MadridWaites: Mallorca

MALLORCA

The first weekend in January, we took a very fun trip to Mallorca. Mallorca is an island in the Mediterranean that belongs to Spain. We weren't sure what to expect, but what we found was a beautiful, historic, interesting, diverse, friendly, and somewhat warmer place to visit.

The Hawkins and Deschamps went with us.

Palma is the capital of Mallorca, and is a fascinating city with a lot to see.

Carriages were abundant and waiting for customers to take a ride through the city.
This guy and his team was my favorite. You have to admit he has style.

A community drink.

There were many sidewalk cafes, and they all advertise their menu of the day.

Interesting, but racy.

A pretty parkway in the middle of town.

In the spring this will be covered in vines.

The same park.

Same park.

Still the same park.

Up above the park you can see the castle.

These cute twins {one with curly hair, one straight hair} feeding the swans.

Windmills in the city.

Heading up the hill to see a round castle, which is rather rare.
This is the view of the city on the way up.

The round castle.

More views on the way.

A round tower on the round castle.

A view of the moat.

There are many old and interesting statues inside.

From the battlement on top of the castle.

The round courtyard of the inner castle.

An interesting fire place.

It has a secret stairway to hide from enemies.

Sylvia chilling on the castle wall.

This old door has seen better days. I like the "doggie" door on the lower half.

The moat.

This guy was perched on the old wall singing his heart out.

He was really, really good!

I just love to see what people are willing to drive around in, here in Europe.

The marina in Palma de Mallorca.

That is the amazing cathedral on the other side of the masts.

Graffiti is all over in Spain. I think this guy sees himself as the new Picasso.

I think there are more windmills in Spain, than in Holland.
I love them and can't resist a picture of each one I see.

One boat owner was excited about Christmas.

This is the view from our hotel...

and this ...

and this.

This was our hotel.

Our view at sunrise ...

and this ....

and this.

The town of Andratx. This was some kind of municipal building.
It had a really nice public garden.

The wall around the building.

There is no such thing as a plain window in old buildings.

An old church, and you can see in the background another windmill.

This cool gargoyle doubles as a rain spout.

I have no idea what kind of a tree this is, but the trunk is interesting.

Andratx

The church in Andratx.

I have a fascination with doors, as well.

This nail is where you hang your garbage bag to be picked up.

You can't even see where the ocean ends and the sky begins.

Sylvia is a mountain goat. We stopped to see the view, and Sylvia and Randy spotted this abandoned house way up the hill. She was impressed with this house and wanted us all to go in together to buy it and fix it up. It definitely had an awesome view. She came down the hill with a souvenir from the wreckage.

As we drove around the island we drove through a lot of tunnels.

Mallorca had the same rocky terrain as the rest of Spain.

A retaining wall for the highway.

A very long climb to a great view point.

This was at the top of those stairs.

Greg and Randy coveting this guy's fancy car. Randy tried
to talk him into letting him take it for a spin. No go.

One of several sculptures made from old electronics.

Our first "beach" stop. This beach had no sand.

This trip was over the Three Kings holiday. This town was getting ready for a bonfire.

Another strange sculpture.

You can see the old phones and such. I've had headaches just like this!

So much of the landscape is terraced like this so they can farm this mountainous terrain.

Goats were roaming everywhere.

Old, old, old olive tree.

Deya. It is a charming small town.

A nifty way to get the goods in the attic.

I guess this man discovered a little devil.

The local cemetery.

The view from said cemetery.

Someone left their door open, and I couldn't help but snoop.

Every town seems to have their mascot. This one belongs to Port De Soller,

It is a pretty little beach town with real sand.

It has lots of little boats and a lighthouse up on the hill.

We were there on January 5th, which is the night the
three kings visit the children to put presents in their shoes.
Its kind of like our Christmas Eve. Anyway, they had
a Three Kings parade through town.

Cute little shops lined the street.

This is what a Spanish mail box looks like.

The water was so clear.

There's the man waiting patiently for me to
get tired of taking pictures. He had a long wait.

A trolly runs down the main street.

We headed out as the sun was setting, making a pink mountain top.

Back in Palma from our balcony. The moon was full and very bright.

Another sunrise.

Down the road for another day of exploration.

Another mascot.

Beautiful views wherever we went.

This valley looked like a piece of England fell in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.

One odd boulder after another. Spain is really just one
huge rock that has broken into millions of pieces over time.

Mallorca is covered with ancient olive trees.
This little town was reported to have the oldest olive trees.

Not this one .....

... but this one....

... and this one.

Through this gate is a very old fountain that is supposed to have the very best drinking water around. The person in the yellow coat brought dozens of gallon jugs to fill.

It looks like a cool cloud has settled over the valley, but actually,
someone is burning their trimmed vines.

Port De Pollenca.

Another very cute beach town. The water was so clear, and still.

The water was the same color as the sky, and looked like a water color painting.

Someone built a great sand castle.

This tree grew sideways, and no one seemed to mind.

This old fisherman just scooted along standing up in his motorized kayak.

Everyone joined in trying to help Charlotte find sea glass.

He thinks I will never tire of taking pictures. He's right. I loved this place!

There were a lot of date palms.

Even Mickey was there.

Alcudia.

Another town dripping with charm.

This was Three Kings Day. They may not be kings,
but they are really great wise guys.

This old church was built in 1649.

Their mascot.

Pretty good graffiti.

They dressed up a town statue as one of the three kings. It looks more like a queen.

Everywhere you look.

Cuevas Del Drach

Greg and Randy

These were great caves.

This looks like a lion face.

This was an underground river. They played a little Mozart while
showing pictures on the walls of the cave and a gondola came
out into the middle, and then exited. Our hopes of getting a ride were dashed.

False advertising!

Our last stop of the day.

Puerto Cristo

A beautiful circular beach.

One side was a stone cliff with a cave.

The mouth of the bay.

Charlotte was still looking for glass.

The guys were admiring the fishing poles planted in the sand.

Sylvia was willing to get wet to help Charlotte. It was NOT warm water!

The locals were chilling on the beach while their poles
waited for a catch. I have no idea what they were hoping to catch.

Couldn't resist this cutie. He reminded me of a blonde Jonas.

The Palmas Cathedral.

More of Palma

I think I have this one on my door at home.

Now this is a funny story, though not at the time. We came across this door, and it was wide open. We all walked a little further, looked in a window, and saw Greg walking by inside. He waved us all in, and we figured it was a museum. All six of went in and started looking around, and I was snapping pictures. They had a neat Belen inside. Pretty soon I looked around and everyone was gone, but me, and a woman who was very upset I was there ... in her private residence. She blocked my way of getting out, and we had a stare down. I glanced out the window, and there were the other 5 culprits scot free, and acting like they never saw me before in their lives. Luckily, she finally relented, kicked me out, and locked her door. Pretty stressful, and very embarrassing!