilled Sake and Karaoke.
Dress code = formal.
This Easter many newspapers have sent out extra enclosures with cross-words, quizzes and levels of SUDOKU difficulties for peoples in their mountain cottages, or for us "home-sitters"
Many of us may believe that Sudoku originates from Japan as Sake, Sushi and Sashimi.
Is it from Japan or the statement above true????

Leonard Euler was a pioneering Swiss Mathematician and Physicist who spent most of his life in Russia and Germany. Euler worked in almost all areas of mathematics: geometry, calculus, trigonometry, algebra, and number theory, as well as continuum physics, lunar theory and other areas of physics. He is a seminal figure in the history of mathematics; if printed, his works, many of which are of fundamental interest, would occupy between 60 and 80 quarto volumes.

The name Latin square originates from Leonhard Euler, who used Latin characters as symbols. In Mathematic a Latin square is an n × n table filled with n different symbols in such a way that each symbol occurs exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column.
Is that SUDUKO?

The general problem of solving Sudoku puzzles on n² × n² boards of n × n blocks is known to be NP-complete . For n=3 (classical Sudoku), however, this result is of little relevance: algorithms such as Dancing Links can solve puzzles in fractions of a second.
A valid Sudoku solution grid is also a Latin Square. The relationship between the two theories is now known precisely: it has been shown by D. Berthier that a first order formula that does not mention regions (also called blocks) is valid for Sudoku if and only if it is valid for Latin Squares.

So once again: Is the statement from The Amazing Fact Generator True or False.

Monday theme = Silence

Maybe I will look more into the meme Monday Theme which today present the word Silence.According to the mother this photo was taken after almost 20 minutes of silence in the house. She wondered where the children were and found them with their books reading. Peace, tranquility and silence are sometimes like healing for a mother.

Se more of the interpretation of todays meme HERE

Waiting for the resurrection

Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, Christianity celabrares the Resurrection of Jesus, the core biblical story from which much of Christian doctrine, ritual and theology depend.
According to the Gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, and appeared to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9). John states that when Mary looked into the tomb, two angels asked her why she was crying; and as she turned round she initially failed to recognize Jesus until he spoke her name (John 20:11-18)
On the day before I present of a photo of the Norwegian writer (most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist) Henrik Wergeland . His grave and statues are decorated by students and school children every year. Notably, the Jewish community of Oslo pays their respects at his grave on May 17, in appreciation of his efforts to allow Jews into Norway.
The city is almost empty this Saturday but a few of us are strolling the streets heading for Aker Brygge. The only wonderful Easter day regarding the weather this year, and spring costumes can be seen wherever we go with our camera.

Happy Easter.

Mountain Trips = Easter Activity

In Easter many Norwegians go up in the mountains for their "last enthusiasts" skiing and snow experiences. Norway is a mountain country and we seek the highs wherever we can find them.
On the photos below I am at Dalsnibba (1476) in Geiranger Norway, and at Franz Josephs Hoehe (2422) in Austria.
Going further up in the sky we will enter the areas normally controlled by Eagles and Gods like this painting by Franz Widerberg.That is no hindering for my sister Brit that during this Easter visited Manchu Picchu (2430) in Peru after tracking in highs up to 4800 m.and that Rikke (one month to go for her first child) together with friends from UWCSEA in 1996 reached peaks at 6000 m in Ladak, India. No problem understanding why the Danes call us Norwegians "Mountain Monkeys".
Happy Easter.

Copenhagen´s National Art Museum

This head is more than eight hundred years old, (made before 1309 ac), and can be found in the collections at SMK or the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen.
Not all sculptures are as old as that, and my favorites from the visit on Tuesday this week, was these three intriguing three-dimensial artworks:The last one is made to illustrate the clothings of the female Skagen Artists and placed in the room with some of the most important painters from this intriguing art-colony on the north-east coast of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark.
The Skagen Painters, which enjoyed the reputation of a bohemian lifestyle, encompassed not only painters, but also writers, and other influential people as well. While only a few were full time residents of the area, they were often joined by friends, especially during the summer months. Among these notable visitors and residents of the time were writers Holger Drachmann, Georg Brandes, and Henrik Pontoppidan, artists Peder Severin Krøyer, Marie Triepcke Krøyer Alfvén, Christian Krohg, Michael Ancher and Anna Ancher, and composer Hugo Alfvén.
Most of these painters´ works are collected at Skagen Museum but some of them are also represented at SMK.P.S. Kreyer, Chr Krogh and also Edward Munch although I did not know that he had been at Skagen.
As you probably know my favorite "ism" in art is the Expressionism. Many great painters can be found at SMK like K. Schmidt-Rottulff, A. Derain, and H. Matisse, The "three dimensional" painting of the easel shows that our eyes cannot always bee trusted.A more surrealistic painting and the last painting presented below here (called Hell), are posted to remind you that in Easter Jesus not only visited the Gethsemane Garden. He also took a short trip down under (not Australia) before returning (according to the lady Mary Magdalene who was the first witness to the empty tomb and then shared the good news with Jesus's other close disciples. (John 20:1–2).

Easter in Gethsemane and Copenhagen

"Christ in Gethsemane" made by Carlo Dolci late 1600 is my introduction to Easter and our short trip to Copenhagen, the Capital of Denmark this week. The beautiful painting is to be found in the National Gallery together with a lot of other masterpieces that will be presented tomorrow.
After leaving Oslo at 5 am Monday morning we could cross "Rådhusplassen" (City Hall Square) a few minutes before noon.At Nyhavn we had our lunch and the editor of this blog could once more express his satisfaction of the Danish Breakfast consisting of herring, soles, chicken salad, meat ball, liver pate, roast beef, and cheeses accompanied with pints and aquavit.The next photo is taken at the entrance of our hotel showing spring flowers together with the most beautiful of them all: Tullen.
The Blue Scillas i the Kings Garden can be an natural introduction to the cultural artworks in the museum, some of which I will show you tomorrow..

Easter Week is on

An imitation of the yellow color and symbol of spring and Easter. The venflon removed but important to show off.
Happy Easter week to you all.

Ready, Steady, Gone (Tonsils removed)

Helene has been at the hospital since yesterday. Removal of her Tonsils was on the agenda. She is like her grandfather well known with hospitals, doctors and nurses due to her premature birth some years ago. This time she discovered the Barbie dolls at the playroom. On Sedation she is more than ready for the operation, and soon after she went into dreamland.
This morning the tonsils are gone and breakfast is part of the discharge procedure.
Well done Helene, you are a big girl.

Almost finished - Time for a break

January 2. 2009 I shot the photo below in Holtegaten, Oslo. The snowy winter had not yet arrived and there was an active workforce (although not on the photo) engaged in reconstructing the tracks for the city train (no 19. Briskebytrikken).
The road was closed for public traffic and has now been closed for six months making the life for people living in the houses less disturbed of heavy traffic, but many times more noisy due to engineering machines working 24/7 and difficulty to access their homes without any open street. This morning the workers could take a well earned break in the upcoming spring sun.
The tram is once more in operation and
the street is almost ready for public traffic and resident parking. There atre many interesting houses from late 1800 in this area under the Uranienborg church. Western Uranienborg as "Fru Fletfrid Andresen" from Øvre Singsaker called it.

If you want to know more about Architectural History in Oslo just click on the link and find your address of concern.

Thursday Urban Life - Outdoor drinks

Still a few days until Easter Holiday begins. The temperature in Oslo´s urban areas is above 10 C and sitting in the sun at Aker Brygge makes life even more great than my slogan at the heading indicates.
Been visiting my Eye Doctor today, and she was very satisfied with the post operative development. No cancer, healing according to prognosis and still in no need of glasses (except when reading, my arms are too short)
Today strolling ended up at an outdoor restaurant with a glass of Chardonnay, looking at people strolling at the seashore and licking the sunbeams under full control of UV protection creams. The weather is still a little bit chilly in the shadow so spring clothing is required. A few days until Easter, but decorations in shops give clear signals of time-glass counting.

This is no joke on April Fools-day

I have not been in the mode to create an April 1st joke this year.
I was thinking of leaking information from a cafe table when I overheard a conversation yesterday between two Labor politicians. They were frustrated once more that the administration in Justice department made another new turn in the highly secret process around allowing hijab in every positions in the police and armed forces. They just had to accept that the socialist party needs ONE major victory in the government before the election campaign starts as a compensation for not leaving NATO and double the forces in Afghanistan. The Press conference will take place later.

However, April Fools-day or not, only an opportunity to see more of Kate Moss and her new collection at TopShop coming up tomorrow.Perhaps somebody like to see this post in connection with ABC Wednesday, so
K is for Kate?