Vamos a la playa, that was their daily routine: They started in Galicia on the north-west coast of Spain in early summer, in the fall they worked their way south down the east coast, after all, you can swim there for a long time, in Andalusia sometimes up to the december In the water they were on every single beach. Which in itself is an achievement: Lola Culsán and John Weller have found more than 600 hidden beaches. To do this, they covered the 5,000 kilometers of the Spanish coast and lived on campsites for months.
450 beaches then made it into the book of the two: “Hidden Beaches Spain”, a photo book so beautifully designed that you want to jump straight into many of the bathing bays pictured. The book is also a curiosity. Because there was no such reference work for Spain’s hidden beaches – and when you leaf through it you realize how much you’ve missed it.
Anyone who thinks of concrete coastal landscapes when they think of Spain will find out something new here: There are actually idyllic beaches all over the country; Culsán and Weller found secluded bays with clear water even close to fully built tourist resorts such as Benidorm on the Costa Blanca. Although Culsán, who lives in London, has Spanish roots, she was surprised by the variety of beaches and the different climate zones.
Playa is just not Playa: The powerful Atlantic waves and strong tide differences in Galicia have little in common with the Caribbean-blue beaches in the south of Menorca. The bays in Asturias are lined with ferns and heather. On the Costa del Azahar, i.e. the orange blossom coast on the Gulf of Valencia, you can swim on river beaches and on Cabo de Gata near Almería between lava peaks.
Spain has more than 3000 beaches. Lola Culsán thinks that 450 of them are absolutely recommendable for nature lovers. In Spain you always experience both, the overexploitation of nature, but also enormous efforts to preserve it. Fortunately, there are now national parks or other protected zones on the coast: “That’s why you can always find beaches right next to beaches with huge hotel complexes that are undeveloped for miles and beautiful.”
And what is a nice beach? For Culsán, the criteria are as clear as they are simple: “A beach without buildings, without hotels and without a bar.” the sunshine, of course she knows that. “Our book is aimed at those who want to experience something different than organized beach life – and of course at everyone who, like us, likes to hike their beach.”
For each of the 450 beaches, there are directions with GPS-compatible coordinates, including information on how long it takes to walk and what the level of difficulty is, where visitors can park their cars and which campsite is recommended. Some beaches can be reached in a few minutes on foot, others only after half an hour’s walk. In many of the photos you can spot the author of the book somewhere in the water, swimming, diving, snorkeling, doing a cartwheel on a beach on page 106. Lola Culsán, a primary school teacher by trade, is 57.
The beaches that were beautiful but too remote or required too risky cliff climbing were sorted out. Culsán and John Weller, who works in a London government agency in his middle-class life, have taken a sabbatical year to do their research. For months they scouted out the bays with digital maps and created a meticulous timetable.
Only then did they travel the route in their mobile home, Weller took the photos, Culsán tested the water, her son the height of the cliffs. For each landscape, Culsán has written a short introductory chapter that tells something about its characteristics and traditions and ends with a poem about the sea by a local poet. A phrasebook helps you out with key phrases for finding a beach, ranging from “I’m lost” to “Is the water deep enough to jump in?” There are recommendations for children, snorkelers, naturists, wheelchair users and cliff jumpers.
The only odd thing about this great foundational work on practical playaology is that it’s only available in English and German. She offered it to publishers in Spain, says Culsán, “but unfortunately nobody was interested in it there”.
Lola Culsan
To Barcelona? Best only in winter. You can’t stand it there in the summer. Whether on the beach or in the old town, you are constantly surrounded by crowds, as if you were in a demonstration, a permanent manifestation of overtourism.
30 million visitors a year, how do the residents survive this onslaught? What is everyday life like in this city that is almost overwhelmed by its guests, how do you work, celebrate, what do you write there? The 19 authors of this “Literary Invitation” provide insights, mostly disturbing.
For Marina Garcés, mass tourism is tantamount to a “real-time apocalypse”. Miqui Otero is able to “recognize the seasons only from the kitschy shoes of the tourists”. Enrique Murillo is convinced, not without sarcasm, that “the complete demolition of the Sagrada Família would do the city credit”.
All of the texts in this collection, edited by the great Hispanic scholar and literary mediator Michi Strausfeld, were written after 1992, the year of transformation. As the venue for the Olympic Games, Barcelona has “dressed up”, the city has become a brand, “like the Playboy bunny”, writes Llucia Ramis, who is the hardest on her hometown: She “spreads her legs for the international public made and learned to sleep with her as if it were true love”. Barcelona is a whore, albeit a dignified one: “We hate her, but we would never leave her.”
At least Sergi Pamies is relieved to say: “In our city there are more pianos than pistols.” Some lyrics are funny, others disturbing, you don’t understand everything, but that doesn’t matter. If you read the volume on the outward flight, you will see better in Barcelona.
“Barcelona. A literary invitation”, edited by Michi Strausfeld, Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, 144 pages, 22 euros
Mallorca is a kind of 17th federal state. And the most German invention of this thoroughly German Balearic island is the Ballermann. These are two of the “popular misconceptions” that island connoisseur Frank Rumpf is now correcting. Despite all the German electricians, lawyers and bakers who live on Mallorca, it is far from being a “German island”. Rather, Moroccans and Italians make up the largest groups of foreigners here, the Germans come in third place, closely followed by the British. Majorcan business people are also involved in the Ballermann. And the German-language island radio broadcasting from Palma doesn’t even play German hits.
Rumpf wants to clear up errors and explain traditions in his entertaining travel guide, which also clarifies curious questions: why Mallorcan drivers never blink when turning (because they don’t like to reveal their intentions) and why sopas mallorquinas, the local soups, are not liquid at all (because it about fork-proof stews).
Thankfully, Rumpf also unmasks a misnomer: “Ein Winter auf Mallorca”, the volume that seems to spell out the motto of all Central European dropout longings, is in reality a bitter reckoning. The French writer George Sand, who spent the winter of 1838 with her lover Frédéric Chopin in Mallorca, found everything there disgusting: the cold, wet weather, the clumsy locals, the rancid olive oil. Sand’s travel report, Rumpf writes, “reads like the longest travel complaint ever written about Mallorca”.
Things are different on Mallorca than visitors from abroad might think. If you are looking forward to your paella in the evening, you will surely find restaurants that will prepare it for you. But the really good paella is served at lunchtime, Spaniards would never order it in the evening. As far as the natural-looking beauty of many beaches is concerned, the Mallorcans have helped a lot: the white sand is mostly heaped up, the palm trees that line the promenades are imported.
At the pilgrimage site of Lluc with its Marian sanctuary, a pool with sun loungers surprises visitors. The fact that the island, the largest of the Balearic Islands, is called “sa roqueta” (the little rock) by its local inhabitants should in no way be interpreted as a lack of self-confidence.
Frank Rumpf: “Mallorca. Popular errors and other truths”, Klartext Verlag, 120 pages, 16.95 euros
