August 4th, 2024
Sorry for the late post but been a busy few days. Mallorca was wonderful but too hot. Europe is just not prepared for the heat they are now experiencing in the summer months. They don’t have a lot of air conditioning and they like to eat outside which is usually fine but not when the temperatures are in the 90s.
We have been to Mallorca before but this time we were in a dock that was 6 miles from the cathedral which is sort of the prime spot to be. No way to walk into town so you had to either do an excursion, grab a taxi or pay 20 euros for a roundtrip shuttle provided by the port authorities and not the cruise line. We opted for the shuttle which also meant we could sleep in because the later we were the less the shuttle line would be. The good thing about being so far from our usual docking spot was we got a view of Mallorca we usually did not have.
Mallorca from our balcony
A Regent ship was in port also
The castle up on the hill
The Cathedral
We got off around 10am and had no trouble getting a shuttle into town. Since you had to go all the way around the port and then back along the harbor it was about a 20 minute shuttle ride and it dropped you off by the cathedral. Of course it was Sunday so the cathedral was closed to tourists due to services. We were concerned that everything in Spain would be closed since it was Sunday but we were told some shops would be open. The Sunday before we were in Bilbao, Spain and everything, except the museum and restaurants were closed so we were skeptical.
The good thing about Mallorca is they have tons of tree lined streets that help to block the heat and the direct sun.
Beautiful streets with elegant buildings
They had lots of parks and waterways and tons of outdoor cafes.
We walked around town and I was really looking for a place to get my haircut but never saw any place open. The water on the ship is very chlorinated and it makes a mess of your hair. I knew I would be home soon but I thought if I found a place I would go ahead and get it cut but I didn’t.
Mallorca has some old windmills along the harbor that date back to the 16th and 19th century and are old flour windmills. There were originally 900 but many have been lost or are in a state of disrepair. Also many of the windmills are privately owned which makes it difficult to carry out uniform restoration. Plus vandalism plays a role in their poor shape.There are a couple along the waterfront that are still picturesque.
Windmill, bougainvillea and the cathedral.
Kathy protecting herself from the sun in front of a windmill.
Tons of boats and our cruise ship in the back ground.
There are lots of yachts in Mallorca as it is a very popular beach place to go but no beaches in the downtown area just tons and tons of boats of all kinds and sizes.
We walked the streets and they have tons of narrow curved streets which they say helped protect against invading armies centuries ago.
Nice rounded doors
They also have the enclosed balconies that are everywhere on Malta
We did find several shops open but nothing we needed to buy but nice to step in and enjoy the air conditioning for a few minutes before continuing on our way.
We ran into this cool sculpture but no sign to tell us what it is or what it depicts. In looking on line it is called “root out evil” and created by an American sculpture and is a re-creation of an original piece. It was recently restored.
We walked around for about 4 hours and endedup back at the cathedral.
Some views of the cathedral and they had horse drawn carriage rides.
Up close view
We took the shuttle back around 2:30 and grabbed a quick snack. Since it was the last night we were meeting some friends for cocktails around 5pm so we packed and took showers and put on what we would be wearing home for the evening so we did not have to worry about finishing packing.
Kathy had made this nice decoration for our door which she got so many compliments on. The main reason was that we were right by the elevator so when people got off they could easily see her door decoration and then they knew which way to go. It helped us also. There is another trick to see if it is the port or starboard side and that is the dots on the carpet. On this boat the port side had red dots and on the starboard side they were green. You can see them in this picture also.
I also wanted to show a picture of this cake. As I talked about much earlier in the cruise the package we had gave you 2 premium desserts a day and they had these multiple layered cakes that they called premium desserts. They had a black forrest and a red velvet and I waited until almost the end of the cruise to get the red velvet. The good news is that I missed nothing by waiting until the end of the cruise, It was not good and NOT a red velvet cake. We did enjoy 3 of the sundaes that were premium at the beginning of the cruise and we shared them but even shared they were a bit much.
A picture of our cocktail group which is Shaela & Brad from Arizona and she played Mah Jongg with me and he is the one who does the TV diagrams on his Auto Cad program. We met them on our first port back in Halifax when we went to Peggy’s Cove. They introduced us to Warren and Tim from Greenville, South Carolina. They always met at 5 and others would join and sometimes they would go to dinner together but mostly everyone would do their own thing. We did not go often because we thought 5 was to early but we did show up the last couple of days and had dinner with them a couple of times.
Sailing past Mallorca on our way to Barcelona.
We will get up at 7am and be off by 7:40. We had a ride pick us up at 8:30 to drive us to the airport. Our flight home was not until 1:40pm but we figured get there early and check in and then read. Our new friends were both staying in Barcelona for a couple of days and with it being so hot we were happy we were not.
Sunrise in Barcelona