Capdepera is the municipality on the north-eastern tip of Mallorca. Its coastal resort is Cala Ratjada. It is mainly a German destination, the resort itself a peculiar stretch between two sea fronts, the main beach small and crowded, one to which one can see hordes of lilo carriers heading in summer, taking a long-ish walk from the centre of Cala Ratjada. The town has announced some "initiatives" designed to attract more tourism. And these are? Cycling, audio guides for the mediaeval castle and a Nordic walking track. These, together with promotional materials, will cost somewhat less than a hundred thousand euros.
Fine, you might think, but just look at that list again and at the budget. Cycling. Nordic walking. Me-too tourism facilities in other words. Take Nordic walking. Alcúdia has a route, Can Picafort has a route and now Capdepera is to have one. Nordic walking falls into the category of "alternative" tourism, an alternative aimed at extending the tourism offer and season.
Given the German dominance of Cala Ratjada, a Nordic walking offer makes some sense, but, as with the other resorts in the north, it is an addition to the tourism mix that will make only minimal impact. More than that, it is cheap. And it is this - the lack of cost - that is the most germane point in seeking more German tourists. For a relatively small spend, the town hall and the tourism ministry can announce that "something is being done", can be seen to be taking some action. It is, therefore, largely a PR exercise, not one aimed at more tourism but one aimed at trying to convince that effort is being put into extending the season.
Tourism minister Ferrer, in presenting these initiatives, spoke of the need to "create new attractions" to "re-invent" the island as a tourism destination and to "extract the value" that exists on the island in terms of its natural landscape and heritage. Well he would say that, as his predecessors and other tourism authority spokespeople will have done. It is spin, a formulaic pronouncement lifted from the brief manual that is phrases to use when talking about things other than sun and beach tourism.
The worry is not that there is to be a Nordic walking track, not that there is to be more cycling in Capdepera, not that there are to be audio guides to the castle which is promoted as having a "fascinating history", one bound up in battles against pirates. The worry is the spend and the me-too nature of the offers. If less than a hundred grand could be converted into half a million more tourists per year, then you would take your hat off to the brilliance of the thinking. But it won't. Nowhere, moreover, is any evidence offered as to how many new tourists might be created or how many existing tourists might be willing to not trade in Mallorca for another destination. It's not surprising, because the tourism authorities don't know. What they do know is that Nordic walking and the rest is something alternative on the cheap. This is one of the failures of Mallorca's so-called alternative tourism. There is not much by way of investment. Not much directed at grander schemes that might mean serious numbers of tourists. Not much, in fact nothing, by way of some out-of-the box thinking for creating genuine alternatives or even additions to the main summer tourism. One of the failures? No, the failure.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Kiss, "100,000 Years", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_a-NYivv6o.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Showing posts with label Nordic walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nordic walking. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Too Much To Ask
"We're doing a survey. We'd like your views about ..." It's the oldest trick in the book. Stop someone with an apparently innocent request to ask if you might do some seemingly legitimate market research, and use it as a means to something else. It's a trick that the scratch-cardists are using. They want to know if people are satisfied with things in Puerto Alcúdia. How dare they? Without wishing to sound like "disgusted of Tunbridge Wells", it is an absolute disgrace - at different levels. It is the thing that the market research industry has fought against for years, and for the scratch-cardists to even vaguely suggest that they might be doing something that is a) market research or b) has Alcúdia's interests at heart is little short of scandalous. They are not conducting market research and they care not one iota about Alcúdia. If they did, they would not be helping to harm the resort's reputation.
Can Picafort and its frontline
Can Picafort's hoteliers had a meeting with tourism minister Nadal the other day. Top of the agenda, as reported by "The Diario", was the state of the frontline, a project for the improvement of which has been on the cards for five years, but which has yet to come to fruition. This project started to take on greater urgency last year when the German newspaper "Bild" laid into Can Picafort beach, the frontline included, and went so far as to recommend that tourists go to Playa de Muro beach instead. It was exaggerating the state of the frontline and the beach area, but the paper had a point, and some local politicos appeared to take the report's sentiments to heart. Yet still no plans are concrete - so to speak.
Can Picafort, despite the over-abundance of hotels, is not an unpleasant place. Lacking in character perhaps but appealing in a let's not pretend this is anything but a holiday resort way. The paseo marítimo (promenade) is one of its main drawbacks. There may be some gripes about parts of Puerto Pollensa's frontline looking a tad tacky nowadays, but it is a thing of beauty compared with the in-parts ramshackle appearance of Can Picafort's. One has to admire how Puerto Alcúdia transformed its main prom, in order to appreciate what some TLC can achieve.
The hoteliers were also interested in the minister creating a Nordic walking area. Oh, here we go. Alcúdia's got one, so we'd better have one as well. That said, Can Picafort is holiday home to a large German contingent and so it may well make sense for there to indeed be a Nordic walking zone. No reason why not. However, this request does once again highlight the degree to which there is a "follow-the-leader" mentality; golf courses being the prime example. It also highlights the apparent lack of some, what one might call, lateral thought in terms of doing something different. In defence of Nordic walking, however, if a special "park" is established, it would in all likelihood reside in a natural environment - forest land, rather as it does in Alcúdia. It would be essentially environmentally neutral and healthy; it would not be something which should raise any great objection. They should do it.
Alcúdia Nordic walking event
And while on Nordic walking, this weekend will see something of a stick-in or pole-in, however you call it, of Nordic walkers in Alcúdia. On Saturday afternoon, a grand trek will start in the old town and then, from 18:00, one to Barcares. On Sunday, there will be a second go, with - from 11:15 - a walk from the old town to Sunwing via the beach. This is all part of the "Alcúdia Living Sport" summer programme of healthy activities.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Madonna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNdxbWXmH3U). Today's title - from something fluorescent. Who? Think "Dancefloor".
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Can Picafort and its frontline
Can Picafort's hoteliers had a meeting with tourism minister Nadal the other day. Top of the agenda, as reported by "The Diario", was the state of the frontline, a project for the improvement of which has been on the cards for five years, but which has yet to come to fruition. This project started to take on greater urgency last year when the German newspaper "Bild" laid into Can Picafort beach, the frontline included, and went so far as to recommend that tourists go to Playa de Muro beach instead. It was exaggerating the state of the frontline and the beach area, but the paper had a point, and some local politicos appeared to take the report's sentiments to heart. Yet still no plans are concrete - so to speak.
Can Picafort, despite the over-abundance of hotels, is not an unpleasant place. Lacking in character perhaps but appealing in a let's not pretend this is anything but a holiday resort way. The paseo marítimo (promenade) is one of its main drawbacks. There may be some gripes about parts of Puerto Pollensa's frontline looking a tad tacky nowadays, but it is a thing of beauty compared with the in-parts ramshackle appearance of Can Picafort's. One has to admire how Puerto Alcúdia transformed its main prom, in order to appreciate what some TLC can achieve.
The hoteliers were also interested in the minister creating a Nordic walking area. Oh, here we go. Alcúdia's got one, so we'd better have one as well. That said, Can Picafort is holiday home to a large German contingent and so it may well make sense for there to indeed be a Nordic walking zone. No reason why not. However, this request does once again highlight the degree to which there is a "follow-the-leader" mentality; golf courses being the prime example. It also highlights the apparent lack of some, what one might call, lateral thought in terms of doing something different. In defence of Nordic walking, however, if a special "park" is established, it would in all likelihood reside in a natural environment - forest land, rather as it does in Alcúdia. It would be essentially environmentally neutral and healthy; it would not be something which should raise any great objection. They should do it.
Alcúdia Nordic walking event
And while on Nordic walking, this weekend will see something of a stick-in or pole-in, however you call it, of Nordic walkers in Alcúdia. On Saturday afternoon, a grand trek will start in the old town and then, from 18:00, one to Barcares. On Sunday, there will be a second go, with - from 11:15 - a walk from the old town to Sunwing via the beach. This is all part of the "Alcúdia Living Sport" summer programme of healthy activities.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Madonna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNdxbWXmH3U). Today's title - from something fluorescent. Who? Think "Dancefloor".
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Friday, May 08, 2009
Poles Apart
Recently, one of my main German correspondents took me slightly to task in respect of my generally held view of the German propensity to appear like complete lunatics, notably when stomping the streets of Playa de Muro or Alcúdia with two skiing poles or indeed hanging around the supermarkets with the same pointed sticks: not in a threatening manner as in they are about to hold up the Trabilsa security van, but as in well it's the most normal thing in the world, isn't it? Which it isn't. But therein lies the rub or the "Rübe", a word to which my class was introduced by a German student doing some teaching duties at my old school who claimed that it was slang for penis (it is actually a word for carrot, so if you like ...). The rub, however, is that for many a German it is quite normal. Quite normal, that is, to appear less than normal, as defined from a British perspective.
This all relates to a none-too-rare cultural discussion as to the German trait of conformity and the British one of individuality. My man in Munich (strictly speaking, he isn't in Munich; he's about two hours drive away, but it sounded better in an alliterative way) argues that the great Panzer divisions of Germans yomping, with strength and joy, across the wheat fields and along the "Strassen" of the country are demonstrating an individuality that the cynical Brits simply can't understand. One might say that there is indeed a conformity to be observed in the massed ranks of Nordic walkers marching in an easterly direction towards Poland. And within the boundaries of the Bundesprepublik this may indeed be so, but not when the Nordic art is transported to the likes of Alcúdia. At this point, it becomes an expression of individuality, and I can see the logic of the argument, because - at heart - it is an expression of quite honestly I couldn't give a toss what anyone else thinks of me, especially the British.
This is a not unworthy trait at all. The more one thinks about it, the more the conformity-individuality axis is spun in favour of an axis-power non-conformity. German men, for the most part, have an admirable absence of any dress sense. I know one who wears a pink beret, for example. And no, he's not, in case you were thinking otherwise. It must all stem from a desire to wear strange hats with feathers and tight leather shorts. And trust me, such people do exist. But there goes my British cynicism. I should stop it.
How really can one condemn for lack of individuality a nation populated with men and women who, at the first hint of warm weather, are prone to getting their kit off (just as well, given some of the clothes they wear). This is also admirable, albeit it does rather depend where and which men or women are indulging in some "Freikörperkultur", the abbreviation for which is FKK: only the Germans could have invented a term for nudism that sounds like something else. I daresay that there is a nudist Nordic walking movement somewhere in Germany. Just so long as they don't start doing it along Alcúdia's beach. Especially not with those poles. Ooh er, missus.
And when one thinks of conformity, what greater degree of conformity is there than that of the British male who has wandered off the set of Eastenders? The British male is defined in terms of Phil or Grant Mitchell. Just take a walk along The Mile, and see for yourselves. And they would never, ever be seen with two poles.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Jackson Browne (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bww2prhAWEA). Today's title - it is said that the lyrics were about two of the founder members.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
This all relates to a none-too-rare cultural discussion as to the German trait of conformity and the British one of individuality. My man in Munich (strictly speaking, he isn't in Munich; he's about two hours drive away, but it sounded better in an alliterative way) argues that the great Panzer divisions of Germans yomping, with strength and joy, across the wheat fields and along the "Strassen" of the country are demonstrating an individuality that the cynical Brits simply can't understand. One might say that there is indeed a conformity to be observed in the massed ranks of Nordic walkers marching in an easterly direction towards Poland. And within the boundaries of the Bundesprepublik this may indeed be so, but not when the Nordic art is transported to the likes of Alcúdia. At this point, it becomes an expression of individuality, and I can see the logic of the argument, because - at heart - it is an expression of quite honestly I couldn't give a toss what anyone else thinks of me, especially the British.
This is a not unworthy trait at all. The more one thinks about it, the more the conformity-individuality axis is spun in favour of an axis-power non-conformity. German men, for the most part, have an admirable absence of any dress sense. I know one who wears a pink beret, for example. And no, he's not, in case you were thinking otherwise. It must all stem from a desire to wear strange hats with feathers and tight leather shorts. And trust me, such people do exist. But there goes my British cynicism. I should stop it.
How really can one condemn for lack of individuality a nation populated with men and women who, at the first hint of warm weather, are prone to getting their kit off (just as well, given some of the clothes they wear). This is also admirable, albeit it does rather depend where and which men or women are indulging in some "Freikörperkultur", the abbreviation for which is FKK: only the Germans could have invented a term for nudism that sounds like something else. I daresay that there is a nudist Nordic walking movement somewhere in Germany. Just so long as they don't start doing it along Alcúdia's beach. Especially not with those poles. Ooh er, missus.
And when one thinks of conformity, what greater degree of conformity is there than that of the British male who has wandered off the set of Eastenders? The British male is defined in terms of Phil or Grant Mitchell. Just take a walk along The Mile, and see for yourselves. And they would never, ever be seen with two poles.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Jackson Browne (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bww2prhAWEA). Today's title - it is said that the lyrics were about two of the founder members.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Pump It Up
I am wondering if I am perhaps a bit out on a limb on this whole Nordic walking malarkey. I say this as there does appear to be a certain recognition as to its beneficial effects, notwithstanding the fact that one can look a total pillock. Anyway, this all cropped up over a coffee with Grizz who many of you will know, or may also know as Minty - to give him his stage name. I am, by the way, one of the few who knows his actual name, so maybe I should do a bit of a quiz here - what is Grizz's real name? But this is not the point. What is, is that he has also had a bit of a ticker issue, and that the doc has suggested Nordic walking, to which I said, well possibly, but it's got to be done with a bit of humpty - arms moving and pumping and that sort of thing, otherwise there is no point. You may as well, well, walk, if you're not going to be using the arms in quasi-running fashion. As I have mentioned previously, this appears to have been overlooked by many of the Germans who I hear, like a blind man with a stick, tapping the pavements of Playa de Muro.
Then later on my mobile went off and it was a chap who I didn't know and was one of those infuriating Germans who speaks English almost perfectly, and he wanted to talk to me about a place he's planning on opening in Cala San Vicente. This would be an activities centre, featuring - you've guessed it - Nordic walking. At this stage, I'll be honest, I was suspecting a Nordic conspiracy of some sort or that I had been singled out by the God of Nordic walking for having blasphemed against his - or maybe her - sport. The thing was that prior to the Grizz coffee, I had been with Alcúdia's tourist office types and had mentioned this water-sports centre thing, and damn me if they didn't bring up the Nordic walking as well. When you're talking about water sports; even then it's time to talk about Nordic walking.
I'm not yet prepared to admit that Nordic walking is not ridiculous, but I am slowly starting to feel as if I may have to change my opinion - a little bit, maybe, and then perhaps even, God forbid, have a go. But I can assure you that were I to, I would be in the depths of the forest on one of those routes that the Germans say you can't find, so that no-one, and I mean no-one, can see me.
It's Grizz Day today on the blog as he told me, over that same coffee, that the butane gas bottles - those that can leave rust marks as I mentioned yesterday - are to be phased out and to be replaced with plastic bottles. Anyone who has lifted one of these things will be extremely grateful for this news; the plastic alternatives are significantly lighter, I'm told. You can see an example at a Repsol petrol station.
It occurs to me, given that lugging one of these damned bottles can cause heart attacks, hernias, lower-back pain, ligament damage, that were this not Spain but the UK, might they have done something about the metal bottles much earlier. With all that harm that can be caused, there would have been endless compensation claims in the UK.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - U2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUfY5pacs5Q). Today's title - and the one I'm looking for is the punkish one.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Then later on my mobile went off and it was a chap who I didn't know and was one of those infuriating Germans who speaks English almost perfectly, and he wanted to talk to me about a place he's planning on opening in Cala San Vicente. This would be an activities centre, featuring - you've guessed it - Nordic walking. At this stage, I'll be honest, I was suspecting a Nordic conspiracy of some sort or that I had been singled out by the God of Nordic walking for having blasphemed against his - or maybe her - sport. The thing was that prior to the Grizz coffee, I had been with Alcúdia's tourist office types and had mentioned this water-sports centre thing, and damn me if they didn't bring up the Nordic walking as well. When you're talking about water sports; even then it's time to talk about Nordic walking.
I'm not yet prepared to admit that Nordic walking is not ridiculous, but I am slowly starting to feel as if I may have to change my opinion - a little bit, maybe, and then perhaps even, God forbid, have a go. But I can assure you that were I to, I would be in the depths of the forest on one of those routes that the Germans say you can't find, so that no-one, and I mean no-one, can see me.
It's Grizz Day today on the blog as he told me, over that same coffee, that the butane gas bottles - those that can leave rust marks as I mentioned yesterday - are to be phased out and to be replaced with plastic bottles. Anyone who has lifted one of these things will be extremely grateful for this news; the plastic alternatives are significantly lighter, I'm told. You can see an example at a Repsol petrol station.
It occurs to me, given that lugging one of these damned bottles can cause heart attacks, hernias, lower-back pain, ligament damage, that were this not Spain but the UK, might they have done something about the metal bottles much earlier. With all that harm that can be caused, there would have been endless compensation claims in the UK.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - U2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUfY5pacs5Q). Today's title - and the one I'm looking for is the punkish one.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Shall Be Released
The arrival of early-season Germans is coincidental with the quietness of this time in winter being broken by the tippy-tappy, clicky-clacky, drippy-drippy Nordic walking poles. I stress "the arrival of Germans" because no-one else is quite insane enough to take part in Nordic walking and be as willing to make themselves look as ridiculous. From a nation whose male population of advanced years is prepared to wear check shorts and Hawaiian shirts, what else can you expect. To be fair, Nordic walking, if it is treated as a sport and the sticks are not just used as a walking aid, has some merit, but it is still best done out of general eye- and indeed earshot, i.e. in some concealed forest areas, rather than along the streets of Alcúdia and Playa de Muro. There is of course a Nordic walking zone in Alcúdia; I mentioned this a few weeks ago (7 November: Norwegian Wood). And there is also to be a Nordic walking competition - an international one, believe it or not. It's hard to imagine an international competition comprising those from just one country - Germany - but international it says, so international it must be. An announcement in "The Bulletin" describes Nordic walking as "an alpine excursionist sport", which I confess I don't understand. What is an excursionist sport? To which you might indeed say Nordic walking. But that still doesn't explains what it actually is, only that Nordic walking is an example of the genre, whatever that genre happens to be, which I don't know. Moreover, can Nordic walking be alpine? The thing with Nordic walking is that it is Nordic skiing without the skis, and Nordic skiing is not Alpine skiing in that it does not need a mountain. In fact, a mountain can be a drawback to the Nordic skier or indeed walker. So, I doubly don't understand. My suspicion is that this announcement comes from a press release which might have been better had it not been released. Anyway, be all that as it may. The point is there will be a Nordic walking competition. But - will they know where it is? I ask this as the German newspaper "Mallorca Zeitung" claims that the Nordic walking zone is difficult to find. Furthermore, it goes on to say that some of the routes are incorrectly marked whilst parts are a bit risky. To prove it, they show a photo of someone jumping over a low wall, Nordic sticks to the fore. I suppose if you insist on doing so, rather than just gently climbing over the wall, then it might be a bit risky. So, anyone planning on taking part in this competition, you've been warned, but, there again none of you will, unless you happen to be German. This press release thing says that Nordic walking is taking off "in a big way" in the Balearics. Is it? I know nobody who isn't German or a German tourist who does this (unless they are Austrian). But maybe I'm wrong and maybe I might even succumb and get myself some Nordic walking sticks and make myself look a complete idiot. Perhaps I should, therefore, also go to the following website and book myself into the competition and, whilst I'm at it, reserve my hotel accommodation courtesy of http://www.iberostar.com.
Also in the current edition of "Mallorca Zeitung" are the results of a poll to rank the top seven wonders of the world of the island. I know you can't have wonders of the world of an island, but don't complain to me, I didn't write it. Apparently, the newspaper and its Spanish sister paper, "The Diario", got together to get people to vote, and I don't want any of you going to the internet and trying to find this out before tomorrow, but the question is what are these seven wonders of the world of the island? Or what would you say were the seven wonders of the world of the island? They don't have to be the same. And I will reveal all tomorrow - if you're lucky - and I can assure you that one of these seven, which is something you eat, is anything but a wonder, as indeed I have said on this blog in the past. So, you might want to think what so-called delicacy in Mallorca would have been deemed a wonder but isn't? At least this particular wonder did not earn top spot, and the newspaper was happy that it did not: "Die (fill in the missing word) liegt Gott sei Dank nicht auf Platz eins". Absolutely.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - which wasn't a question as I had already given it, but here it is and it was bloody great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji6K7NZq7Xw. Today's title - well, if it was a press release ... .
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Also in the current edition of "Mallorca Zeitung" are the results of a poll to rank the top seven wonders of the world of the island. I know you can't have wonders of the world of an island, but don't complain to me, I didn't write it. Apparently, the newspaper and its Spanish sister paper, "The Diario", got together to get people to vote, and I don't want any of you going to the internet and trying to find this out before tomorrow, but the question is what are these seven wonders of the world of the island? Or what would you say were the seven wonders of the world of the island? They don't have to be the same. And I will reveal all tomorrow - if you're lucky - and I can assure you that one of these seven, which is something you eat, is anything but a wonder, as indeed I have said on this blog in the past. So, you might want to think what so-called delicacy in Mallorca would have been deemed a wonder but isn't? At least this particular wonder did not earn top spot, and the newspaper was happy that it did not: "Die (fill in the missing word) liegt Gott sei Dank nicht auf Platz eins". Absolutely.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - which wasn't a question as I had already given it, but here it is and it was bloody great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji6K7NZq7Xw. Today's title - well, if it was a press release ... .
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Friday, November 07, 2008
Norwegian Wood
The unemployment figures around the various municipalities in Mallorca make for pretty grim reading. The highest increase for October, compared with the same month last year, has been in Estellencs which has registered an increase of 160%. All things are relative of course, and Estellencs is hardly that big a place, but areas that are strong tourism centres have seen rather better figures, if, that is, one can call increases of 47% (Pollensa) and 54% (Alcúdia) as being much better. Nearby Sa Pobla has seen unemployment rise by over 75%, yet the small municipality of Búger has witnessed only a 3 per cent increase (33 as opposed to 32 last year being out of work).
Looking again at the queues in Puerto Alcúdia yesterday, one wonders what these figures will look like for November. It is not a great situation.
Still, there is always something to look forward to that will make everyone's lives that much brighter. And what could be better in achieving this than a bit of Nordic walking. Well, quite a lot probably, but in Alcúdia fans of this curious past-time will now be able to enjoy three different routes, much of them in woodland and forest - in Barcares, La Victoria and the other around Coll Baix. For those who may not yet be up to speed, or down to slowness, with Nordic walking, it is walking with poles in the style of Nordic skiing but without skis and without snow. The real benefit from Nordic walking lies with its being tackled as an aerobic sport, i.e. putting your back into it and making an effort, otherwise it is just, well, walking with a couple of sticks. And walking with a couple of wooden sticks is how one sees it often being practised. Germans of advanced years are regularly to be heard on the streets near me, click-clacking along at a slow speed of Nordic knots. This really is not how to do it. You may as well just walk and forget the sticks. That a way, you wouldn't look quite so ridiculous. And this is one of the problems with Nordic walking; it looks daft. Anything that takes walking and turns it into a sport makes the otherwise straightforward act of one foot in front of another an object of derision - like the walks of Olympic athletics infamy, buttocks raised by the left and then by the right and feet often not staying in contact with the ground. Why not just run?
Anyway, I guess the hope is that these Nordic routes will attract great hordes of stick-bearing tourists. Alcúdia's mayor, Miquel Ferrer (as reported by "The Diario") has entered into a collaboration with the island's tourist authorities for promoting the town as a centre of Nordic walking. There is something to be said for having mates in slightly higher places. Ferrer is second-in-command in the Unió Mallorquina party to Miquel Nadal. And who is head of tourism? Yes, Miquel Nadal. To be fair, this is the culmination of a drive to make Alcúdia a place of Nordic walking wonder - it was, for example, included in the past summer's programme of sporting events in the town - so the fact that Nadal has got the gig as tourism minister is really only a coincidence. There is also the hiking route that links Coll Baix and La Victoria, of which the Nordic routes may be a part or the same; the hiking route referred to back on 7 July (Walking Back To Happiness).
But assuming that this initiative does result in some additional form of tourism, how wide might the benefits be? There is something of the cycling tourism about all this; the cycling tourism that many criticise for not helping local bars and restaurants. This is a fallacy. Cycling tourism can work very well to the advantage of bars and restaurants if they forge strong relationships with the cyclists and their organisers, as is the case with Restaurant Boy in Playa de Muro. The Nordic walkers though will be hacking around parts of Alcúdia where there is barely a watering-hole or hostelry to be found. Red Rum in Barcares or the Mirador in La Victoria may be beneficiaries but that would be about your lot.
Mallorca is not that big an island, and it can seem surprising that it can give rise to very localised weather events. During Tuesday night and into Wednesday there was an intense storm that affected Palma in particular. This is not the first time in the past month or so that Palma seems to have got it in the neck while other parts of the island have not. In the north there was nothing of this storm. And when Palma had an earlier heavy dose, nearby places like Magaluf were calm. There are, of course, all-island weather bouts, and one's impression has tended to be that the north gets the worst of the weather. But this has certainly not been the case just recently. The one part of the island that does seem to escape the worst is the east. The storm of Tuesday night did hit it, but whereas Palma was inundated with some 50 litres of rain, Porto Colom had only seven. It may be a wrong impression, but if you want to avoid the weather at its worst, then head east.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Ian Dury And The Blockheads. No live-performance youtube, but there is one with Phil Jupitus taking the Dury role (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ylvcU3iuUY). Today's title - no clues needed.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Looking again at the queues in Puerto Alcúdia yesterday, one wonders what these figures will look like for November. It is not a great situation.
Still, there is always something to look forward to that will make everyone's lives that much brighter. And what could be better in achieving this than a bit of Nordic walking. Well, quite a lot probably, but in Alcúdia fans of this curious past-time will now be able to enjoy three different routes, much of them in woodland and forest - in Barcares, La Victoria and the other around Coll Baix. For those who may not yet be up to speed, or down to slowness, with Nordic walking, it is walking with poles in the style of Nordic skiing but without skis and without snow. The real benefit from Nordic walking lies with its being tackled as an aerobic sport, i.e. putting your back into it and making an effort, otherwise it is just, well, walking with a couple of sticks. And walking with a couple of wooden sticks is how one sees it often being practised. Germans of advanced years are regularly to be heard on the streets near me, click-clacking along at a slow speed of Nordic knots. This really is not how to do it. You may as well just walk and forget the sticks. That a way, you wouldn't look quite so ridiculous. And this is one of the problems with Nordic walking; it looks daft. Anything that takes walking and turns it into a sport makes the otherwise straightforward act of one foot in front of another an object of derision - like the walks of Olympic athletics infamy, buttocks raised by the left and then by the right and feet often not staying in contact with the ground. Why not just run?
Anyway, I guess the hope is that these Nordic routes will attract great hordes of stick-bearing tourists. Alcúdia's mayor, Miquel Ferrer (as reported by "The Diario") has entered into a collaboration with the island's tourist authorities for promoting the town as a centre of Nordic walking. There is something to be said for having mates in slightly higher places. Ferrer is second-in-command in the Unió Mallorquina party to Miquel Nadal. And who is head of tourism? Yes, Miquel Nadal. To be fair, this is the culmination of a drive to make Alcúdia a place of Nordic walking wonder - it was, for example, included in the past summer's programme of sporting events in the town - so the fact that Nadal has got the gig as tourism minister is really only a coincidence. There is also the hiking route that links Coll Baix and La Victoria, of which the Nordic routes may be a part or the same; the hiking route referred to back on 7 July (Walking Back To Happiness).
But assuming that this initiative does result in some additional form of tourism, how wide might the benefits be? There is something of the cycling tourism about all this; the cycling tourism that many criticise for not helping local bars and restaurants. This is a fallacy. Cycling tourism can work very well to the advantage of bars and restaurants if they forge strong relationships with the cyclists and their organisers, as is the case with Restaurant Boy in Playa de Muro. The Nordic walkers though will be hacking around parts of Alcúdia where there is barely a watering-hole or hostelry to be found. Red Rum in Barcares or the Mirador in La Victoria may be beneficiaries but that would be about your lot.
Mallorca is not that big an island, and it can seem surprising that it can give rise to very localised weather events. During Tuesday night and into Wednesday there was an intense storm that affected Palma in particular. This is not the first time in the past month or so that Palma seems to have got it in the neck while other parts of the island have not. In the north there was nothing of this storm. And when Palma had an earlier heavy dose, nearby places like Magaluf were calm. There are, of course, all-island weather bouts, and one's impression has tended to be that the north gets the worst of the weather. But this has certainly not been the case just recently. The one part of the island that does seem to escape the worst is the east. The storm of Tuesday night did hit it, but whereas Palma was inundated with some 50 litres of rain, Porto Colom had only seven. It may be a wrong impression, but if you want to avoid the weather at its worst, then head east.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Ian Dury And The Blockheads. No live-performance youtube, but there is one with Phil Jupitus taking the Dury role (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ylvcU3iuUY). Today's title - no clues needed.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Sonne in der Nacht
The miserable weather that did indeed last thirty days and thirty nights has given way to a week of blissful Mallorcan spring. At one stage, you might have expected to have found an arc perched atop the local puigs (hills) and animals embarking two-by-two, which apparently is how animals enter arcs. Now, there are moans about the heat. I was at Didi’s bike place in Puerto Alcudia yesterday. Two hale-and-hearty Germans returned with their bikes. “Zuper”, it had been, but “zu heiss”. Well, if you must do over 100 kilometres in 24 degrees what do you expect.
While at this bike place, Didi was telling me that he also promotes Nordic walking. Now this is an odd thing. I first became aware of the Mallorcaisation of Nordic walking when clocking some Germans in a supermarket. Skiing, I thought. Where were they skiing? And why carry their sticks into a supermarket? Slaloming down the north face of the bakery section?
Now in Germany you can find vast hordes traversing the plains in earnest pursuit of aerobic activity supported by two sticks. But here, for the most part, the sticks are used as … sticks. To extract any benefit from the sticks, what you do not do is just use them as a form of crutch. Still, there are those who do it correctly. Some have just gone past the house. “Click, click, clack, clack.”
And something of a German theme today as Trencadora in Pollensa has had its re-opening. Some of you may know that Trencadora is owned by the rock guitarist Peter Maffay. For many that name will mean nothing, but he is big in Germany. And speak to a German, like my neighbour Carina, and you’ll hear he’s a top bloke.
Anyway Trencadora, which is a fabulous place, hasn’t really worked, but now the charming Jutta has her hands on it, and let’s hope it does well. The photos are from the re-opening.
Many thanks by the way to Geoff who offered The Who as an answer to the Run, Run, Run question, in that he said they did a cover of a song by this name. I had in mind Jo Jo Gunne. So, if anyone knows who did the original that The Who covered, do please let us know.
And keeping this going. Jo Jo Gunne were formed by Jay Ferguson, who was a member of which American West Coast band, the guitarist in which was related to Jimi Hendrix? And as a word of explanation, the title of this piece is also the title of a Peter Maffay hit record – so now you know.
(PLEASE REPLY TO info@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE. TA.)
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