Ah, the glorious bridges of Spain. And by bridges, I mean ¨puentes,¨ what they call long weekends in Spain, usually when the holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday, and they take off four days in a row to bridge the gap. Thanks to my already spectacular schedule, the week of the Immaculate Conception and Constitution day, I only worked one day: Wednesday. So we took advantage with a little trip to Mallorca. Roundtrip tickets to the Mediterranean island were cheaper (and quicker!) than a bus to Madrid--who could say no?
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| Sunning myself |
The first thing in Palma's airport that caught my attention was that things were in 4 languages: Spanish and Catalan (obviously), English (also pretty typical), and German. People had told me there was a huge German population on the island. I thought they were exaggerating. But since it was winter, there was less tourism in general. Which in some cases, gave places a sad, ghost-town feeling.
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| Castell de Bellver |
We spent our first two days in the capital. In Palma we took in the typical sites, including the Cathedral, which even from kilometers away is prominent. La Loncha is the old fisher's market. Now it's simply a huge, empty space you can enter and almost feels like a cathedral. Palma's harbor is home to hundreds of boats: from dinghies with chipped paint to grandiose yachts worth hundreds of thousands of euros. A short stroll from the harbor, away from the city, is Castell de Bellver. It's a circular castle on a wooded hilltop. The open architecture makes it feel like a monastery. We also visited the Arabian Baths ruins. Unlike the Roman baths of Galicia, they are no longer functioning, but still cool to imagine. And as far as nightlife goes, we found a great, open bar that was playing the Clash all night long. Woohoo! Also we encountered so many sushi restaurants it almost seemed like a typical Mallorcan dish. Yum.
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| Castell de Bellver |
From Palma the
Serra de Tramuntana beckoned us.We quickly realized that the island itself is quite small, and we easily could have stayed in one central location and traveled to all of the island (it's all within an hour). But constantly switching lodging allowed us to see a lot of unique places. Anyways, the sierra is a World Heritage Site. This beautiful collection of hillside towns reminded me of a blend of
Picos de Europa + Northern Africa + Napoli. My favorite town was charming Valdemossa, where all of the shutters are green. We caught the Port de Soller just as the sun started to go down, giving it a pink glow. Last but not least was Fornalutx, dubbed ¨the most beautiful town in Spain.¨ It's true that it was nestled in a valley, had some lovely cobblestone streets, and on the outskirts we found hens sitting in orange trees. Unfortunately, we got there after dark. In some ways it lost beauty, but in other ways it gained it.
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| Valdemossa |
Next we headed to the north of the island. Part of Pollença doesn't have coast, but it is between two mountains. We left early enough to check out the morning market--somebody wanted to bring back Mallorcan meat (
sobrasada) and yet some how we forgot to buy the typical powdered sugar treat the size of a medium pizza (
ensaimada)! From there, following the winding roads of Port de Pollença, we were rewarded with some spectacular views. Nothing but sea! And also because it was the off season, the resorts were closed and we had the beachy areas to ourselves. And since it's the Mediterranean and the temperature was decent, he even took a little dip. In December!
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| Oh little town of Alcúdia |
That night we stayed in an old monastery outside the large town, Alcúdia. The monastery was at the end of a winding road, perched atop a hill, once again with wicked views of the sea. As we rounded one of the corners while returning at night, we came across a giant goat (horns and all) just sitting in the middle of the road. In the pitch dark. Just a few nights before Krampus was to come. Was this a close encounter with Satan himself?! We will never know.
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| Hoppin around in Pol·lentia |
Alcúdia was a nice place to walk around, even though it was quite empty. It has some remains of an ancient wall and a Renaissance one. (But again, living Galicia has spoiled me, seeing as Lugo has a Roman wall in its entirety.) The next day we walked around the remains of the Ancient Roman city of Pol·lentia (go figure, it's in Alcúdia and not present-day Pollença). Those ruins included 3 domus, the forum, and an amphitheater. An amphitheater which one guide book pointed out is the smallest in Spain. Now that's something to be proud of! I'm all about Roman ruins though, so it was cool.
From there we headed to the east coast to the Coves del Drach. If these caves aren't a World Heritage Site, they should be. I like caves in general, but in addition to the normal cave fun, Drach has a big lagoon inside it. They make the entry cost worth it, because the tour ends in an open amphitheater within the cave, in front of the lagoon. They turn out the lights, and slowly a candle-lit boat comes a-rowin' towards the crowd with a quartet playing (in our case Christmas carols). Marvelous! After the concert, the public is able to cross the lagoon in the rowboats built for about 20. What an experience.
