Tuesday, 18th June - Cap de Formentor and North East Majorca
As we knew we had some distance to drive, we had a relatively early breakfast and set off down the mountain in the car, in glorious sunshine once again. A decent night's sleep was had by both.
Uneventful, and at times rather boring, drive along mostly main roads, until we started up towards Formentor on the peninsula at the north-eastern tip of the island. I have to say, Majorca is a lot bigger than I originally thought. The road became narrow and twisty once again, with coachloads and cars galore on the way down. Very slow progress and quite stressful.
To my surprise, we were stopped about 11 km from the Cap itself, were told to park and then take a bus up to the Cap. I had had no inkling that this was to happen, but park we did and get the bus we did, paying 1.50 € each for the privilege.
A fairly hairy bus ride ensued - very bendy with loads of cyclists making the journey more hazardous. Once again, this is one of the "iconic" cycle rides of Majorca and I do get why. Beautiful scenery.
Eventually, we got off the bus outside the Cap de Formentor lighthouse, so we wandered around and took the inevitable pictures:
Settled down to a coffee on the terrace, when an obviously resident goat strolled casually in, causing considerable excitement:
She certainly milked the attention and got "well" fed as a result.
Time came to go back down again, so waited for the return bus. Only problem - too many people. We didn't get on that bus, so resigned ourselves to a half-hour wait in the hot sun for the next one.
When it arrived, I thought I'd got myself in pole position for early embarkation. How wrong I was. To my intense annoyance and disgust, the bus pulled up about three yards further on. Cue a rugby scrum to get on it - lots of unseemly pushing and shoving. Decorous queuing, Brit style, totally out the window. Finally managed to get on, but had to stand all the way back down. Not impressed - better queueing system needed, Majorca!
Got back to the car rather later than originally envisaged and managed to master the intricacies of getting out of the car park to the tune of 6.80 €.
Plan then was to have a look along the north-east coast, heading randomly for a place called Cala Ratjada.
Unfortunately, it was a very dull drive, passing through many rather dreary and industrial towns. However, the port area of Cala Ratjada was worth a brief walk around:
As time was getting on, we decided to head back to the hotel, as it was an hour and a half's drive (and a red wine tasting experience was on offer.....)
Again, a less than involving drive along major roads for the most part. It seems much of the middle of Majorca is flattish, very dry and full of olive groves with some vineyards interspersed. Easy enough, I suppose, and I'm beginning to like the Nissan Qashqai as a car to drive quite a lot.
Got back in plenty of time for the red wine experience (Jean passed on this). It was once again conducted by the wonderful Laura, who'd done the white wine tasting thingy last week. Again, a bit amateurish, but good fun and three very different wines on offer, one of which was a Majorcan wine called 12 Volt. No, me neither, but it was very nice.
Thence to dinner in lovely weather, sitting on the terrace. As a main course, Jean had the steak that I'd had last night and I had the pork terrine, with a bottle of the aforementioned 12 Volt alongside. Super. Jean has obviously pretty much fully recovered......
Plan for tomorrow is to drive to Soller again, park up and take the vintage train down to Palma, look round the cathedral as a minimum, then decide whether we want to do anything further, as the return trip to Soller means that we only have a couple of hours in Palma.
Earlyish night, then. If we're sensible. Hah!
Uneventful, and at times rather boring, drive along mostly main roads, until we started up towards Formentor on the peninsula at the north-eastern tip of the island. I have to say, Majorca is a lot bigger than I originally thought. The road became narrow and twisty once again, with coachloads and cars galore on the way down. Very slow progress and quite stressful.
To my surprise, we were stopped about 11 km from the Cap itself, were told to park and then take a bus up to the Cap. I had had no inkling that this was to happen, but park we did and get the bus we did, paying 1.50 € each for the privilege.
A fairly hairy bus ride ensued - very bendy with loads of cyclists making the journey more hazardous. Once again, this is one of the "iconic" cycle rides of Majorca and I do get why. Beautiful scenery.
Eventually, we got off the bus outside the Cap de Formentor lighthouse, so we wandered around and took the inevitable pictures:
 |
| Menorca in the distance (I think) |
 |
| Far means lighthouse |
She certainly milked the attention and got "well" fed as a result.
Time came to go back down again, so waited for the return bus. Only problem - too many people. We didn't get on that bus, so resigned ourselves to a half-hour wait in the hot sun for the next one.
When it arrived, I thought I'd got myself in pole position for early embarkation. How wrong I was. To my intense annoyance and disgust, the bus pulled up about three yards further on. Cue a rugby scrum to get on it - lots of unseemly pushing and shoving. Decorous queuing, Brit style, totally out the window. Finally managed to get on, but had to stand all the way back down. Not impressed - better queueing system needed, Majorca!
Got back to the car rather later than originally envisaged and managed to master the intricacies of getting out of the car park to the tune of 6.80 €.
Plan then was to have a look along the north-east coast, heading randomly for a place called Cala Ratjada.
Unfortunately, it was a very dull drive, passing through many rather dreary and industrial towns. However, the port area of Cala Ratjada was worth a brief walk around:
As time was getting on, we decided to head back to the hotel, as it was an hour and a half's drive (and a red wine tasting experience was on offer.....)
Again, a less than involving drive along major roads for the most part. It seems much of the middle of Majorca is flattish, very dry and full of olive groves with some vineyards interspersed. Easy enough, I suppose, and I'm beginning to like the Nissan Qashqai as a car to drive quite a lot.
Got back in plenty of time for the red wine experience (Jean passed on this). It was once again conducted by the wonderful Laura, who'd done the white wine tasting thingy last week. Again, a bit amateurish, but good fun and three very different wines on offer, one of which was a Majorcan wine called 12 Volt. No, me neither, but it was very nice.
Thence to dinner in lovely weather, sitting on the terrace. As a main course, Jean had the steak that I'd had last night and I had the pork terrine, with a bottle of the aforementioned 12 Volt alongside. Super. Jean has obviously pretty much fully recovered......
Plan for tomorrow is to drive to Soller again, park up and take the vintage train down to Palma, look round the cathedral as a minimum, then decide whether we want to do anything further, as the return trip to Soller means that we only have a couple of hours in Palma.
Earlyish night, then. If we're sensible. Hah!
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