To Fly Again, ... To Live So Free

Sunwing. The simplicity of a name. Taken to the sun by wings. Or an allusion to a freedom in the sun. It's a masterpiece of holiday-ese. Hotels have sought the allure of exotic local names or have been corporatised so that one is not entirely sure. The Iberostars Alcúdia Park and Albufera Park, separated by kilometres, are sometimes transposed. The Vivas Blue and Bahía. Now which one is which, again? The Sols all stand together, yet are distinct; not that the tourist necessarily knows this and so has to enquire: " is it this or is it that?". Others have fallen back on the we're all in it together tag, which may indeed be apposite in the cases of Club Mac and Club Bellevue. The only "club" of purpose is Sea Club, another brand of straightforwardness - a club by the sea.

The hotel name. It's a subject worth a piece or several on its own, but for now, to return to Sunwing. This complex of hotels and apartments is one of Puerto Alcúdia's biggest and most enduring. It has not aspired in the same way as Bellevue has to having its name used to describe an area, even if it is a convenience to explain that such and such is "by Sunwing". It has also not been granted quasi-geographical status as, unlike Bellevue, it has not spawned a Mile equivalent. Sunwing has the best of all worlds. It is close enough to the Mile but not a part of it, it is a pleasant stroll along the beach path to the port, and it is slap bang on the beach.

Yet for all the importance and advantages of Sunwing, go to the various holiday advice sites (the English ones anyway) and you will find no mention. There are no enquiries after the state of the entertainment or the kids' club or the existence or otherwise of Germans. And the reason why not is very simple, like its name. The Brits can't go there. I had thought that one of its hotels, the Princesa, was to go Brit, but this has not turned out to be the case. Sunwing is Baltic, Nordic, Scandinavian, and is likely to remain so.

Sunwing is the concrete embodiment of the Scandinavian Alcúdia holiday; it is indicative of a history of Swedish holiday colonisation of Alcúdia. More so than the Brits or the Germans, it was the Swedes who claimed first land rights. And they have made sure to keep Sunwing for themselves and their Scandinavian brethren.

In a more general sense, Sunwing and its convocation of nations, is part of a diversity of European tribes in Alcúdia that rarely gets mentioned. One might believe that The Mile is the Brit on holiday, but even blocks in Bellevue are for other nationalities, the Scandinavians included. The "British" bar along The Mile is as much a phenomenon of the successful export of British holiday and social culture as it is anything to do with actual ownership; the diversity of the Alcúdia tourist is not mirrored by the presence of ethno-bar-style. Yet it is this very disparate agglomeration of EU and non-EU nations that contributes, in part, to the vitality of Alcúdia. There may not be a mass of Scandinavian bars or even German, French, Czech or Russian ones come to that, but there is a multi-dimensionality to Alcúdia that is not to be found in, say, its neighbour Puerto Pollensa. "Bild" may have unwisely laid guilt by association at the beaches of Puerto Pollensa when it said it was a place for Germans to avoid, but it was right in the sense that Puerto Pollensa is very much the Brit on holiday, to a far greater extent than Alcúdia.

The Scandinavians of Alcúdia should be a protected species. Not only are they well regarded for their willingness to part with hard cash, they are also singularly unaffected by the negative characterisations of other nations, notably the Germans and the British. Scandinavians do not suffer from accusations of arrogance or projectile vomiting. Given the cheapness and availability of alcohol compared to the likes of Malmo, one might have thought the Swedes would be in a state of two-week binged oblivion, but generally they are not. And perhaps there is something in prohibitively high alcohol prices. Take a walk around Sunwing, and after the shock of all that blondness, the thing that strikes is you is that they look so disgustingly healthy.

Sunwing. So important but so unknown - to the British. And something tells me that this is how the Scandinavians intend to keep it.


QUIZ
Chain - "Gloria", Van Morrison; "I Will Survive", Gloria Gaynor. And the connection between the latter song and REM? Very simple. Yesterday's title - Wah (see this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWr0_zWaVzU). Today's title - where's this pompous lyric from?

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