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.
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