Ross's and Clare's Travel Adventure
27th May 2019 - 20 June 2019
We spent the night in Seville, It was hot when we arrived so we had a swim before heading into town. We where only here overnight, but enjoyed the short time we had.
On to Majorca and sunshine. We got to Palma at 12:00 and could not get into our place until after 3:00pm. Having 4 suitcases and nowhere to go was an issue. We found a nice bar around the corner with good food and room for suitcases so spent a few hours drinking beer and sangria.
The apartment is on the 7th floor but it has a lift!!! It is an old place and in need of a renovation when we arrived the bathroom started to fall to pieces. The shower fell off the wall, the laundry sink was blocked, and the kitchen sink leaked!!! The plates etc were in sets of 1, 2,3 and 4 then the large plates we had 12 but most very cracked!! We got most things fixed on our first day, on our second day the electricity in the whole area went out, we waited then switched on our phone torches and walked down the stairs for a walk around the area. We were in a lovely area quite close to the old town and in the middle of a great restaurant area. I think we will be happy here.
I managed to get a haircut, that does not sound like much, but my last haircut was in November and it was awful!! I have been living with it for months but no longer. It is not the best haircut I have ever had but it is better than it was.
We have been checking out what we will do when our visitors arrive from Berlin. We did find the English center with a good supermarket. They had ham for up to $800 more expensive than gold.
We saw a lot of Palma’s historic town, walking through it many days, mainly looking for tapas!!
Our friends from Berlin arrived for a stay which was great fun. Andreas is finishing his latest book and had to spend half a day editing. We forced him to do it, so he set up in the kitchen and spent every afternoon working. We monitored him now and again to make certain he was not eating and drinking.
We all visited the cathedral it is amazing it is one of the largest in Europe and very lovely inside. From the outside it is designed to look like an organ, and it does. The cathedral became one of our landmarks for when I got lost around town. The 4 of us went off one day to have lunch at a tapas place that Ross and I had enjoyed. We walked and walked and never found it, eventually we were all weak with hunger and stopped at the next place, for a great feed
Another day after a walk around the city we met for lunch, but Ross had found a pub with the rugby on and would not be moved. The rest of us went off and ate mussels, in the square and drank not so good sangria, Carsten could not drink his and when I tried it, it was so much worse than mine (which was bad), we had been calling him names for complaining.
The boys went to stay on the other side of the island, and we organised to meet them one day for lunch. We caught the train to Soller it is an old electric train and quite the thing to do. We got to the station an hour early with me thinking how stupid. After we got our tickets and sat down for a coffee the crowds arrived, some did not even get a ticket. I was glad we got there early. Getting on the train I walked to the front to photograph the engine and found the first-class carriage, empty, we jumped in, leather seats instead of benches, how cool. The trip to Soller is scenic through orange and lemon groves, with wonderful views over the valleys.
The station at Soller has an Art gallery with Picasso’s and Miro’s lovely. The Picasso’s were a lot of his ceramics which I loved. I had forgotten That Picasso was Spanish and these, his early art had a very Spanish feel to them. The station art was a great find and not well advertised.
Soller was a very interesting town and full of tourists. It has another gorgeous cathedral, a lot of money was spent on cathedrals throughout Europe and they have the most amazing art. I am also fascinated by all the wonderful stainglass windows.
We met the boys and jumped on the tram (another tourist experience) to go to Port de Soller. Entering the town around the mountain is a real wow experience as the bay is beautiful, a bit like Nice we were told. A long fishy and alcoholic lunch followed in the sun looking out over the bay. Perfect. The boys went back to their hotel and Ross and I went back to Palma on the train.
Our next visitor was a friend from when I worked with at Qantas, Chris was in town with his family and took some time off to meet up and wander around the Market. We saw more really expensive ham; it makes gold look cheap!!
Ross and I had a cruise around Palma, a bit of an anticlimax, like Melbourne harbour rather than Sydney. We could see all the landmarks but from a long way off. We were mainly shown cruise ships some of the largest in the world one hold 9500 passengers. Not for me - to big, I like the smaller groups when cruising, easier to get a seat at the pool and the bar etc.
Next thing we know I am packing again we are off back to England. The day we left we waited outside for the taxi the apartment locked up and the keys inside. No taxi!! Our phones were out of money so we could not phone to see what had happened and we could not get back into the apartment to use the WiFi, disaster. Lucky someone came out of the apartment and I dashed back in. At the front door of the apartment I got WiFi. A quick email to the Taxi company and they phoned me. The taxi was waiting outside number 13 down the street, we were 21A. The taxi had to go all round the block 25 minutes later we were on our way. I showed the driver the address I had sent, and the address sent back both said 21A. I said someone was being stupid and because of the language he thought I meant him, I explained, and agreement was reach as to who was stupid and all was good, phew. He was a very nice man and we chatted on the way to the airport. When we got out, we did not have much to tip him with so gave him all our change. I got a hug and kisses on each cheek obviously I had been forgiven. England here we come