On The Road

Good Morning All,

This weekday feature is for Balloon Juicers who are on the road, travelling, etc. and wish to share notes, links, pictures, stories, etc. from their escapades. As the US mainland begins the end of the Earth day as we measure it, many of us rise to read about our friends and their transient locales.

So, please, speak up and share some of your adventures, observations, and sights as you explore, no matter where you are. By concentrating travel updates here, it’s easier for all to keep up-to-date on the adventures of our fellow Commentariat. And it makes finding some travel tips or ideas from 6 months ago so much easier to find…

Have at ’em, and have a safe day of travels!

 

Should you have any pictures (tasteful, relevant, etc….) you can email them to [email protected] or just use this nifty link to start an email: Start an Email to send a Picture to Post on Balloon Juice

 

Got in late, so a brief one this morning

Today, a great set from OzarkHillbilly:

Last I sent in pics of the Cathedral in Palma, these pics are of a much
different kind of church, the Cueva de Portals Vells. When my wife took us
to this little cove she had visited as child for the beach, she knew of the
caves and of what was inside of them but not their names and nothing of
their origins. The Google is my friend. I can not attest to the accuracy
but in all the links I found referring to them, the fullest explanation was
this:

They are the caves of Portals Vells, a place with history and legend.
Indeed, a legend tells us that in the fifteenth century Genoese sailors (at
that time the Republic of Genoa together with Venice, Florence and the
Crown of Aragon were fighting for control of the Mediterranean) were
suffering the calamities of a storm, when They are in danger that the ship
may sink, the crew with their captain to the front, entrust their prayers
to an image of the Virgin Mary that accompanies them and made the following
promise: *If they reached the mainland they would build a small altar in
their honor .*

As the storm settled, they were able to reach the shore near the area of
​​Portals Vells, so they decided to carve an altar as promised to the ” *Mare
de Deu”* and left the image there.

On the other hand, at the end of the same century, some local craftsmen had
to build a second altar, remember that in this period is when from the
caves of Portals was extracted the tides with which the Cathedral of Palma
was built, the place was becoming A place of pilgrimage. In addition, as
the popularity and devotion to the Virgin increased, it was subsequently
decided to build an oratory in another place to leave the image there. However,
as with other similar stories, the image was taken to the oratory but
mysteriously … the image had returned to the caves. Finally, in 1866, the
image is definitively installed in the hermitage of Portals Nous.

The German writer, Franjo Terhart, author of *”The Templar Treasure,”*
tells us that the altar as the holy water stack coincides with some in the
area of ​​Normandy and another in Saint Nectaire in the Massif Central of
France.

In short, it should not be surprising that the enclave had been a place
used by the knights of the Templar Order (remember that in Mallorca there
are other enclaves like *the Cova de Sant Martí* in Alcudia) because the
altar is crowned by the sun and the moon , In addition, has solar wheels
and an intriguing head on the altar. This last one, could be perhaps a
*baphomet* that usually is present in the templarios enclaves

One can tell by looking at the walls that these “caves” were quarried for
stone and then carved with the Christian iconography, so I rather suspect
the Templar version to be the more accurate reflection of history. In the
last picture, if one looks closely, you can see Palma on the far side of
the bay.

 

An important followup:

Dammit, Forgot to give credit to Jaun Ramon Pons for the quote I stole from
this google translated page:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://historiasdemallorca.blogspot.com/2015/05/las-cuevas-de-portals-vells.html&prev=search

 

Finally, one picture from my collection:

Where I wish I was, pretty much anytime – along the shore of 11 Mile Reservoir, Colorado. When I lived there, I had so many adventures year-round catching trout or crawdads that I would then cook to perfection. I miss catching my dinner pretty much whenever I wanted, it made me feel much closer to nature, the Earth, and the natural cycles that relentlessly drive us to the end, but if we’re lucky, along a nice scenic route or two with a few pit stops of note or worthy of memory. And yes, critics, with bait in the water, reading was a great thing to do, especially on that sunny mid-November morning.

Folks, that’s it for me tonight – I need to hit the hay and am too tired to deal with any more email, attachments, pictures, etc. It’s time for bed.

Tuesday will be full of gorgeous pictures, so until then, travel well and enjoy Today.