Palma de Mallorca

Palma de Mallorca (Majorca)

I booked all of our tours through fellow travelers in the Cruise Critic chat room on line.  This internet site lets travelers connect before sailing for various reasons; sharing ship and travel tips, lining up partners for games or classes, sharing tour expenses.  It is a huge savings to not use the ship for tour planning but has a risk – you miss the ship you are SOL!

Our first stop was in Palma, the capital of the Balearic Island of Majorca.  We joined Dave and Patti who arranged an all day tour by mini-van.  It got off to a bad start when we could not find the tour guide.  Top Day Tours did not send Dave clear instructions on the meeting spot. It was almost an hour after the meeting time that we finally set out along the amazing water front.

What was particularly fascinating to me was the simply countless number of yachts and sailboats that filled mile after mile of harbor.  They never did end by the time we turned inland to climb to a viewing point high above the city at the castle.  The guide was not great at giving information and seemed a little unsure of what we were supposed to see and do.  For example she did not tell us a meeting time and place at each stop.  Not good with a group of 18 people with about 25 cameras between them!

The city below was pretty but unremarkable except for its size.  I don’t think any of us expected there to be a permanent population of about 450,000 citizens.

We then took a drive across country to the hill town of Valdemosa.  Along the way we passed olive and also almond groves.  I did not know that carob is also a grove tree that is evergreen along with the silver green olive trees.  The almonds had been harvested and were beginning to lose their leaves.  In season there are 450 varieties of orchids in bloom but not the island was just very green with an occasional bougainvillea or plumbago in bloom.

We had a brief walking tour of Valdemosa.  The most notable thing is that Chopin spent some time here with his lover Georges Sand. Since they were poor they lived in a cell in the old monastery that the monks had turned into apartments. The stone facades were on terraces behind matching stone walls and overlooked hills of groves with a distant view of the sea.

We had about two hours for wandering, shopping, and lunch.  Elva and I ate at Cappuccino.  This restaurant was written up in a German article but not for what you might think.  It was an interior design magazine and the bathroom was featured!  Of course I had to check it out and it did have a nice ceiling of blue and a trough sink of marble.  Clever designation signs were on the doors.  A shepherd for the men’s room and shepherdess on the ladies.  The pair was pictured seated on donkeys to indicate the accessible facilities.  Worthy of a feature article, well I guess I am no judge.

The lunch was very good and we enjoyed the people watching from beneath our umbrella.  We still had time so strolled down to view a church and then back up to ‘window-shop’ in the doorways of the ancient buildings on our way back to the parking area to meet the group.

At one point during the tour back in the city I broke the rules and paid the price.  I stood up to step across the aisle to take a picture.  Most everyone was seated alone since the bus was bigger than the group so it was easy to do.  Except my toe caught the emergency lighting strip and I pitched awkwardly forward stepping down the aisle step, banging the armrest with my left hip, the hard plastic back of a seat handle with my right shoulder and slamming my nose quite crunchingly into the seat handle of the window seat in front of Elva.  If I could add pictures here, I would show you the stars I saw!  Fortunately my nose did not bleed and I do not have a black eye!  But my nose still feels swollen and is red. Lesson learned.

Since a couple of days ago at Caduques Elva fell when we stood up to change tables at lunch and move out of the sun I guess we are officially a mess!  That story was that the restaurant was so crowded and our time so limited that we could not wait longer for a table so took one not protected by an umbrella.  When the shaded table became available we stood up to move two steps across the aisle.  Elva lost her balance when instead of terra firma her foot landed on the curved edge of the broad cement base of the umbrella.  I tried to grab her. People around sprang up to try and catch her but she landed firmly on her seat and her head kept going toward the pavement.  She narrowly missed the corner of the next table and somehow miraculously her head landed on the largest, softest, most overstuffed ladies purse I have ever seen!  She looked as though she had just chosen to lie down comfortably.  How lucky we both were!

Our tour in Palma was to go to the Cathedral where we could pay 6 Euros extra to visit inside or we could choose to walk along the sea front and visit the old quarter.  Just as we arrived the skies opened and most of the people on the bus voted to go back to the ship.  I figured the shower would be fleeting.  My Mom always said if it rained suddenly and hard that it did not last long.  But the guide made the mistake of offering options.  So we went back to the ship and missed what might have been a very good part of the day.

Soon it was time to sail and bid sunny Palma farewell.  The tour was disappointing but the day was a way to meet new friends and to see some beautiful places.

At dinner in the Silhouette Dining Room we asked for a shared table.  We were seated when surprisingly the Marie that we met at dinner in the Café last night was brought to sit with us.  Her friend had abandoned her.  So there were three of us and a little bit of the continuation of last night’s conversation continued.  Marie seemed up with Wilmer, our waiter, but Elva and I thought service was good and I know my sirloin steak was like butter and delicious!

Rondell, the comedian, was the entertainer so we cut dessert short because we did not want to be late for the show.  He did forty five hysterical minutes and we all laughed right out loud as he made fun of the 27 year old girl who had no job and a good education and still lived with Mom and Dad who were treating her to the cruise.  The young lady took it gracefully.  He also gave many examples to the newly-weds tips from the couple married fifty four years!  And he made fun of us all, cruisers and old people.  And even though some of the topics were old, like how much food we eat on the ship, his take on it was new and fresh. 

Our first port day was a mixed bag.  Delightful to be somewhere you have only ever heard about but a little tinged by poor guide performance.