Last Majorca Breakfast

The tour Captain had everything arranged for a smooth departure out of Majorca. Rita had us all packed and ready to go and even had the breakfast all laid out for this morning. Departed the apartment on time and headed for the Palma Airport. Our car rental had charged us for a full tank of gas and told us to bring it back as empty as possible. Left the apartment with the guage stating 89km before we run out of gas and arrived at the car rental drop off with 47km before running out of gas. We congratulated ourselves regarding our fuel management but it was a stressful ride to the auirport as we ran into a couple of traffic jams and I started to queston our decison. However, it all worked out at the end. Checked in without any problems. Our bags were even under the weight restriction. Its onto a couple of days in London staying with my cousin and celebrating her daughters 21st birthday.

Palma Revisited

Ok, we are going to try to get into Palma today. We got up a little earlier and headed into the big city to see if we could find a parking spot. We arrived about 45 minutes earlier than the day before and made it into the main underground parking garage for people visiting the Palma Cathedral.

The outside is amazing but its unbelievably beautiful on the inside. As mentioned earlier, Catholics have been worshipping in the building for over 7 centuries. The church was built over an Islamic Mosque after a promise in prayer made by King Jaume 1 as his Armada sat off the coast before going into battle with the Moors, who had ruled the Island for more than 400 years. His conquest was successful and on December 31, 1229 he started plans for the creation of one of the most unique Gothic Cathedrals ever built in Europe. It has gone through several updates, changes and restorations over the past 500 years and is still used as a place of faith on a daily basis. The main part of the Cathedral (the central Nave) is massive and 14 very fine and beautifully aligned pillars rise 21 meters before branching out into arches that support the single span, vaulted roof. The total height of the Central Nave is 44 meters and is one of the tallest Gothic structures in Europe. The building is lit with the help of several stained-glass windows and seven rose windows, the largest one having over 1,200 individual pieces of glass. Ok, you have probably figured out by now that the above description is not from my hand and you are right. I borrowed the information from my Majorca Guide Book!!!!

After visiting the interior of the Cathedral, Rita and I went touring around the Old Town and stopped for lunch in a wonderful square with several outside cafes. Big trees and even bigger umbrellas helped keep us in the shade. We had some typical Spanish Tapas and most of them were delicious. One item I would recommend you stay away from is “Little Sausages cooked in Red Wine” I think they were cooked in red grease. It took a long time to walk off the effects of these little bastards.

Rita become part of a Jean Miro Sculpture

Tomorrow is our last full day in Majorca and we are planning to spend some time on our terrace enjoying the sun. Then it’s into town to visit our favorite café for some coffee and delicious pastry’s as well as catching up on some news through a British paper. After that, it’s back home to start the packing process for our trip to London and head out for our final dinner on this beautiful Island. It’s been a real treat spending two weeks here, especially for me as I had been here once before but only visited a beach resort that had reminded me of Honolulu. Thank you Rita for convincing me to try Majorca one more time. We will be back.

End of the Road # 2

After a technical problem at the Intenet Cafe and a stop for a Tapas lunch we headed out for The Cap de Formentor.

The Road from Palma to Pollenca is like the Trans Canada with a 120km speed limit. After Pollenca the road narrows and then as we start to climb up the mountain the road narrows again and the speed limit drops to 30km, with good reason. There are many, many switchbacks as we climb up the mountain. This is bad enough but there are tour buses on this road and if you run into one at one of the switchbacks one of you in backing up. Guess which one is doing the backing up!!!! However, as usual when you get to the end the journey is worth it. What an amazing place. The sea cliffs are massive and very barren. Totally different from the Pine covered mountains just on the other side of the mountain. There is a lighthouse at the end of the road offering spectacular views of what you have just driven past. Plan B was excellent and we will get back to Palma in a couple of days, a little earlier than today.

End of the Road

Today we planned to go back to Palma and investigate the interior of the Cathedral and explore more of the old city. We were a little late in leaving the apartment and by the time we arrived in Palma it was about 11:30. The parking lot for the Cathedral was overflowing and the police were not letting any more cars wait for spaces. We headed for three other parking lots and all were full. Onto to Plan B.

Go explore the end of Majorca, a place called The Cap de Formentor. First stop was a quaint town called Pollenca. Its claim to fame is the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross). It’s a long, steep and beautiful stone stairway with very old cypress trees on each side. At the top is a small church with a 13th Century statue of Mare de Deu del Peu de la Creu (Mother of God at the Foot of the Cross). It also has a great view of the town.

Blog Boy

There is no internet in our apartment and Port Andratx has only one Internet Café. The hours are 11:00 – 15:00 and from 18:00 – 01:00. So, I put my blog together every night into a word document and choose the images that I want to go with it. About every three days or so, Rita and I go to the Internet Café and transfer the script and download the images into the Blog. As you can imagine, this is tricky business for me and so I have my trusty personal assistant helping me. Here Rita is taking the picture of me in action huddled over our laptop. This explains why there are several blogs at one time and then nothing for a few days.

Visit to the Big City

As mentioned earlier, we are staying in Port d’Andratx which is a small village about 20 kms from Palma the main city in Majorca. Palma is the capital and where you fly into. The permanent population is about 300,000 people. The city’s outstanding attraction is the Palma Cathedral which was started in 1229 and is said to be one of Spain’s finest Gothic Cathedrals. It is a massive structure that dominates the harbor from the top of a hill. Behind the Cathedral is

Palma’s Old Town with its many narrows lanes, old mansions and squares. We spent all day roaming the area exploring its history and checking out the shops and cafes. We will have to come back another day as we barely scratched the surface and did not get a chance to get inside the Cathedral or any of their wonderful museums.

Picnic On The Rocks

As mentioned earlier, my personal trainer is trying to get me back into shape and one of the exercises we do is a walk/run in the morning. On one of our routes we run down a hill into a dead end street that is very close to the ocean. We stopped and investigated and I thought it would be a great place for a picnic and to watch a sunset. The next day Rita packed a good selection of cheeses, meats, tomato/cucumber salad, olives, breads and of course some fine Spanish Rioja. We got there about 2 hours before sunset and we were all alone on the rocks in front of the Med. It was a fantastic evening. Good food, great wine and unbeatable scenery. The company was pretty good as well!!!! Another great day in Majorca.