Getting some winter sun in Mallorca, Spain COMPLETED - Page 26 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Side note: If you ever get a chance, a visit to Menorca is well worth it. A much smaller island, but the area around the port of Majon is beautiful. There are also many very old ruins within easy driving distance. We were lucky enough to be there during one of the festivals where they ride large horses through the center of town - and young men race out to touch the horses - dangerous but very exciting.
Just catching up again. Wow you got some amazing photos of the inside. Such a beautiful place. I would go NUTS in there taking pictures too. I don't mind the no flash rule either. I prefer it actually!
That party town looked interesting. Does that hotel reopen during the popular months then?
Loved the palm tree lined roads in Palma! Quite amazing.
The cathedral all lit up at night must have been quite a sight and I'm sure you could just stare at it for hours and take it all in!
The photos inside the cathedral are beyond belief. I've visited many cathedrals in Europe over the years in my travels and the sights inside seem to be some of the best I've seen. Especially, the stained glass. WOW!
Such a contrast in your little tour of the area and the various towns. Like those of the harbor!
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Magaluf was so different from the areas in Palma that you all had previously explored. Not attractive one bit, and I agree with it being depressing. The upscale area did look much nicer.
Glad you didn't spend much time in Magaluf. I never understood that kind of vacation! The upscale resort town looks really nice, but I think I'd go for someplace between the two extremes. There's a lot of variety on the island.
There certainly is. I think it's a place with something for everyone.
Side note: If you ever get a chance, a visit to Menorca is well worth it. A much smaller island, but the area around the port of Majon is beautiful. There are also many very old ruins within easy driving distance. We were lucky enough to be there during one of the festivals where they ride large horses through the center of town - and young men race out to touch the horses - dangerous but very exciting.
I'll certainly keep it in mind. My guidebooks tended to cover both and the photos of it did look stunning.
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Just catching up again. Wow you got some amazing photos of the inside. Such a beautiful place. I would go NUTS in there taking pictures too. I don't mind the no flash rule either. I prefer it actually!
That party town looked interesting. Does that hotel reopen during the popular months then?
I don't know, but I suspect not, as it looked to be in such a bad state. There was no sign of anyone doing any work on it and it looked as if it was closed for the long term, with fencing around it. Maybe they'll demolish it?
Loved the palm tree lined roads in Palma! Quite amazing.
The cathedral all lit up at night must have been quite a sight and I'm sure you could just stare at it for hours and take it all in!
Oh I certainly could've done!
Quote:
The photos inside the cathedral are beyond belief. I've visited many cathedrals in Europe over the years in my travels and the sights inside seem to be some of the best I've seen. Especially, the stained glass. WOW!
I'd agree with that. It's certainly one that stands out a lot more than most.
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Monday 13 January – part five: now how ironic is this?
We headed over to the Carrefour that we’d visited on Saturday, as we’d decided that we’d come here to get some of their wonderful looking sushi for lunch, so in we went. We bought what we needed (don’t worry – photos and details coming up when we eat it! ), and headed off again.
We were heading towards the airport, but we needed to find a petrol station first. I set the GPS off, and it took us about a mile out of our journey, into a place that had a massive line, and by massive, I mean it was practically off the forecourt. We were just thinking how stupid it was to wait in line here, and I was about to suggest finding another petrol station, when Mark noticed cows in the field behind the car washing facilities here. Yay!
As he said, how ironic is that? We travel through goodness knows how much countryside, and then we find them in the outskirts of Palma in a field behind a petrol station. You really couldn’t make this up! At least I can say that I’ve now seen Mallorca moos to add to my long list!
Mark noticed a petrol station on the other side of the road, which of course was a lot more expensive, but what the heck? It was also attendant operated. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since someone actually filled up our car for us, so that was a nice treat. All paid up, we headed off, and were soon back on the motorway, this time heading for the airport.
We headed in to drop off the rental car, although we had a bit of a wait to get in, as apparently you have to position yourself just right for the barrier to go up to let you in, something the car two ahead of us couldn’t quite fathom out.
We emptied the car, checking we hadn’t left anything behind, then we followed the signs for departures. This was the view as we walked into this area.
Mark asked if I wanted to take the elevator or the escalator, and I told him it was his choice, as he had the big case, and unsurprisingly, he went for the elevator.
We got off at the fourth floor, and headed off across the walkway into the main terminal building.
When we got here, it was a bit confusing, as you then have to go downstairs a level to check-in, which didn’t make much sense. It only works properly if you have no hold luggage with you, as then you can walk straight from here through security.
Having figured that out, down we headed, and checked in our one case. We had to demonstrate that we could get our smaller bags (a handbag in my case and Mark’s rucksack) into our larger carry-on cases, both of which we did with no issue at all. They certainly seemed to be a lot hotter here on this than they’d been at Gatwick.
We headed back upstairs to go through security, and were a bit shocked to see just two machines to scan your boarding passes. It was fine now, as there were maybe a dozen of us in total going through security, but I dread to think what it would be like in the height of summer. I hope this is just a test, with many, many more of these to be added in before summer arrives.
That done, we cleared security, and goodness, if you think TSA can sometimes be rude, you should try this lot. Customer service was really not in their vocabulary, and they were pretty unpleasant.
We walked through the obligatory duty free store (they must have taken the idea from Gatwick, or maybe Gatwick nicked it from them? ), and I found this guy!
Then once through there, we headed off to terminal C. It was a bit surreal, as the airport signs said it was 11 minutes’ walk, yet we turned the corner, and literally about 100 yards on, there was a sign for McDonald’s, which is in terminal C, saying it’s four minutes walk.
Before we cleared passport control, we decided to have our lunch, which consisted of prawn rolls for me…
… California rolls for Mark…
.. and this set of dessert rolls, made up of kiwi and mango. It was very different, but also very nice.
That done, I had a check to see whether this McDonald’s sold macaroons, and sadly they didn’t , so out of luck, we headed through passport control, and up to gate 61.
Look at how deserted this airport was again!
We were amongst the first people there, and grabbed seats. When the EasyJet reps turned up, it was clear they were going to be much more firm on hold luggage, I guess because as far as we could see once we boarded, it was a full flight. They walked around all of us seated there with a box, checking that our stuff would go inside, and they did with no problem.
For anyone else who turned up after that process was carried out, then they had to demonstrate that their bags would fit in the boxes they had set up. Most did, but some didn’t, which gave Mark quite a laugh watching them. From what we could see, if your bag fitted, it was guaranteed space in the hold, which is fair enough. We couldn’t quite work out the process if your bag didn’t though. I thought that it would automatically end up in the hold, but we saw one guy whose rucksack was way too big, yet we saw him carrying it down to the plane. We can only assume he paid extra to have it with him. And as we sat on board, waiting to depart, I clearly saw the last four passengers all have their hold luggage taken off them, I assume because the plane’s overhead lockers were already full?
Sadly, the usual thing happened that often happens on flights (apart from Southwest, because they understand how to do boarding properly! ) and everyone started to mill around, although they never really made a line, they just thronged around. It wasn’t the greatest idea, as it actually blocked people who were still trying to come into the gate area.
Almost as soon as our plane landed, 10 minutes or so late, we were called up, and as we were sitting near the boarding area, we were in front of many of the idiots who’d stood up earlier to just mill around. I didn’t feel bad about it, as I couldn’t see any semblance of a line, I could just see a throng of people.
We headed downstairs, and then stood there for ages, waiting for the passengers from our plane to disembark. My goodness, we both had the same thought – has it got a lot colder over the last couple of days in London, because I tell you people were so bundled up when they came out of there.
Finally, everyone was through, and we were let down to the ground level. You might remember I said about the ridiculous system of getting on to a bus to get to our plane when you could easily walk it? Well, it gets better. This time, we were literally outside about 20 yards from the plane, but we had to walk down to the bus, then it had to take a completely torturous route over to the plane. I dread to think how much all this costs, rather than just letting you walk over there to a stairway that’s waiting for you? Crazy!
When we got on the bus, Mark said (in his words), he was going to “chance it” and stand on the other side of the bus. Well, of course, that was the side that we got off, so he was way ahead of me, except who was holding both the boarding passes? Yes, that didn’t work out too well…
We finally boarded, with him complaining that the overhead lockers would already be full. Well, they weren’t, so that worked out absolutely fine.
I have to say here full kudos to EasyJet here. Considering the previous flight was late, and only arrived at 3:20pm, we were taxiing back at 4:00pm, which is the time we were supposed to be taking off, so that wasn’t bad going.
I didn’t get any photos, as literally it started to rain just as we were on the plane. I guess those dark skies we’d seen earlier were finally delivering the rain they had threatened. Anyway, you wouldn’t have got much out of me, as we were in the clouds almost as soon as we took off. As so often happens with these things, above the cloud, it was an absolutely beautiful day. If only we could have weather like this with brilliant sun throughout the winter, life would be so much easier.
It was about an hour into the flight when they came round with food and drink. Mark got some water, olives and 7UP free, while I opted for a much more eclectic selection, getting some water, some rose wine and some shortbread. I did warn you! So long as I didn’t put the rose wine together with the shortbread, it was all fine.
As we flew along, the sun set, and then it became darker and darker, until it was night time by the time we came into land, so no photos again.
When we got on the ground, it felt as we taxied for ages, seeing parts of the airport I’d never seen before. We finally got to our gate, but unbelievably, although we exited via the walkway, we then had to walk downstairs to catch a bus. Good grief, it’s got to be 20 or 30 years since I last had to do this in London Gatwick or Heathrow. I wouldn’t have minded so much, but it was tipping down with rain, and really windy – not a nice welcome back to the UK at all. Neither of us had hoods on anything we had with us, as we knew the forecast for Mallorca was going to be dry, and then we’d be inside when we got home.
Finally we got to the building we were going into, but the bus driver had to get out, and open up the doors of the building, before she could let us off. You really couldn’t make it up.
Both of us wanted a restroom, but all we saw was a disabled one – there wasn’t one until after we cleared passport control, which I thought was a bit unfair. Thank goodness we were able to just walk through, but what happens if there is a line? As I say, not exactly fair…
Restrooms visited, we headed downstairs to baggage claim, and Mark did a dash to rival anything Usain Bolt’s ever done, as he saw our case about to go back out through the back again.
That retrieved, we headed out, this time picking the EU arrivals customs channel. The last time we came back from the EU, we picked the “nothing to declare” channel, and immediately got tugged and asked where we’d come from. The guy was so disappointed when we told him, but I didn’t want to play that game again.
We called meet and greet parking, and headed outside. We had about a five minute wait in the freezing cold (good grief, I didn’t think Mallorca was that warm, but it was positively tropical, compared to this! ), then our car was back with us, and we were on the road. Thankfully, given that it was rush hour, we had a very smooth drive home, and Mallorca was just a happy memory, like so many other vacations…
The weather today was cloudy with some sun and temperatures in the low 60s. The best thing today was exploring the interior of the cathedral. The worst thing today was coming home to wet and cold weather. Today we tried going to Port d’Andratx And the result was it was a beautiful place, and very peaceful. The most magical moment today was first walking into the cathedral.
Glad for a nice final day and what an unusual cow sighting! I'm surprised the aiport is so big. Not sure what I expected but not that. Embarassing, but before my Med cruise, I'd never heard of Mallorca. It ended up being one of my favorite places. I've love to go back - thanks for sharing your trip
Airports pain my pet peeve nerve to no end. Between the unnecessarily circuitous routes, incorrect signage, and passengers bunching around for no reason whatsoever ... seriously?! How long have they been at this and seem to learn nothing.
My favorite is when they announce boarding for group A, then ... well if you wait for group B etc you will still be standing there today. Folks mash up and then I guess the agents give up?
And in Honolulu we walked to the verrry last terminal for our flight where there was a tiny little sign on the restrooms that they were being renovated and the nearest one was behind us , wayyy behind us. It might have been nice to know that BACK there!
(pardon my rant )
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I've visited many cathedrals in Europe over the years in my travels and the sights inside seem to be some of the best I've seen. Especially, the stained glass. WOW!
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), and headed off again. 
At least I can say that I’ve now seen Mallorca moos to add to my long list! 
), and I found this guy! 
, so out of luck, we headed through passport control, and up to gate 61. 
and some shortbread. I did warn you! 
), then our car was back with us, and we were on the road. Thankfully, given that it was rush hour, we had a very smooth drive home, and Mallorca was just a happy memory, like so many other vacations… 
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