Port de Sóller

Ok so we're starting fall behind a little, and much as I would like to point the finger elsewhere I just have to man up, take it on the chin and admit that the blame for this falls squarely on Jack and Laura's shoulders. Seriously, how are we supposed to sit at home morosely grinding out a blog if they insist on being entertaining? No matter, we're in the home stretch now so, like someone who can't believe their phone battery is really dead, we will press on regardless. Repeatedly.

So Mallorca was almost pre-ordained as a destination for us, as we'd been thinking about Spain for a few years (Barcelona was put in place later), our friends David and Kerri had recently been and highly recommended it, and then to top it off Jack and Laura got invited to a wedding there as we were planning where we might all meet on this trip. So clearly we had to go.

Leaving aside the previously chronicled Vueling incompetence and the failures of our arranged drivers to materialise at their appointed hour at either end of that flight from Barcelona to Palma, our first glimpses of the Port when we finally arrived were magical, as was the view from our apartment.

Not hard on the eyes

Gerri says she knew this place was meant to be, as we got supplies from the supermarket on the way to our house, the limes were green and fresh and the gin was 9 euro a bottle. And in the house when we arrived were already 2 half full bottles of gin left by previous guests. Not to mention the "Dennis the Menace" book on the bookshelf. No relation.

Our pad (top two floors)

Tara skipping joyfully down the street

So what did we do? Well here's a sample:

Eating and drinking

Eating and drinking

Drinking and eating

Of course that wasn't all. Jack and Laura were in a hotel so we had them over a couple of times for, er, eating and drinking!

Laura yearns to be a pirate

Magic tricks in between eating and drinking

It's hard to find much not to love about this place, but I'm not that easily deterred. Since the middle of our stay at Lago d'Orta I had been having trouble sleeping. The awful beds we had in Barcelona had helped this along, so that by the time we arrived in Mallorca I had basically not slept for a week or more. Overjoyed to find a comfortable bed in our house the day we arrived I had a reasonable night's sleep for the first time. So what were the chances that on the second night, the sleepy town of Port de Sóller would have an all night rock concert and dance party outdoor in the marina not far from our house? Roughly 100% as it turns out, and imagine my joy. So avoid June 29 if you're not inclined to lie awake the entire night (it finished around 6am).

Oh, and possibly to counterbalance the beauty of the town, we did notice it was populated with a large number of very mangy cats.

After a week of our normal apathetic touristic approach (eating and drinking aside) we finally got around to doing something exciting, thanks to Laura organising a boat for half a day.

We're on a boat

The coastline around the Port was spectacular, and we stopped in a couple of places to swim in the clear waters of the med. It was an awesome experience and made us realise we really ought to get out and do a few touristy things every now and then.

So that was Mallorca. We never really mastered "can i pat your dog" in Spanish. But we did master "another drink" and "the bill please". What more do you need? On to London!