Tuesday 21 April 2009

Mallorca, Spain

It has now been over 6 weeks since we went to Mallorca, but I haven't admittedly felt like blogging about the trip until now. And even now, as I think about describing the island, I am sad that I don't have a picture to just show what it was like. But, this is life!

We took an insanely early flight out of Birmangham and had an easy and uneventful 2 hour flight down to this island. Upon landing, we experienced temporary blinding due to the brilliant sun. We piled into our rental car and drove (on the right side of the road, yay!) into Palma to get some food. After trying a little cafe of sorts where they spoke no English and didn't seem to understand that we wanted to be served food, we gave that up and hit good old Mcdonald's. There seem to be some universal things - Coke, McDonalds and Burger King, Pringles, Ritz, Ben & Jerry's, and a few others. Anyway, with kids, it seems to be the best thing to hit the known fast food joint in a strange place when everyone is tired, hungry, and out of sorts.


Our place turned out to be very nice - situated on the cliff of a cove, with landscaped paths leading down to a small beach. The cove was long and narrow, like a finger poking into the island and creating cliffs on either side. Our rooms' balconies had beautiful views down to the cove.
(taken on phone after we lost the camera - view from our balcony)
A good portion of our vacation was spent either on the beach or by the pool while the kids ran around and swam. The water was pretty cold (for me at least), so swimming was limited to the kids. We took a few days for sight-seeing though and saw some interesting things.
One of the days, we went to the Coves del Drac - these are similar to Luray Caverns or Carlsbad Caverns. They were underground about 75 feet and at the end of about a mile of caves, there was an underground lake. They did a short show in which a small string group and organ gave a classical concert while rowing around the lake in a lighted boat. After this, we were rowed from one end of the lake to the other in one of the rowboats. It was here in the caves that my wallet was picked out of my purse, which I later discovered missing.
On the return trip from the caves, we put our rental car to the test by driving it up switchback after switchback to the Santuary del Salvitore (I think...) - a monastary that sits on top of a mountain. There are no surrounding mountains, so views at the top were quite spectacular, extending all the way to the ocean.
Another day, we went back to Palma to tour the Cathedral and other city sights. The Cathedral dominates the skyline with its great gothic spires. The inside was full of grandeur, including immense gold candlesticks and jewels on display. What I really appreciated was that they allowed photography inside, although I of course don't have any of those pictures. We then took a walk around the city, meandering on both major roads and tiny back streets, with a brief stop at a cafe for chocolate croissants and coffee leche. After hitting the Placa de Major, we took several wide avenues back to our parking garage. Then it was a short drive up to Bellver Castle. This castle is round and sits on top of a hill overlooking Palma. We toured the entire castle, taking loads of pictures of the view down to the harbor at Palma - which was just beautiful! The harbor is full of sailboats and yachts, and then the gothic cathedral and other nearby buildings create an even more dramatic backdrop to the brilliance of the Mediterranean.
Then it was another day of sunny relaxation, broken up by a hike up the opposite cliff from our resort and out the entire length of it to the point. Here, you could look back to the coastline of Mallorca which was riddled with coves and dramatic cliffs. And looking out from the point, we could see the Mediterranean stretching out. Here we ate a picnic lunch, keeping very close track of kids so that they didn't go off the cliff.
Bill and the kids went on an ancient train ride up into the mountains of Mallorca on another day. Then Bill and Joseph biked up to the ruins from 4000 BC another afternoon while Abby and I chilled by the pool. This was unfortunately where the camera was taken and we sadly lost months of pictures. We went back to the drink stand to beg for our camera, but this was to no avail. Our receptionists at the resort even tried (much more effectively, being multi-lingual) to talk to the owner, but it became evident that nothing was going to change.
Overall, Mallorca was a wonderful holiday destination. The sun shone every day, the coast was beautiful, and even driving around was delightful - almond, fig, and olive trees everywhere, as well as loads of flowers. The island is obviously a big destination for British and German people, as those languages were predominate in touristy areas. The TV channels in our room included one English speaking Sky TV channel (British). Also, something which we found hilarious - the Spanish TV channels showed popular American shows during primetime (CSI, Bones, 24, etc) all dubbed in Spanish. Very funny listening to the show in some Spanish person's voice instead of the regular ones! We were there too early to really enjoy the swimming and warm waters that summer provide, but it was still (despite our losses) a beautiful and sunny break after a dreary winter!