Majorca. What a great island!

Full of surprises.

Majorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands. The island has a relaxed atmosphere and the local are very friendly and international.

Palma. What a great city!

Palma is the major city and the main port on the island (in fact it is often considered as ‘the’ place for all yacht repairs in the Mediterranean - period). Palma is extremely sophisticated and is home to many celebrities, top designer stores and regional HQ’s for major businesses.

..and the number of huge boats

The city is full of small streets filled with great architecture and character. The Cathedral is quite magnificent and, of course, the inside is typical of many of the catholic churches we have seen - all very ornate beautifully carved and full of gold!

Nice to see that the catholic church used look after it’s poor people then.

We had many pleasant days in Palma. We walked miles and miles around the streets of the old town, the promenade and the little seaside towns all butting Palma, each with their own style, restaurants and coffee stops.

It was so nice to be eating outside – it’s become almost de-rigor for us now. The shopping is first rate - fortunately John and I didn’t need anything! Oh, and there were street entertainers everywhere!

The local food market was a delight. So just about every day we bought lots of fresh vegetables, fruits, fish and meat and had several Chez Timeless dinners.

The open top bus has to be mentioned

The city’s open top tour-bus is a great way to see the city. It is hop on hop off type with an audio guide – great value. They should be in all cities!

Bellver Castle

One of the highlighted parts of the tour is Bellver Castle and fortess. It’s located on the top of a hill it overlooks the city of Palma with sweeping views over the Bay of Palma. The castle has been used for many things over the years from guarding the port to housing prisoners of war in more recent times. Now, it a tourist attraction with an interesting ‘Palma’ museum on the ground floor.

Pueblo Espanol

One of the stops on our bus was Pueblo Espanol. This seems to be the result of an architect running out of his own ideas and so he decided to copy all the previous best architectural ideas of Spain – or something like that. Built in the 1960’s it houses replicas of most of the important cultural buildings and architecture of Spain through the ages. It’s a bit of a rip off!

You have to make the train ride to Soller.

There is an old-fashioned train ride that heads to the northwestern part of the island to Soller. The ride is quite spectacular as it passes through the countryside full of orange groves and magnificent mountain ranges. The train is powered by an electric locomotive and is the only one of its type still in use today. The track is 27km long and you pass through thirteen tunnels.

Soller is a delightful town with lots of charm.

From Soller we took a tram to the Port of Soller on the north western side of the island. A dramatic port with mountains on all three sides with a tiny entrance from the sea, a well protected port from the elements and the only one along that side of the coast. Of course a lunch and a bottle of wine on one of the restaurant terraces overlooking the port had to be done.