July 28 - August 1, 2014, enjoying Mallorca with Jan and Jim Davies
On other days we have tried to get a flavour of the variety of places and activities of Mallorca. We have shopped at the Santa Catalina Mercado of course and eaten at some excellent restaurants and cafés. Dinner has been at Forn (four storeys above the old bakery) in the centre of the old town of Palma, the Italian La Baranda near the Santa Catalina market and at Lucy Wang, a fabulous new restaurant at Puerto Portals. This is a Japanese/Med restaurant on the waterfront at the Puerto Portals marina, with a swinging young DJ, very good-looking waitresses and waiters and excellent food. Some of our favourites were the Yakitori chicken on skewers, the ceviche of lobster with a perfect lemon-based dressing, the duck/mango/salad greens with a mild chili sauce and definitely the chocolate fondant with ice cream (which we all ordered and did not mind waiting for). The most interesting part of eating at Puerto Portals is not the setting with so many huge motor yachts nor the range of restaurants and ritzy shops, but it's the opportunity to people watch - it is quite remarkable to see so many beautiful people in one place.
We have also eaten well on Dream Catcher III, especially the night we had marinated and barbecued quail served with our own version of a type of ratatouille - baby cream-coloured eggplants (the size of a large grape), cooked in a pan with olive oil and cherry tomatoes of various colours and some sliced red onion. This vegetable dish was magnificent and I wish we could buy such baby eggplants at home.
Lunch out has mostly been at one of the Cappuccino cafés, where we especially like the gazpacho (and their free wifi!) and at the cafe at the magnificent store, Rialto Living.
Our drives have included a trip to the very pretty village of Valledemossa and then on to Deia where we had tea and almond cake on the terrace of La Residencia Hotel and then a wander along the port cafés of Port de Soller. Today we drove to Port d'Andratx for Jan and Jim to get a sense of some of the beautiful harbours of Mallorca.
We have walked around the old parts of Palma, along the stone paved alleys, past the huge timber doors with the courtyards inside, and were impressed with the Arab baths built hundreds of years ago to provide a sauna for the wealthy Moors. The original fish market, restored to its former glory as a Gothic style building, is an absolute stunner with it's extremely high vaulted ceilings, marble floor, enormous windows with stone steps for seating, extraordinarily thick and huge front doors and ornate corner doors. It's a credit to Mallorca that someone has taken the trouble to preserve such a precious building.