Honeymoon- Day 2 (4/20/2011)



Llucmajor Town Center



Well, Mallorca has yet to disappoint. We began the day in the small town of Llucmajor.  There was a small language barrier when I ordered, what I thought was tortilla española and ended up with egg sandwiches.  Unfortunately, Tony is not a fan of eggs, so his breakfast was bread.  Ultimately, we found the center of Llucmajor.  Imagine watching a movie where there was an open air food market in the center of a Mediterranean town composed of stone buildings and cobblestones; that is Llucmajor.  The town is famous for its shoe making.  Truly a village after my own heart.

While the town of Llucmajor is adorable, equally impressive is the countryside.  The landscape is marked by large grassy orchards, divided by low stone walls.  It is very charming.  On top of that, the poppies are in bloom now.  There are mild rolling hills that make the whole drive picturesque.  Unfortunately, the roads have no shoulders so we are unable to capture a shot.

From Llucmajor, we travelled to Santanyi.  This town is known for its fortress that rests in the center of town, but we arrived in the middle of a farmers market/flea market.  This town was bustling and driving the crowded, narrow streets was a nail biter.  Ultimately, we found a spot and, surprisingly, later found the car on the tiny little street where we parked.  The market in the center of Santanyi was very large and had a diverse collection offerings from jewelry to purses, clothing to tablecloths to blackmarket sun glasses and baseball caps.  By far the most striking part of the market was the produce.  I have never seen heads of lettuce this size.  They were bigger than our actual heads!  The sugar snap peas were longer than my fingers. (No cracks about my small fingers!)  Tony and I loved the Spanish cheeses at the market and the Jamon y Queso empanada may have been Tonys favorite food so far. 







Parc natural de Mondrago



After extracting the car from Santanyi, we went to the Parc Natural Mondrago near Porto Petro and got our first glimpse of the Mediterranean.  The pictures do not do it justice.  It was a bit breezy today, but very nice. 

Before heading to our hotel, we went to the Cuevas del Drach, underground caves with stunning stalagtites and stalagmites.  The tour ended with a chamber music quartet playing from a boat on the lake at the bottom of the cave.  It was lovely.  Unfortunately, Tony and I had both woken up at 4 a.m., so the music, in the dim light, sounded much like a lullaby.  We both almost nodded off.  

From there, it was off to our hotel in Sa Coma with the goal of taking advantage of the siesta.  (We were a little late for actual Spanish siesta, but we were so tired, we thought we could bend the rules.)  Tony had picked this hotel because of their highly acclaimed restaurant.  Sadly, we slept through their hours of operation. Mainland Spain may not come to life until after 10, but Mallorca keeps much more reasonable hours.  We did find one restaurant within walking distance- Pizzeria Salvator.  Despite the name, the menu was very extensive and we ended up getting a pretty tasty, pizza-free meal.  

The great excitement here has been the anticipation of the Copa del Rey, a soccer tournament for Spanish teams.  So, of course Pizzaria Salvator had the game on.  We watched Barcelona and Real Madrid battle it out in a restaurant/bar full of tourists.  (Madrid won.)  The commentators on the TV were speaking German and our menus were in English.  The locals were impressed that we came from the California and not England.  They kept asking us how we got there.   

 Despite sleeping through the afternoon, I am actually beginning to feel tired again.  There is hope that we will catch up to this time zone yet.