Valldemossa

I love to visit Valldemossa when I am in Mallorca. Actually the island of Mallorca is full of beautiful places to see and explore. There are a ton of hiking trails scattered throughout the island, many of them winding through private pasture lands. You are free to pass, just make sure the gate is latched as you do. Climbing the hills, listening to the tinkle of the sheep bells, breathing the wonderful earthy sage smells, admiring the gnarled and beautifully twisted ancient olive trees on terraces cut into the mountain slope, gazing at the view across to the turquoise Mediterranean ....wow it brings back a lot of wonderful memories of time spent there. We are lucky, as my sister and her family live on Mallorca. We visit often, and although I have just returned from a two week visit, as I write about Mallorca I become wistful of returning.
The romantic village of Valldemossa is perched on of one of those terraced mountain slopes, Tramuntana. Its claim to fame for the hordes of visiting tourists is due to Chopin and his lover having spent time living in an old monastery. Chopins lover, who used the nom de plume Georg Sand, was actually Baroness Dupin. She wrote the novel A Winter in Majorca, which was made into film and is not particulary complimentary to the town nor its' residents. But please don't let that discourage you from visiting. A Chopin concert in the monastery and a walk though the beautiful gardens are certainly worth the trip. But to miss strolling through the sloped, narrow, winding, peaceful streets would be to miss the heart and soul of Valldemossa, and I fear what most of the busloads of tourists do.
It is hard to discern one street from another as you wind you way up and down through the town and away from the tourists shops. The narrow cobblestoned Calles bring you up close to the houses built of stone, cheek by jowl, each with a small ceramic plate on the door giving praise to the local patron saint. Then there are the plants. As yards are non existent, each and every house has its own personal plant nursery attached on the front wall and the competition seems to be fierce.
There are many notables who make their homes on Mallorca, and Michael Douglas is one. He has a home in Deia and a restaurant in Valldemossa. When my sister Jeanne was there a few years ago, she strolled the streets calling out his name. We like to tease her that there is a photo of her in the local Correos as a person of interest!
So when you go to Mallorca and visit Valldemossa certainly visit the monastery but be sure to take a stroll through the town. There is plenty of time to visit the shops. Oh, and don't forget to stop at one of the many coffee shops to have a local favourite coca de patata. Yum!

Cristina

While visiting with my sister and her family in Mallorca Spain, I had the pleasure of "babysitting" my 8 year old grand niece Cristina one day when she was home from school with an illness and all other family member were at work. She is the daughter of my nephew John. Her grandmother, my sister, has spoken to her in English since she was born and she fully understands, but in school she speaks Catalan and Spanish and at home Mallorqui, a local dialect. Whew! And to think that MOST Americans speak only english, unless you are from Texas. Who knows what they speak! I digress.
Cristina will be attending a family wedding in the states this year and her grandmother told her she had a perfect opportunity to practice her english with me while I was visiting. So this particular day when she was sick and in my care, we make some stabs at conversation. Cristina, I ask, would you like something? Yes she answers enthusiastically! Okay, what would you like, is my reply. Idonknow, she answers. I smile, certain she thinks this is one word! Later in the week she has a good laugh when I attempt to say perro (dog) which involves a considerable amount of rolling of the r's . This is, of course, something we are not acquainted with in our language and our tongues just can't easily and smoothly complete the task. Well at least mine can't. Cristina decides she'll teach me how to roll my r's and has a good laugh at each poor attempt I make. Okay having exhausted that comedy, I decide to turn the conversation toward the "th" sound, which is foreign to many languages, including spanish, and even some speaking the so called "queen's english"! I ask Cristina to say, thanks, those, these, three and Will Smith. Of course she makes an excellent attempt and really does a good job.
It's curious to think that when we have travelled the world we have automatically assumed that others would speak and understand english. In most parts of europe that is true, well old europe that is. The new europe, the former soviet bloc countries are just now teaching their young people to speak english. In Turkmenistan our landlady spoke no english at all, although she spoke russian. I had a russian/english dictionary and each morning we would sit and have a "conversation" using the dictionary. It was very interesting and she thoroughly enjoyed it...as did I.

Ven comer Paella

My brother in law Luis is a fabulous cook, taking the time in the kitchen to not only make delicious food but to create masterpieces. This Paella is such an example. The process takes forever and I am sure is costly, as he uses only the best ingredients. I had to quickly take this photo before we devoured it. It was as good as it looks. No, better. Muy bien!