Mallorca

We have been enjoying our time back in Mallorca, with beautiful sunny days and warm nights. Mallorca has certainly not closed down like the islands we have just left and there are plenty of tourists and locals out and about. So on Thursday night we were only able to sit at the bar of La Boveda, a famous tapas restaurant in the old town of Palma. That soon changed when Mark Durham (one of the guys who had just helped us bring the boat back to Mallorca), his wife Charlie, brother-in-law Sean and nephew George arrived and had a reservation for a table for 6. What a coincidence to see Mark as we had not met him until the boat delivery and we were fortunate to join his table because tapas is the style of food best eaten with a group in order to try lots of items from the menu. We enjoyed the grilled dates wrapped in bacon, grilled tiny green peppers, ham croquettes, tiny lamb cutlets and even some steak with chips to satisfy the hunger of a teenage boy. La Boveda is in a charming old stone building with huge semi-circular windows, inside walls painted white and a grand dark timber balcony where all of the wine is stored. We chose A2, a medium bodied easy-to-drink Spanish red, and an excellent guitar player and singer added to the pleasure of the night.

On Saturday we drove around Cala Fornells and Peguero, an area not far out of Palma, on the south west shore where we had not explored before. Cala Fornells is definitely upmarket with extremely attractive villas and houses built up the steep hills in a fabulous Spanish architectural style. Terracotta roof tiles in the round half-pipe shape, cute chimney pots, mostly to capture fresh air I would think, with pointed lids sitting above them, and walls painted pastel colors and made even more beautiful by the various colors of bouganvillias climbing over them. The bay beneath looks like a perfect spot to drop anchor some time next summer.

On the other hand Peguero is an ugly German tourist town even though it is built around a beautiful long and wide sandy beach. It's ghastly to see such an area spoiled by a long road of tourist shops and tourist cafes, surrounded by ugly rectangular building blocks. Thank goodness that this type of "development" is limited to relatively few areas of Mallorca.

We stopped off to walk around the marina at Puerto Portals, where there is an extremely tasteful area of top-notch restaurants and classy shops. We discovered that Spoon included some Asian style specials on their menu so we drove the short distance back to the boat to change and returned for dinner.

Sunday was a very special day as we drove to a hilltop restaurant above Alaro to have lunch with Bill and Mark and their families plus Johnny. Alaro is a pretty town only about 25 minutes north of Palma in the area where there are hundreds of almond and olive trees and is on the eastern side of the fabulous Tramanatana mountain range that stretches along the west coast of the island. Es Verger restaurant is about 30 minutes drive above Alaro, along a pot-holed road (more like a goat track) with many hairpin bends, and further up a walking track are the ruins of a 15 C castle. The restaurant is famous for its lamb that is roasted in a woodfire oven, but the view looking up at the two granite mountains and the view looking down at the valley as we drove up the narrow track made the trip even more worthwhile. It must all be even more spectacular in the spring when the almond trees are in blossom.

Of course we enjoyed Es Verger, even if the waiters never smile, and most of us did have the lamb shoulder although there were other roasts to choose from. All are served with small roasted potatoes and salad and there are 3 house wines to select from - red, white and rose. Our group also had a couple of bowls of the special hot alcoholic drink made with goodness knows what! I drove home!

We returned to Palma via Orient, the most gorgeous little village in the next valley towards the coast. They say that only 30 people live there but we discovered 3 restaurants and a hotel that we would love to return to. The rest of the trip was through such stunning countryside that Greg decided he would like to live here - if he had to leave Australia. We didn't care about the road with hairpin bend after hairpin bend because I wanted to drive slowly anyway to make the most of the scenery.

Since then we have been packing and sorting out things on the boat. We have eaten on board but tonight we returned to one of our favorite restaurants, Forn, where the highlights of the meal were the entree of calamari with a very light sauce of honey, mint and ginger and the dessert of strawberries filled with creme brulee.

Only a couple of days to go and there are still many places I would like to go on this island. Just as well we are returning next year.
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