Bratwurst und Bier (Bratwurst & Beer)

On Christmas Eve and our second full day in Mallorca started out, as predicated by the meteorologist, a wet and soggy day. We decided to head out anyway since there’s still so much to see and we didn’t want to waste any time. We planned to visit Valldemossa and Soller on the Northwest coast of the island. First up was Valldemossa. This city was made famous by a winter stay by the composer Frederick Chopin and his female “friend” writer George Sand in 1838. The couple was shunned by the locals and as a result, Sand wrote “A Winter in Mallorca” portraying their experience on the island. Valldemossa is a picturesque city in the mountains. Even in the pouring rain, we could see how this place attracts visitors. Michael Douglas supposedly owns a house in the town. Though we didn’t see him during our brief visit there. Other than the town’s ties to famous people, many of its notable sites were of religious origin. The monastery, though was not open at the time of our visit was beautiful, as well as its grounds, though small but tranquil. We took some photos of the unopen monastery and its grounds, then proceed to make some damage at the local souvenir shop, or as I put it, contributing to the local economy. We left for Soller after a soggy hour and a half in Valldemossa. Soller is known for its fresh oranges. In fact, this city used to do orange trade with the French. Because Soller is located in a mountainous terrain, it was more or less cut off from the rest of the country; therefore, it was influenced more by the French than the Spaniards. The route from Valldemossa to Soller is a narrow two-lane road, hugging the mountains on one side and the steep incline to the ocean on the other. On a sunny day, it would have been a pleasant scenic drive, however, in midst of the driving downpour, our rental Fiat Punto (Italian made) decided it’s tired of pumping out air through the vents and the horn stopped working too. So, I’m driving blind plus I couldn’t signal the drivers ahead that I’m coming around the bend. Yup, it was an exciting drive. Luckily, we were in Mallorca during down season and not too many tourists wanted to brave that drive in the rain. We arrived in Soller unscathed. Even during down season, it was still hard to find parking in the town, we drove around a bit and eventually illegally park, with the other cars next to the raging river, which looked more like the Niagara Falls after a day of heavy rain. What is more amazing is that there are houses right beside the river, it looked like it would be washed away any minute. We walked around the city and had some fresh squeezed orange juice, which was really delicious, very sweet and not at all tart. After a quick tour of the town, we decided to call it the day. Although our first day on the island had some showers, it was not as persistent downpour as it was this day and we were quickly losing daylight.

We returned to the hotel around 4 p.m., coming in from the side door from the beach. I was thinking to myself that although we hadn’t seen as much as we had hoped that the day did go very well. We had managed to navigate through the heavy rain through difficult terrains without incident, and then that thought quickly left me, as I was airborne, flying in air as I was falling down the last steps of MARBLE stairs into the hotel lobby. My left bottom landed on the edge of the last step. I tried to brace myself for the fall, but it happened so quickly, before I knew it, I was on the floor with stars in my eyes. My lower torso went numb and my first thought after the stars had cleared was that ‘I’m going to get one ginormous bruise’. If anyone who’s into gruesome photos, I’ve kept a series of photos of the rainbows of bruising that had resulted from the fall. Anyway, no time to cry over my bruised behind and ego, we had to get ready for the “special” Christmas Eve dinner that the hotel was preparing for its guest. When we had purchased our package with L’Tur, we had looked into not purchasing the ‘half board’ option to save some money. Half board means the breakfast and dinners are included in the price of the hotel. However after we arrived and had a chance to sample the feast at the restaurant, we were pretty glad that we had decided to stay in and eat at the restaurant. For one thing, the Spaniards eat late, starting around 9 p.m. and the food isn’t exactly cheap either, I’ll get into that later. So, back to the special Christmas Eve dinner, we counted there were seven courses, including appetizers, two meat dishes, deserts, and all-you-can-drink wines. It was such a marathon that we didn’t finish until 9:30 p.m. Tummies full, we called it a night.

Christmas Day, needless to say, everything was closed, so we decided to do a couple of cities with scenic beauty. We drove to the Northwest corners of the island, visiting the city of Andratx, Dragonera (a nature reserve), as well as re-visiting Valldemossa, this time in the sun. Every town including the drive to and from these location was breathtakingly beautiful. It was a very peaceful way to spent the Christmas Day.

The day after Christmas Day is also a holiday for Mallorcans. In many other countries, such as Canada, the U.K., and others, December 26 was also known as Boxing Day. We planned to do as much driving as possible as well as doing some more shopping since most of the shops were closed for Christmas. I wanted to check out the famous Mallorcan cultured pearls as well as the leather goods in the city of Inca. Patrick wanted to check out the town of Binissalam because that region produces most of the Mallorcan wines. The first stop was to visit the pearl store call Orquidea. I really hadn’t plan on buying anything, just wanted to check out the operation. The store was huge! There were two floors, at least ten or more salespersons, as well as its own café shop. We walked around for about an hour and with the help of a lady who spoke perfect English, I ended up with a few trinkets. After the pearl store, we continued on to take in more of island’s natural beauty. We first stopped in the town of Alcudia. There were some Roman ruins right outside the main gate of Alcudia, but it was closed due to Christmas season from December 22 to January 8! I want a job where it allows me to be off THAT long for Christmas. Anyway, we snapped some pictures, walked around the morning market, incidentally very similar to the markets in Naples. After Alcudia, we continued on the windy roads to the Peninsula of Formentor. The road to the tip of the peninsula was an 18 kilometer long narrow two-lane road until it reaches to the lighthouse. We saw a hungry billy goat at the lighthouse that was “cleaning up” the trash bin, helping itself with banana peels and apple cores. The view at the lighthouse was truly beautiful and tranquil. We left for Pollenca so we can catch it the last ray of sun of the day. Pollenca was only about 15 minute drive away and a tranquil little town, once again, we snapped a few photos then it’s time to head back to the hotel.

December 27 was our last day in Mallorca, we turned in the rental car early then took the bus into the city of Palma. It took us almost an hour to traverse about four kilometers from the hotel. The bus was jammed packed with tourists and locals alike. I can only imagine how much more congested had we came during the peak season. We visited the Sa Seu, which is the main cathedral in the city of Palma. It is one of the biggest Gothic cathedrals in the world. Supposedly it was converted to a cathedral from an existing Mosque after the Spanish retained control of the island from the Moors. After touring the Sa Seu, walked around the city walls, and the Palace, we were on the hunt for an authentic tapas bar. We went to a small tapas bar called El Pilon in the center of the city. The place was so small that there were only eight small tables. The kitchen took up half of the useable space. We took as a good sign that most people in the bar were Spanish speaking folks. One liter of sangria and multiple tapas goodies later, we stumbled back out in the city to begin our way back to the hotel.

Fast forward a few hours and we arrived back to Frankfurt airport around mid-night. Tired but happy from the unexpected pleasant trip, we found ourselves with suitcases in hand with a dilemma. To avoid parking fees at the airport, we took a train from Mainz (the city we live in) to the airport. On our return trip, we missed the last train to Mainz by about five minutes. The next earliest train to Mainz was four hours away at 4 am. So, we were to either wait in the airport for four more hours or take a €60 taxi trip back home. In the end, we took the taxi home. What’s a good vacation without a few twists and turns?