Hotel Cala Vias Cala Vinas

We woke up this morning to find ourselves just coming into Palma de Mallorca. Mallorca is the largest of the four Ballearic Islands – part of Spain and Palma is the capital. Very pretty little city and extremely well organized cruise ship dock – with ramps like at an Airport that you use to get yourselves into a covered walkway that takes you to the exit where you can pick up taxis or a bus into the town – ...

And at long last we are on our way ... can't quite believe we are actually starting this journey after all the work, planning, talking .... And we know we've been to San Telmo many times before but this time it is different!! And so good to have Simon's old friends Max & Linsey onboard - after all they were really the people responsible for him ending up in Port d'Andratx to begin with.

We arrived in Cala de Calobra around 5:30. We anchored in the small bay and took a tender to shore. The little village has a small pier along one side of a steep hill and the village is crowded on the hillside raising between two much larger and steeper hills. The whole thing looks like some Hollywood set because of its idyllic setting on the small bay. There are several bars and restaurants where we got drinks and ate an early dinner.

... cute to see. She was flirting back and he was laying on all the charm. I was cute to watch and what made it even cuter was they were nude the entire time. I think they might have gone up to the dunes to get some alone time since the disappeared for awhile.

Around 3 PM walked up off the beach to a clearing where the heli was waiting for us. It didn’t take long until we arrived at Porto Cristo.

I take a bus to the other side of Palma where there are some small, pretty beaches. Finding them is a little tricky but they are pretty, for city beaches and have a much more Spanish orientation. Some really nice beaches are supposed to be available but I lack the time to work them in (it is large island with slow transit).

My roommate and I go out for the night in Palm central. We walk around and find a little place on a side street ...

... afternoon at the beach back in Playa de Palma. It is so nice to have warm weather with sun. Quite a contrast from Scandinavia. This is an area full of German tourists. Mostly Spring break atmosphere. Apparently it is dominated by package deals. I have seen very few other nationalities here. As an indication, at the airport, Air Berlin dominated the airlines (even though this is Spain it is not Iberia or SpanAir).

... has 4 beds). He is from Madrid but speaks English well. A good chance for me to work on my Spanish. He is 24, in Mallorca for a week to get away from it all. A very nice guy. He had met a woman from Slovakia which keeps him busy during much of my stay.

Dialects of Spanish make it much harder for a novice. I learned Playa for beach in Spanish while in Mallorca it is Platja. Even names of places Mallorca vs Majorca, Ibiza vs Eivissa. This part of Spain speaks Catalan, a ...

... Dumping-Preisen hinreißen, was für den Kunden, also den Touristen nur vorteilhaft sein kann. Die Leute kommen von überall her, sogar aus dem tiefsten Norden reisen sie nach Spanien an, da dieses Reiseziel wie bereits erwähnt wahnsinnig schnell zu erreichen ist. Man fliegt von dort nur drei Stunden maximal, worauf der günstige Flugpreis und die günstge Urlaubsreise zu schließen ist.

... 8217;t much to see in Palma the bus did take me up to Castle Bellver where I was able to have a nice look down on the city and waterfront. Being a little churched out from my time in Italy I still had to visit Palma’s landmark cathedral and one of the more impressive I’ve been to on the trip, especially since Gaudi put his mark on it with a funky designed chapel. The city had just enough to keep me occupied for an afternoon ...

... Verkäuferin mein Englisch nicht, mein Deutsch aber sofort. Liegt das jetzt an meiner schlechten englischen Aussprache oder doch daran, dass Mallorca sich mehr und mehr zum 17. deutschen Bundesland entwickelt?

Wenn man's nicht besser wüsste, könnte man Mallorca doch fast für eine ruhige spanische Insel halten. Palmen, Strand und schöne Uferpromenaden laden zum entspannten Spazieren gehen ein. Außer dem ...