Mallorca Mini-break part 3

 

Our flight home from Mallorca didn't leave until 8:30 pm, so we had most of the last day left to explore Palma. (The kids were lobbying hard for another beach day, but I just didn't want sandy wet kids on the flight home.)

 

Downtown Palma was really lovely. The architecture was very Spanish and reminded us of Barcelona and Ibiza.

 

We made our way to the area near the cathedral and walked around outside the Royal Palace of La Almudaina which dates from the 1300s.

 

I still don't know what this shallow pool would have been used for, but it was lovely.

 

Then we found a playground right between the Palace and the Cathedral, so of course we spent some time there. 

 

The Gothic cathedral is called La Seu, and was begun in the 1200s, but not finished until 1601. 

 

 

The central nave is the 8th tallest in the world.  (We've now visited 6 of the top 10 if anyone cares.) We actually opted not to wait in the line and tour the interior because it was such a beautiful day out and we have seen so very many churches. The exterior was quite interesting enough for this day.

 

We spent a bit of time just strolling the downtown and enjoying a leisurely morning. We ate lunch of sandwiches and pasta in a restaurant near the cathedral that was surprisingly good and chatted with a couple from California that were there on a cruise. They pegged us as Mormons, and I didn't know how, until he pointed out Amelie's BYU t-shirt!

 

 

There was a street performer in this enormous panda bear costume (see Rob for size comparison) dancing with the little kiddos and we sat and watched him for a while.  He was very entertaining.

 

And we also stopped for ice cream.  Rob and I split this bowl of cheesecake, dulce de lece, and "incomparable" which was chocolate and nutty.

 

And ALL of our other kids had cones of Straciatella (chocolate chip) and chocolate.  Everyone was happy.

 

We still had loads of time before we needed to go to the airport, so we headed up a hill above Palma to see the Castell de Bellver. It was built in the 14th century as a home, but was rarely used and is now open to visitors and hosts events.

 

We found a trail outside the castle walls and explored that for a little while, but didn't want to hike all the way down the hill and back up so we turned around and headed back to the castle.

 

The round interior was neat and was set up for an event of some sort.

 

We couldn't go into the "Rapunzel tower" but it provided a nice backdrop for a windy photo. 

 

Sometimes Rob takes pictures too!

 

After the castle touring, we bought some cold drinks and drove to the edge of the Platja de Palma beach to watch the kite surfers. Then we drove to the airport, returned our car an waited for our flight.  The departures board said our flight was delayed until right before the scheduled boarding time when it suddenly wasn't delayed anymore, so we rushed to the gate.  Somehow, they still took off late, and we didn't arrive in Frankfurt until 11:30 pm. 

We then had to go to the train station to head home, where we lost track of Toby during a change of platforms, (Rob found him, but it was traumatic) and we ended up missing our train. At this point we were all just completely exhausted so we hailed a cab and arrived home around 1 am. This trip seems to have been ill-fated from beginning to end, but the middle part of actually being in Mallorca was wonderful.  It has made us re-evaluate some of our future travel plans for the year that we have left in Germany, and some things will be nixed, while other trips will be made longer to allow a slower pace. We also plan to spend more to fly with the nicer airlines and leave our Ryanair days behind us as the stress, delays, cancellations, and inconveniences far outweigh the cost savings for us at this point in our lives.

Mallorca Mini-break part 2

Our second day in Mallorca we headed north to Cap de Formentor. I had read that the road out to the lighthouse at the end of this peninsula would be long, windy, and treacherous, so I was a bit concerned about a repeat of road trips like we've had in Ireland, Italy, and Idaho.  In comparison to those, this road wasn't bad at all.  It was wide enough for two lanes, unless a bus was in one of those lanes, well paved, and traffic in the morning was light.  We really enjoyed it!

 

We drove straight to the lighthouse and then stopped at the different viewpoints on our way back inland, which was a good plan as we easily got a parking spot, but there was a long line of cars waiting for the few spots available when we left the lighthouse.  The lighthouse itself wasn't all that exciting, but the views from the cliffs were awesome.

 

  

 

There were goats free ranging all over the place out here and they seemed thoroughly used to people.  The kids thought they were great.

 

On the way back we stopped at this little lookout point with just a few other people around and thought we would enjoy the picnic lunch I packed.  

 

Well this Billy goat heard the grocery bag and came running- right at me and Amelie!  Rob realized he was after the food, so I tossed the bag to Rob and he disappeared it into the car.  I held up my hands to show the goat I didn't have anything, but I was still holding my phone from taking photos, and I guess he thought it was food.  He came at me and nipped my arm! By now all of the kids were in the car, so Rob shook our lunch bag to draw the goat away from me so I could get to the car.  Once we were in, the goat still was coming at my side of the car and I was worried he'd jump up on the rental car.  I snapped this photo of the rogue Butt-head as we backed out of the parking area.  This event also sealed the deal on us NOT going to Formentor Beach, where we were likely to be accosted by goats again.

 

Anyway.... the next viewpoint we stopped at was pretty busy with a snack bar, restrooms, and a large viewing platform you could walk out.  This was the last viewpoint that the tour buses could stop at,  as they didn't drive the road past Formentor Beach.  There was even a guy busking with his guitar! We walked around this area for a nice long time and took a ton of photos before enjoying a goat-free lunch at a table in front of the snack bar. (We did buy drinks there as well.)

 

 

 

After we left there, we drove the rest of the way back down the peninsula to the town of Alcudia, which is in this photo on the Bay of Alcudia.

 

I wanted to stop here to see the Roman ruins that have been unearthed just outside the town.  The Roman town of Pollentia was founded here in 123 BC. We walked the paths and viewed the residential area, forum, and theatre of what was once an outpost of the Roman empire with hardly another person in sight.

 

 

Over 2,000 years ago, people not only lived here but had commerce, entertainment, politics, philosophy, and so on.  Granted, they also had slaves, which probably accounts for their ability to have free time for those pursuits, so it wasn't all fun and games.  I just find ancient civilizations fascinating.

 

And finally it was time to spend the rest of our day at the beach!

This time we visited Cala Millor. This was a much more touristy beach area.  Like, if Es Trenc was like Chincoteague, than Cala Millor was like Ocean City. There were lifeguards, bathrooms, chairs and umbrellas for rent, nearby parking, and basically a boardwalk area with shops and restaurants.  The water was still crystal clear, but the waves were a bit more pronounced here and Rob and I were able to swim out to where we could no longer reach the ground without going too far.  The beach was pretty full of people, but there was plenty of room in the water.

 

 

This is our little sand weirdo enjoying herself.

All of our kids love the water, and are super happy at the beach, but Amelie also loves the sand like no one else I have ever met! She rolls in it, scoots around in it, and here she was lying on her back and dropping it onto her face while wearing her goggles.  I'm glad she had a good time!

 

Finally, I am so glad that we purchased shoes like these for everyone.  We only brought backpacks on this trip and having shoes that easily went from walking and hiking to beach was a space saver and just made life easier.

Mallorca Mini-break part 1

 

We thought we'd take a long weekend trip to Mallorca once school was out for the Summer to enjoy the sun and surf!  We booked cheap airfare through Ryanair, a house on booking.com, and a rental car and were all set!  Then, less than 48 hours before our trip, Ryanair canceled our flight.  Also, I couldn't find our house booking in my email and ended up booking another house through airbnb, then I found the booking.com one and had to cancel that one with a nasty surcharge.  I was able to get us on another flight leaving Sunday instead of Saturday from Frankfurt-Hahn airport instead of Frankfurt airport, which was great, but then had to change our house reservation (AGAIN) and car rental reservation. It was a LOT of work and in the end we would only have two and a half days in Mallorca.  But off we went!

 

We arrived at Palma airport in the late afternoon and I was totally confused about our car rental situation, so we took a shuttle to an off-site place that did not have our reservation, so then we had to take the shuttle back to the airport where we finally got our car and headed to the house we had rented.  The house was super unique for us.  It was advertised as a mansion built in the 1800s, and the photos looked super cool.  It was also located in the center of the island, which meant we could get pretty much anywhere by car in about an hour.  Here are some photos of the house.

 

The house was cool, but dark, full of antiques, and Toby thought it was very creepy.  We could also hear every word spoken by people on the street in front of the house at night.  And every car or motorcycle that whizzed by.  The beds were also super awful. So while the house was interesting and a neat place to stay, it was not at all our style, and I don't think I would stay there again.

 

The next morning we set out in search of a hike.  I had read that Valldemossa was a cool town in the Serra de Tramuntana so we headed there.  This mountain range is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it was very beautiful.  The town of Valldemossa was full of tourists, but still really cute.  Frederic Chopin and George Sand (the pen name of French author Amantine Dupin) once spent the Winter here having a love affair. I can see the appeal... of the chosen location, not the affair obviously.

 

Of course we found the local playground.

 

And an awesome old olive tree. 

What we didn't find was a hiking trail.  C'est la vie. 

 

We stopped in a cafe for an early lunch before driving to the beach and enjoyed freshly squeezed orange juice.

 

And bagel sandwiches with cream cheese, rucola, tomato, and jamon.  I love fresh food!

 

We decided to opt for an urban hike and made another loop around the outskirts of the village which gave us some lovely views.

 

It was a lovely morning in the mountains, but we were all ready to get to the beach!  In about an hour we drove from this spot on the western side of the island to Es Trenc Beach on the southeast side of the island.

 

Mallorca claims to have 262 beaches.  Of those, 40 are considered Blue Flag beaches with lifeguards, groomed beaches, and reliably good water quality.  So how to choose which one to visit?  It was tough but we eventually chose Es Trenc because it is more of a natural beach- like in the US I would compare it to Chicoteague.  We drove far out a narrow road, parked in a lot, and then walked to the beach.  There was a snack shack there but no other services.  The water was GORGEOUS and completely clear.

 

There were hardly any waves, and the water was shallow, so the kids could play quite safely.

 

If you zoom in on this photo, you will see Jake and I waving from way out there.  You will also see that the water was only waist deep at that point for me.

 

We stayed for about 4-5 hours, until everyone was totally exhausted and hungry, and then we set out to get some dinner. It was around 7 pm.

 

The thing about Spain is, they don't eat dinner until about 9 pm.  We had an extremely difficult time finding any restaurants open at the "early" hour of 7 pm.  We stopped at Carrefour, a French grocery chain, and picked up yogurt, fruit, sandwich stuff, and snacks for the next couple of days.  Then we finally ended up at a mall where about three of the eight restaurants were open.  We picked this spot because they had tapas, and it wasn't McDonalds.

 

Ironically, none of us ordered tapas.  The boys got burgers, the girls got pizza, Rob ordered a steak, and I had this eggs, jamon, and potato thing. We all wanted filling food after a long day in the sun!

 

After dinner we drove back to the house for baths and bed!  Jake and I took a quick walk to the nearby church first though. We had heard the bells from this church until 11 pm the night before, and from 7 am in the morning, and wanted to check it out.  They were getting ready for an evening mass though (Mallorca is 98% Roman Catholic) and we looked more than grubby, so we headed right back home to wash up and get to bed.  We had a big second day planned.