Majorca for the first time

Today we both made breakfast! Result! Jean was better, though still not fully recovered. A reasonable night's kip always helps. As does absolutely glorious weather all day. Breakfast itself was a bit chaotic, as the waitress, although charming, seemed to keep on losing our orders. No matter - we got through it and planned to drive to Soller, a nearby historic town which had been talked up a fair bit, but also was the starting point for a vintage train ride down to Palma. The usual problem - parking. Really stressful. Two central car parks were absolutely rammed, with cars cruising around looking for spaces. We eventually found a space not too far away, for which we paid and displayed, but must have spent at least half an hour just looking. Set off into the town centre, stopping on the way for a coffee and comfort break. Came into the main square which sported another bloody great cathedral. We resolved to visit this later, but meanwhile found our way to where the ticket offic...

Most unfortunately, the superb meal we ate last night had a devastating effect on Jean, who spent much of the night being violently sick. We think it was probably some shrimps she ate. As a result, we had a bit of a lie-in and did not partake of breakfast. On reporting this to Reception, the lady there was horrified, but could not have been more helpful. She identified a pharmacy in the nearby town of Alaro which was open on a Sunday. She even phoned them to tell them I was coming. So the next stage was to hie me to said pharmacy to get the Spanish equivalent of Dioralyte. Thank God, once again, for Google Maps. Drove along some very narrow streets to get there, but I found it without too much difficulty. Next challenge was parking. Finally found a spot about a quarter of a mile away. Not sure how legal it was, but I got away with it - I think. The pharmacy was actually very posh in a rather rundown town. The very nice lady behind the counter spoke perfectly adequate English, s...

Checkout from the Secrets Hotel Mallorca Villamil wasn't until midday, so yet another leisurely breakfast and plenty of time to finish packing. Decided to drive via two places that had been recommended by the tourist office in Peguera - Calvia and Es Capdella. However, neither proved to be particularly inspiring and so we pressed on in glorious sunshine. The trip was supposed to last about an hour, but due to some satnav bungling by yours truly, it took nearer an hour and a half. The hotel we are staying at - the Finca Son Palou - was also quite hard to get to, and once again Google Maps well and truly came up trumps. Very, very narrow, twisty and rough path up to a most extraordinary converted farmhouse that was used to make olive oil as long ago as the fifteenth century. It's in a tiny village called Orient - apparently it contains no shops, a few houses, some restaurants, and that's about all. More pictures later. It was also difficult to determine where the recept...