Springtime in Mallorca

Another week has flown by. Our Mallorcan Easter holidays have had three main themes: many trips to the beach (mostly ours, but also an afternoon stop off at one of Palmanova's three beaches); Jemima befriending any small child she could find, wherever we were (from a German 18 month old boy on the beach to an 8 year old English girl in Heroes, and everywhere in between); and, continuing our Mallorcan theme, lunch. Sunday lunch in Portals Kitchen (the fourth and final Sunday lunch offering in the area - great veg and sides, appalling beef); delicious prawns and calamari in a very nice beach-side place in Palmanova (with 45 different types of gin! Who needs 45 different types of gin...?); and, of course, lunches on the beach and in the wonderful Chameli's. 

We've also had a couple of outings: another trip to the excellent soft play Kids Republik (where I discovered they have a whole extra floor of dressing up, role play and an indoor football pitch - plus very tasty food - avocado and tuna salad, yum); plus a fun afternoon at the Port Adriano Spring Fair (a massive paella for 100 people, a kids' obstacle course, party games, and family Zumba, which Jemima and I enjoyed, and some clowns - all in Spanish - which she wasn't so keen on. Jemima and I also had a fun shopping trip to Porto Pi (the big indoor mall) to get her some more beach stuff (our trips inside actual shops leavened by having a go on the various 1 Euro rides). And we've even been out for dinner, to one of the remaining Portals Nous restaurants we haven't tried yet: Port Blanc, all white as the name suggests, with a very friendly welcome and excellent steak.

It's all been lovely. But the biggest news of the week: on Saturday morning, Kevin and I ran 5k, the culmination of our Couch to 5k training programme! Jemima made us flags to cheer us on - mine had hearts on it, Kevin's was more of an action montage showing Daddy running, then finishing, then sitting down and having an ice-cream. And it was great! We both had a real sense of achievement - and then we did go and have an ice-cream to celebrate. Next challenge: keeping going...

We go home a week today. In my usual way, I've started feeling nostalgic for our trip before it's even finished. We talk about going home, and we are all looking forward to seeing family and friends, and our house; but we are all also very sad to be leaving. As Jemima says, "we love Mallorca!". One week left to enjoy it...

Jemima braving the freezing sea

Palmanova

Porto Pi





Daddy, Jemima and the flags at the finish of his 5k!

Fun at Port Adriano

Jemima showing off her Frozen clip-on earrings (bought with her pocket money)...





Sunday lunch 

Jemima flying her own home-made kite from our balcony

The beach!

A mountain(-ish) ascent

There was not a sound anywhere, apart from the rustling of the leaves in the wind. Nor was there the path our guidebook had told us to expect. Or a phone signal. Hmmm.

Kevin and I were taking advantage of another beautiful day to do walk number 3 (the weather app keeps threatening a lengthy period of rain, so we are living each sunny day as if it's the last). So far we've started gently, with short, fairly flat routes. This time, the plan was to hike up a mountain. 

We drove north-west from Portals Nous towards Andratx past the almond blossom fields, which are coming along nicely. Our destination was the pretty little village of S'Arraco, or rather its cemetary, where the walk started. After transversing the village twice, we finally found it, just where the book said it would be. And there, as stated, was a little lane that soon turned into an earthen path winding through countryside.

After passing a single house just behind the cemetary, there were no other signs of life - no houses, no dogs, no people; just an overgrown path through undergrowth. But the directions were good (turn left at the ruined stone hut etc), and the route was surprisingly easy to find. Until it wasn't.

The problem was where to cross the stream bed. Apparently it would be marked by a cairn (a little stone pile like the ones we found on our pirate path from Cala Pi - I feel so appreciative towards previous walkers who have bothered to make these unobtrusive but massively helpful signposts). We walked, and walked; but found nothing. So should we follow our current path to who knows where? Or should we go back, and see if we can find the one we've missed?

I voted heavily for retracing our steps - I like following instructions, so wanted to do what the book said; and I also felt anxious about venturing into the unknown, despite Kevin's amazing sense of direction. So, bless him, back we went, and although we didn't find the crossing, we did find the onwards path. So having pushed our way (slightly painfully) through some thorn bushes to get to it, we stomped onwards. 

Up to this point, our journey had only contained minor ups and downs. From here, it was "increasingly steep" (as the book pre-warned). We ploughed on, up to the head of the gully (I didn't know what a gully was before this, but I can now tell you it's like the beginning of a little valley, before it splits - you learn something new etc...). 

And then it got serious. Kevin led the way up a very steep, rocky hillside, following a zigzagging route marked out with cairns - you couldn't even call it a path. Legs and lungs working hard, we kept on; and then we finally reached the top: a ridge, with the cliff falling steeply away below us down towards the sea, with the island Sa Dragonera lying straight ahead. Beautiful. 

We had a little sit down on a rock and enjoyed the moment. Not a sign of human existence either side of us, just lush greenery, bright blue sky, and dark blue sea. Plus two mountain goats who appeared on the rise to our left, looking down at us curiously from their precarious perch right on the edge of the ridge - Kevin got a bit worried they were becoming threatening, and might at any moment scramble down to headbutt us off the cliff...

And then it was back down the mountain again. (It actually turned out to be a hill - 55m too short to classify - but it felt pretty mountainous to us.) When we got to the stream bed, we discovered how we'd missed the crossing: we'd passed a small fallen tree, and hadn't thought much of it; but it turned out that the tree had fallen on top of the marker cairn and the crossing point. At least we found our way despite this.

And that was it for walk number 3. Back to the car, and a quick detour to buy some camping chairs for the beach before collecting Jemima (we ended up eating at the main shopping mall, and it was another case of more expensive, worse food than Chameli's). And then a repeat picnic on the beach in the afternoon sun, with Jemima frolicking in the waves; followed by chocolate ice cream in the marina before bath and bed. Kevin and I agreed later that that hike was about as intrepid as we want to be - neither of us aspire to be proper mountain climbers. But we are proud of our (mini) mountain adventure.

Leading the way through a variety of terrain 

You might be able to see the cairns that were our route markers either side of Kevin

The top!

Our mountain goat neighbours

The way down

Beach picnic

The Great Gumball Adventure, and beyond

It was a ruse of Kevin's, really. It was Saturday, our second day, and we'd had a quiet morning: I had Taken to my Bed (as Paul O'Grady says) feeling ill, a reaction to the weeks of build-up (as has happened on previous trips); so Kevin and Jemima looked after me a bit, which was lovely. Then after an early lunch, he persuaded Jemima that we needed to complete our Great Gumball Adventure. So off in the car exploring we went.

Searching for the gumball machine meant detours into all of the little villages and beach resorts south west around the bay of Palma. It was very quiet, obviously, but lots of places still had cafes open and Spanish people drinking coffee, wrapped up warm (still more fur). I thought I spotted a machine fairly early on, but - on a nudge from Kevin - kept quiet so that the mission could continue. 

We wound our way onto the headland of Torrenova and parked up for a walk down many steps to a beautiful deserted bay (Cala Falcó), then halfway back up we went exploring along a little path all around the headland. Jemima loved it; she and Daddy led the way (Daddy between Jemima and the steep drop), and she was so excited about our intrepid path-finding "where no-one else has ever been before". 

Back to the car, then another stop at steps down to Cala Vinyes - another pretty beach, surrounded by a slightly down-at-heel residential area with a big children's playground, which Jemima enjoyed. And we ventured into the ghost town of Magaluf - a lovely beach lined with empty apartment buildings, and shuttered Irish pubs, lap dancing clubs and Indian restaurants (there are a LOT of Indian restaurants round here, more than any other type by a mile). It was strangely peaceful, without a soul to be seen, but we enjoyed imagining the contrast come the summer months.

Finally, we felt it was time to achieve our mission, so we found our way back to that first gumball machine. Jemima was thrilled, and she and I both enjoyed putting the money in and turning the ratchet-y handle - more so than the actual gumballs, which were both disgusting, and a choking risk. But the Great Gumball Adventure had reached its happy conclusion, and we'd had a lovely afternoon exploring too. 

Back at home, we dropped the car off then wandered back to our favourite pintxos stall at the marina Christmas market. It was much busier - Saturday early evening had brought out the crowds - but as now-regulars we were allocated one of the reserved tables. More amazing ham, mini burgers, fishy/crab mixture, plus wine (and some free Haribos for Jemima from the stall owner), all in the evening sun. It was to enjoy moments of sunshine like this that we decided on this trip; and it was wonderful.

Sunday dawned not so sunny. Rainy, in fact. So a trip to the giant supermarket was on the agenda, to stock up on vital missing items: a spatula, car seat and a scooter for Jemima amongst them. It was in the main shopping centre, Porto Pi, ten minutes from us - very much like any other shopping centre, except for the travelator-style ramp/escalators, so that you could take your supermarket trolley on them. Then, shopping done, and after our sushi lunch (the same chain as in the Bury St Edmunds' Waitrose, amusingly), it was time to take the new scooter for a spin.

Back to the marina, where the smooth jetties for the various yachts/ super-yachts/ mega-yachts were perfect scooting ground. Kevin had hurt his back just before we went out, so it fell to me to keep up with Jemima (preventing her scooting happily into the Mediterranean). The sun had come out, and the marina was full of Sunday lunchers and afternoon promenaders (around which we weaved). And then a final trip to our pintxos stall for dinner - this was the last day of the market, sadly. I told them we'd miss them.

And that was it - our first Mallorcan weekend. So far, so good - great, in fact. Better than we could have imagined. However, the real test of our trip's success would come tomorrow: Jemima's first day at her new school...

Cala Falcó

Cala Vinyes

All kitted out...

Our favourite stall!