When an emir dies, the world sends telegrams. When a month passes since the death, the family goes on holiday. Both things are true and neither is a scandal, but together they say something about what mourning looks like when you have an unlimited budget and a private jet.

The Qatari Al Thani dynasty lost the father emir Hamad bin Khalifa on 12 July. The funeral was one of those that stay in the memory - his son, the current emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, carried the coffin himself, as tradition requires. Condolences arrived from Charles III, from Abdullah II of Jordan, from Felipe VI. Queen Rania of Jordan was not satisfied with a telegram and travelled to the Al Wajba palace, some fifteen kilometres west of Doha, to say a few words in person to the widow, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.

Exactly one month later, part of the same family - the current emir included - was spotted at Son Sant Joan airport on Mallorca. The reason: the solar eclipse. The same event that kept Spanish king Felipe on the island, astronomy having always been a weakness of his.

Mallorca gathered more crowns that day than some summits do. Besides the Qataris, the eclipse was watched from the island by members of the Dubai Al Maktoum dynasty, staying at the Jumeirah hotel in Port de Sóller - a property belonging to Dubai Holding, the investment conglomerate of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. So they are guests at their own place. And that is the whole story of how those families operate in Europe.

The Spanish press packaged this as a touching story: nature helping to ease the pain, the cosmos as consolation. Perhaps. But there is a more prosaic reading - when the whole world is looking up at the same moment, it is a rare chance to be abroad, to be caught on camera, and to have nobody ask why you are not at home.

What is really visible here is not mourning but the geography of power. Gulf monarchies have spent decades buying property, hotels and clubs along the Spanish coast, and Mallorca has long since stopped being merely a tourist destination - it is an address. And when something the whole world watches comes along, it becomes clear who owns a house where the view is best.

For a Balkan reader, the most interesting detail is not who holidayed where, but how quietly all of it unfolds. Not one official statement, not one press conference. Just a paper on Mallorca noting who stepped off the plane.