Palma is the capital and a major port city of Mallorca, one of the Balearic Islands, off the east coast of Spanish. Half the population of Mallorca lives in Palma (about 300,000). It is a big, bustling place, with most of the tourist action in the old part of town around the Cathedral. It is one of Europe’s major holiday destinations, a city of modern hotel chains and flashy shops, combined with the old architecture of the Old Town.We rented a car for the day and went exploring the island. First, we drove north to Validemossa, a beautiful ancient old mountaintop village.
Then we headed along the twisty, winding, mountainous coast road across the north coast of Mallorca. This rivaled the Amalfi coast, without all of the population.
We stopped down at a beach in Port Soller for a quick swim and lunch
and then continued on our drive. It took well over 2 hours of driving plus stops to reach the headland of Formentor, at the most northeastern point of the island. Jimmy had been here 40 years ago and remembered it to be beautiful so wanted to visit again. It was already 5pm when we arrived.
We went to a beautiful beach but unfortunately could not stay long as we had to be back on the boat by 8.30pm, and had a lot of driving to do on the return leg (although we were taking the main high way back, which we knew would be a lot quicker.)
and then continued on our drive. It took well over 2 hours of driving plus stops to reach the headland of Formentor, at the most northeastern point of the island. Jimmy had been here 40 years ago and remembered it to be beautiful so wanted to visit again. It was already 5pm when we arrived.
We went to a beautiful beach but unfortunately could not stay long as we had to be back on the boat by 8.30pm, and had a lot of driving to do on the return leg (although we were taking the main high way back, which we knew would be a lot quicker.)
Palma has a beautiful waterfront, with a huge marina, that has thousands of boats and hundreds of mega yachts. They say the nightlife along the waterfront starts at midnight and ends at sunrise! After dropping the rental car back in Palma, and starting our brisk walk back to the boat, we were surprised to bump into a couple we met 10 years ago, when we all sailed together through the Gulf of Aden and up the Red Sea to Egypt! They were still working on the same mega yacht, an old wooden classic design that was built 20 years ago. Too much catching up meant that we had to sacrifice our exercise walk back to the boat (got to keep trying to offset the food intake!!) and jump in a taxi, to avoid missing the boat!
