Bratwurst und Bier (Bratwurst & Beer)

Let’s start this blog with a quick geography lesson. Where is Mallorca? Mallorca or Majorca, depending on your tour guide, is the largest of the Balearic Islands off the coast of Spain. We had spent all of our energies (money and vacation) with our Thanksgiving in U.S. trip, we hadn’t thought too much about what we were going to do for Christmas until almost the last minute. The only requirements were that we did not want to spend it at home, it has to be warmer even by a few degrees, and it has to be relatively cheap. Since we didn’t have much time to waste, we decided to try our luck at one of the many “last minute trip” offices. Germans love to travel, so there are lots of these types of offices in every city. We went with a company called L’Tur. We had thought about Dubai, Turkey, or Barcelona for starting points. But none of these locations fit our criteria, so we ended with Mallorca since the tour agent recommended it and the price was right. So we booked our package including flight, hotel with half-board (breakfast & dinners included), and rental car. We started researching Mallorca after we booked the package, five days before we were due to leave. I was thinking that this was either going to be one of the best ideas we’ve had or disaster strikes and we would be bored out of minds. Flying by the seat of the pants is not a strong suit of mine. I’m more of a planning to the details type, or at least I used to be. After being with someone for almost a decade (yikes!), I guess some of Patrick’s spontaneity had rubbed off on me. So I found the one and only guidebook in the base library and started reading up on Mallorca. In fact, we were still reading up on the island on the flight over there.

We took an evening flight and after a quick two-hour flight, landed in the Palma Airport around 10:30pm. We had been following the weather closely because it had been raining steadily the entire week. The forecast had called for more rain for at least part of our stay. Since we had already paid for the package and we can’t control the weather, we packed the best we could to deal with the rain, and hoped for the best. As part of the package, the pick up and drop off to and from the hotel was included, so we waited for our bus to get loaded up with other tourists and were on our way about half an hour after landing. There were quite a few folks who had planned to spend Christmas in Mallorca, so our bus stopped a few other hotels before getting to ours. The first hotel was located in a fairly shady location, with a strip joint & an “American bar” next door, loiterer, and pretty scary looking bouncer-type dudes were hanging around. We held our breath until we realize it wasn’t our hotel. We had paid a little more to stay in a four-star hotel since it is Christmas. We were not trying to be snooty, but after our experience with the so- called four-star hotels in Europe, which sometimes were no better than a Travelodge, we’ve learned to keep our expectations low. As with almost all of the cities we have visited, Mallorca also has very narrow streets, especially close to the beach where cars are parked on both sides of the road. Our big bus tried to squeeze through a narrow street and snapped off the mirror of some unfortunate person’s parked car. Our bus driver drove like a bat out of hell after that incident. We’ve never heard buses burned rubber trying to get out of a sticky situation. Two more stops of various types of hotels later, we arrived at our home away from home. We checked in and found that they had cold plates waiting for us in the dining area. At this point, this is much better service than anywhere we’ve visited. Had we left at that moment, it was already the best trip (service-wise) that we’ve had in the past year and a half.
The next morning, we had a huge breakfast of eggs, meats, and pastries. Most of the hotels came with breakfast but it is usually a skimpy affair with pastries and cold cut meats, so the nice spread was an unexpected surprise. We had arranged to have our rental car delivered to the hotel the morning after we arrived. Since the car rental was only a few kilometers away, there was no extra charge. With keys in hand, we started exploring the island. Mallorca is shaped like the head of a billy goat. For a fairly small island, its roads and infrastructure was excellent. Best of all, there were signs telling you which direction to take depending on your destination and all the roads were free, no tolls anywhere. We can drive from one side of the island to the other, west to east, in about one hour. On the first day, we had planned to go from west to east, stopping at the Gordiola Glassworks and Manacor for the pearl factory. Before we even got to the Gordiola Glassworks, we got sidetracked by a souvenir store that looked like a castle on the way to the Glassworks. About half an hour later with two bags of goodies, we continue on to our original destination. We headed the ovens first, where skilled glass artisans worked on the glass. The process was very similar to the Murano glass making in Italy. Although one of the major difference is that Murano glasses seemed more elaborate and delicate whereas the Gordiola glasses were more plain and seemed more for everyday use. We picked up a few small pieces before checking out the glass museum above the shops. The museum was privately owned and had glasses from all over the world. It was quite an impressive collection, best of all, it was free to its visitors. On the way to Manacor, we stopped by what seemed like a roadside diner because its big parking lot was full of cars. We thought, all these people are here to eat at the restaurant; we should check it out for ourselves. We ordered traditional Mallorcan fares with names we cannot remember, but many traditional dishes seem to involve cabbages and pork. Everything tasted too good to be healthy but heck how many times does one find herself in Mallorca? We had first and second course plus deserts and soft drinks all for about €30. Amazing cheap for the amount of food that was consumed. Full and happy, we continue on the hunt for the famous Mallorquin pearls that we had been reading about. By the time we got to the town of Manacor, it was past three in the afternoon. Forgetting that Mallorca is part of Spain and therefore observe the afternoon siesta from about 1 to 4pm. Since not a whole lot was going to be open, we decided to check out the natural beauty of the island instead, we stopped by Portocristo, a small port with many small pleasure boats and enjoying the semi-dry afternoon. No pearls for me that day, but all was not lost, we had a first full day of the island and the vacation was just starting.