Tag Archives: Ciutat

Airport Statistics

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During the twelve months of 2011, a total of 22,726,459 passengers passed through PMI airport. That’s 11,363,230 real people, coming or going, a strong 7.6 % above the numbers for 2010. That’s near enough the highest number of passengers this airport has ever handled in any one year, and that’s with the chips down. Perhaps it is all related to holiday making in North Africa being diverted elsewhere; what do you think?

In January, however, passenger numbers amounted to 614,434 in Palma, or 10.1 % less than a year ago. This decrease might be accountable to fewer flights on offer than there were twelve months ago, or to the demise of Spanair who ceased operations on January 27th.

Overall, the statistics suggest a picture whereby the total number of passengers are steady on a high to very high level for most of the season, whereas the figures during November, December, January and probably February are getting smaller by the year, due to airlines cutting back their flight frequency during the winter month and thus, flight tickets becoming more expensive. The days of the cheap ticket bonanza seem to be over, perhaps irretrievably.

The photo was taken near Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: February 16th, 2012. The time was 17:43:15.

Sunset Boulevard

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Many moons ago I walked the length of Sunset Boulevard, from downtown L. A. through Hollywood to Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades. Nothing quite equals the magnificent beauty of the Pacific Ocean or the sheer luminosity of the Californian light.

When it comes to sunsets, though, nothing can compare with the impressive splendour of the Mallorcan sundown. We have had some stunning sun-setting performances over the last five days. Okay, I have to admit that seeing the beauty of the sun disappearing beyond the horizon and actually capturing the dramatic view on camera is not at all the same. What I saw yesterday on the beach of s’Arenal, near Palma, was eons better than what I can demonstrate in the resulting photo. I offer my apologies.

The photo was taken in Platja de Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: February 16th, 2012. The time was 18:20:28.

The Year of the Big Snow in Mallorca

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Mallorca is back on Yellow alert today with more snow expected in the Tramuntana mountain range, but also at sea level from around lunchtime today. Temperatures will be below zero at their lowest today, with high temperatures not exceeding 6° C to 8° C anywhere here on the island, today. This might be the day for another big snowdrift.

The year of the really big snow in Mallorca was 1956. I did not live here, then, so I must rely on other sources to verify the information. From photos on the Internet, one can gather that, indeed, the amount of snow must have been unusual and almost staggering for an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. I offer you two of those photographs, taken in 1956, for your gratification. The Siberian cold spell then came in three stages, over a period of three weeks: February 2nd to 5th, February 10th to 13th, and February to 18th to 20th. Temperatures in 1956 went as low as -3,5° C in Palma, -10,0° C at the airport and -13,5° C in Lluc. Then, there were 30 cm of snow in Manacor, and 50 cm in Alcúdia y Formentor. The worst affected were the military personnel at the barracks on Puig Major who were cut off for days as there were no snowplows available in Mallorca at that time. On the mainland, at that time, the lowest temperature was recorded in Estany Gento, Pallars (Lleida) with -32° C.

Better put another log on that fire, today, just in case.

The photos were borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of talkkoncorners.blogspot.com, Old_Eyre and the photographers.

Muchas gracias.

Gay Mallorca

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Doing a daily photo blog about Mallorca for almost five years inevitably turns you into an authority on things Mallorcan, or so some readers think. The secret is, I am not. Thank you, Amel, for asking for advice on Halal butchers, or Signe, for asking about sea shells, or Adel, for asking about Mallorca’s Gay scene. That’s what I think you were asking for, anyway. The truth is that I know a little about a lot of things but, I am not an expert in anything really.

Take the Gay & Lesbian scene here on the island, just as an example. I definitely have not the faintest idea. Perhaps one should know something about our homosexual neighbours but, I can’t pretend that I do. Okay, I know that there are leaflets and a map on the scene in Palma’s Tourist Information office, bless their little cotton socks. I also know that the scene appears to concentrate around the Gomila area of Palma, with a bit more in s’Arenal. There are three or four gay saunas in Palma, and quite a number of hotels, bars, cafés, clubs and discos catering for the same-sex community. In Avinguda Joan Miró, one can find at least four gay bars, Marcus, Status, The Black Cat and Yuppi Club. In s’Arenal, there is a girls-only bar, Sólo para Chicas, if that is what you want. In general, there seems to be no animosity towards homosexuals here in Mallorca. There certainly is no animosity here on the Mallorca Daily Photo Blog, or so I’d like to think.

A while ago, I did a blog entry about beaches for nudist bathing. Gays and lesbians bathers seem to be attracted to Es Trenc just the same, and also to Caló des Grells, Platja del Mago (Portals Vells) and La Niña Muerta (Can Pastilla).

For gay cruising or after-hours sex encounters, it seems that Dic de l’Oest (Dique del Oeste) is the best bet, not far from Caló des Grells. I would just urge you to bring condoms.

Should you need to get more information on this subject, addresses or other details, I would direct you to mallorcagayguide.com, cometopalma.com/gay-palma or gaypalmademallorca.com.

The photo was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of flickr and the photographer, ‘YÁRRET.

Thank you and

muchas gracias.

The Snow of a Lifetime

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Mallorca has just had the most snow I have seen in 25 years of living on this island. Newspapers reported that, at least in Palma, there has not been as much snow as last Saturday since 1956. Twenty-five roads had to be closed in the Tramuntana mountain range, as well as on the Puig de Randa and the Puig de Sant Salvador. Four roads still  continue to be closed as per this morning, at Coll de Sóller, between Bunyola and Alaró, Puigpunyent, and at Coll de Sa Batalla. There were delays of up to four hours at Son Sant Joan airport, and there was some disruption with ferry crossings. The Orange weather alert has now been reduced to Yellow for today and will return to normal (Green) as of tomorrow.

Daytime temperatures are slightly up again and will hover around 10° to 11° C today and for the rest of this week. From my experience I would say that there might be one more cold snap with snow before the beginning of March.

The photo (top) was taken near Algaïda, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: February 5th, 2012. The time was 15:01:09. The photo (centre) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of diariodemallorca.es and the photographer, Xisco Sastre. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of riowang.blogspot.com.

Thank you very much,

muchas gracias and

moltes gràcies.

The Vandal Period

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After the Roman period in Mallorca (123 B. C. until approx. 430 A. C.) the Vandals came (425 until 534). The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century, coming to the Iberian Peninsula in 409. Under king Genseric, the Vandals settled in North Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, plus the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics. Not much else is known, apparently, about their dominion in Mallorca and a reign lasting the better part of 100 years; no architectural relics were found.

Present day vandals roam the streets of this island, setting fire to rubbish containers, cars, kiosks and the occasional beach bar. Often they are kids involved in a dare-you ritual of initiation, or youngsters under the influence of drugs, alcohol or high levels of testosterone, or simply, an angry neighbour on a payback mission.

Some parts of Mallorca sometimes feel a bit like Echo Park. Apart from that and the high unemployment rate in Mallorca, life here is still pretty much idyllic.

The photo was taken in El Molinar, Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: January 28th, 2012. The time was 14:35:45.

Book Geeks

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Books have a funny effect on us. Ask your children or grandchildren about the effect the Harry Potter saga had on them, or The Chronicles of Narnia. Or remind yourself of The Famous Five or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Books have the ability to make us passionate. The world of books can become a lifelong passion, an obsession, an addiction.

Toni Llabres used to be employed as a butcher somewhere in the Blanquerna area of Palma for the first half of his professional career. But cleaving never was his secret passion; books were. In 1978, not long after Franco’s death, he opened a second-hand book store in Palma’s old town, not far from the Ajuntament. Immediately, El Bazar del Libro struck a chord with Palma’s book geeks. Palma’s intellectuals had been deprived during the dark ages of Franco’s rule of any foreign editions, had never read texts by any liberal authors or the poetry of Apollinaire. Then, after 34 years, sometime last year the book shop closed, was sold, locked up, gone (see my earlier blog entry).

Recently, Juan Antonio Cantarellas alerted me to the fact that El Bazar del Libro will re-open under his management from tomorrow, February 5th (17h00 to 20h00). I think we are all invited as long as we can tell a book from a Kindle. I don’t know much about Senyor Cantarellas, nothing in fact, but I imagine that he might be related to Catalina Cantarellas, herself Art Historian at the Universitat de les Illes Balears.

Toni Llabres will be there tomorrow afternoon as well. I think he must be 69 by now, coming up 70. In fact he will be in the new book store for the first two months introducing the new owners to some of his old clients of the last 34 years.

Librorum Geekum Liberum.

The photo was taken in Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: February 2nd, 2012. The time was 14:51:12.

Winter Has Come

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AEMet, the Meteorological State Agency has issued an Orange Alert for Mallorca for today for all coastal areas and Yellow Alert for the island itself. Temperatures are expected to drop to 0° C overall and -5° C in parts of the Serra de Tramuntana mountains. Snow is forecast today in the mountains and possibly at sea level as well. A 25 km stretch of road has been closed as a precaution on the Pollença to Andratx road, namely between Coll de Sa Batalla and the Mirador de Ses Barques.

Schools are not affected at the moment the way they are in nearby Catalunya where 260,000 pupils were prevented from taking classes yesterday, due to heavy snowfalls. In Palma, some schools have been suffering from unheated classrooms for the last two months, though, due to budgetary cuts with the heating being cut off. I have friends at the Institut Ramon Llull in the Avingudas who may well decide that today, low classroom temperatures are just unbearable.

The cold snap of Siberian proportions in the Spanish mainland and in most of Europe is expected to last until next Wednesday. You better get your woollies out.

The photo was taken in Es Molinar, Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: January 28th, 2012. The time was 14:55:16.

The Mallorca Tour: La Challenge Ciclista

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Team Sky Pro Cycling is back in Mallorca blocking pedestrian crossings in Felanitx whilst preparing for the upcoming Challenge Ciclista Mallorca in Palma, starting this Sunday, February 5th. The Mallorca Challenge is a series of four one-day races with four individual winners and only an unofficial overall champion.

Mark Cavendish, Michael Barry, Alex Dowsett, Chris Froome, Sergio Henao, Thomas Löfkvist, Lars-Petter Nordhaug, Richie Porte, Salvatore Puccio, Luke Rowe, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Xabier Zandio are all lined up for Team Sky to take up the challenge in some or all of the stages, together with La Tour 2011 winner Cadel Evans (Australia/BMC Racing Team), three times Tour de France winner Alberto Contador (Spain/Saxo Bank), and brothers Andy and Frank Schleck (Luxembourg/RadioShack-Nissan).

The first stage of the Mallorca Challenge will be the Trofeo Palma (116 km) on Sunday. The second stage will be the Trofeo Migjorn/Cala Millor (172 km) on Monday, February 6th. Third stage will be the Trofeo Deià (151 km) on Tuesday, February 7th. The fourth and final stage will be the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana (160 km) on Wednesday, February 8th.

Good luck to all participants and all teams, UK or otherwise.

The photo (top) was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Spain. The date: January 31st, 2012. The time was 13:44:39. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of teamsky.com.

Thank you very much.

Tunnel Visions

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It may not be a phenomenon specific only to Mallorca, but there are a large number of underground passages and tunnels burrowed into the island’s underbelly. Think of the Roman aqueducts, part over- and part underground, or the Quanats and wells of Moorish origin. Think of the coal mines and the underground Marès quarries. Think of tunnels and shelters built by resistant citizens during the Guerra Civil, the Spanish Civil War. Think of tunnels and caves burrowed by prisoners of war during the Guerra de la Independencia Española (also known as the Peninsular War) below the Castell de Bellver or simply think of fresh water channels and waste-water tunnels built 200 years ago, before the start of the industrial revolution. The Military burrowed extensive tunnel systems into the coastal defense set-ups during the Forties. In Palma, there were extensive underground tunnels for trains of goods and chattels. Nowadays, you have a vast hydraulic waste collection system crisscrossing Palma’s underbelly. I suppose I could go on and on.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to descend into part of the intricate water tunnel system beneath the town of Felanitx. There are two distinct channel systems in Felanitx, both dating from 1830 or thereabouts. One is a grid of water tunnels starting from the Font de Santa Margalida (well) opposite the parish church and reaching to well below the Plaça d’Espanya. Until 25 years ago, these shafts could be accessed and traversed whilst nowadays one can only go as far as the entryway of the tunnelled system. The other grid is a network of tall tunnels for waste water sewage, running the length of both, Passeig d’Ernest Mestre and Carrer de Ses Eres.

I hold an invitation to explore a mile-long tunnel system of Quanats not far from here, in Ses Aigues. I have been there and seen the entry ducts but, as yet have not descended into the tunnel system. If and when I do pluck up the courage and overcome my unease about feeling claustrophobic, I will report back to you.

The photos were taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: January 30th, 2012. The time was 10:08:04 and 10:11:02, respectively.