Mallorca, Spain

Woke up in Mallorca and that is a dream come true! I have read about this place in travel magazines for years and have wanted to come here!! Can now check that off my bucket list.  Mallorca is the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands. Both Catalan and Castilian Spanish are still spoken here.
Took a ½ day tour and discovered so many things about this island….most importantly, that the coolest spots are on the opposite end of the island from where we docked!!! First, we saw Bellver Castle. It is on a hill overlooking the harbor of Mallorca and was built in 1309. It is a gothic castle and is ROUND…..with 3 circular watch towers…making it very unique. It was built as a royal residence for the king. It is Spain’s only round fortress!!! Bellver means “beautiful view.”
Also – this is the largest harbor we’ve ever seen – with huge yachts, fishing boats and sailboats to boot!!!


We then took a 99 year old train up through the mountains and then down into the village of Soller…(pronounced So-yay) on the north side of the island. Both the train ride and the village were fantastic! Stu picked the train ride today and loved it! Soller is known for it’s citrus trees – growing both lemons and oranges! It’s also known for it’s many olive trees! It was more rural and there was a farmer’s market going on in the town square today.


(Lois would’ve loved this part of the trip!!!) They were selling jars of fresh figs in the honey…and citrus preserves, too! So fun… but we could not linger as we had to keep pressing forward. :)

Drove through a town called “Deia.” It was small and exclusive and boasted the best hotel on the island there. Would like to return to this island and stay there sometime. The craggy northwest coast is dotted with watch towers used in the early days of pirates. Smoke was used to warn inhabitants of their arrival.
Next, we drove along the sea….very high up and on hairpin turns. GORGEOUS!
Ended up in a village called “Valldermosa” – a quaint little village with an old monestary in it, good shops and many fun eateries. There are only 1400 people there. Stu and I roamed around longer then expected…so we bought meat pies from the local bakery and ate them quickly! ***As an aside, did you know that Chopin wrote 24 of his preludes here in Valldermosa?


This side of the island feels like parts of rural France to me. Small, charming villages, oodles of olive trees, stone terraced lands, beautiful vistas, etc…. And then throw the Mediterranean Sea on top of it all. Wow!

***As an aside, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones have a home (estate) on the sea…. Between Deia and Valldermosa. (Niiiiiiice!)



Came back to the city (known as Palma de Mallorca) around 2:30 in the afternoon. Instead of heading back to the ship – Stu and I caught the first bus to the heart of the city. It is a busy, bustling place! Everything is focused around the enormous royal palace and the even more enormous cathedral – next door. By the by….. there are many mansions and many cathedrals here in Mallorca. The palace and cathedral were built in 1229 – but construction lasted until up to 100 years ago. (HUH? It took them 700+ years to finish??? And we thought the Findley’s were slow getting our house built! HA!!!)

Feet were getting tired at this point but we wanted to see MORE so we boarded a horse and carriage to take us on a tour of “old town.” It was wonderful! Very narrow streets – just wide enough for the horse and carriage!!! He would pull up to houses which would be 4-5 stories tall (row houses) and their big street doors would be wide open and we could look in at the courtyard areas and he would say, “This mansion is 1000 years old! He’d give us the name of the family who is living there and would tell us that that particular family had been there over 380+ years!!! Pretty cool.

Tomorrow is our day at sea. We will leave Mallorca about 6 a.m. tomorrow and cruise to Marseille, France on the French Riviera. We have decided that we would come back to Mallorca! There is so much to do and we only saw a fraction of the island….many parts that we loved!
Onward!