Thursday July 30 we explored more of the streets of the old town of Palma and were fascinated by our visit to one of the typical grand Mallorcan 18 C homes which is now open to visitors but still furnished as per life 50 - 100 years ago. Like many homes in old Palma the entrance is a heavy timber double door, where carriages used to enter the courtyard (these days the courtyards provide spaces for several cars). Servants used to live in the rooms at the ground level of the house. A grand staircase leads up to the main level of the home which is designed entirely around the open courtyard so you pass from room to room around that level, with the rooms having open or glassed-in balconies over the street and the courtyard. Most of the rooms were for entertaining of some kind, including a very dark sitting room for the ladies, but kitchen, scullery and pantry plus the master's bedroom and the one for his wife, including their bathrooms and dressing rooms, were also on this level. The third level was for children and more servants. It's easy to see why many of these places have been retained as family homes and how perfectly the others have been turned into apartments. The best thing is that they have been retained in their original sandstone structures and there is still a great deal of restoration taking place.
One particularly interesting aspect was the kind of room heating - low, round copper fire graziers with a central area scooped out to hold hot coals. One of the locals told us they would put them under tables for people to put their feet on the rims or they would place them in the centre of a room for people to sit around to keep warm. Apparently some country homes still use them but people are not as astute about how to use them properly so there are many burnt shoes!
Thursday night we had dinner on board (just chicken legs marinated in lemon juice, honey, soy sauce and garlic and barbecued plus salad plus strawberries and ice cream).
Friday July 31 we headed off to Port D'Andraxt and as usual had to motor into the breeze. We anchored in the outer harbour and swam in the clear violet blue water, perfect at 29 degrees C. As we watched the sun setting in the distance we motored to shore in the dinghy for dinner at Rocomar, one of the excellent harbourside seafood restaurants. Their crusty bread, aoli and olives were magnificent but we all really appreciated the wild sea bass baked in a thick crust of salt, which the waiter cuts away before filleting the moist fish. We were also served a mixture of baked vegetables - potatoes, zucchinis and carrots, which was a very pleasant change from salad. Mallorcan red as always - we haven't found one that we dislike.
It was a fairly peaceful night, but Greg and I witnessed another boat drag its anchor and float out a fair way before being rescued by guys from other boats (because there was no one on board), so Greg checked our position hourly and I was awake a fair bit of the night too. Port D'Andraxt is a beautiful place but a horrible anchorage. At least this time we didn't have the usual fleet of fishing boats zoom out at 5.00 am, causing wake that rocks the boat wildly for ages. Perhaps they don't fish on Saturdays.
Saturday August 1st: it is one of life's great pleasures to have breakfast in the cockpit on a sunny morning when anchored in a beautiful place, such as we did that morning. Then Greg motored us in to shore for a wander around the pretty town and a little bit of food shopping, including some excellent almond cake and ensaimada studded with fresh apricots for our afternoon tea.
(The ensaimada is a circular cake created by coiled sweet pastry, made from flour, sugar, yeast, eggs, water and lard. Some say the most important ingredients are the island's air and climate. They are still made in the traditional way, dating back at least 700 years, and are now awarded and protected by a Specific Designation, which guarantees the quality. They are made in family and individual sizes and are light and tasty, either for breakfast or at any time with coffee or tea.)
We had to head back to Palma early afternoon because we were going to a special concert that night and unfortunately the breeze was in the wrong direction again so we could only motor-sail. Our concert was to be at 9.30 pm at Bellver Castle so we made ourselves as glamorous as possible, but only had time for a quick pizza and salad at the restaurant across the road before heading off. Imagine our surprise when we realised that the reason why no one else was at the castle was because we had not looked carefully at the tickets - we were one night too early!
So that we didn't waste the night, especially all dolled up, we drove to old town to have a drink at Abaca, the famous extraordinary bar. As usual, our visitors were entranced and amazed at the opulence of the antiques and flowers and the fresh fruit piled high on the floor of the 300 year-old home.
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra