Spring in Spain: Crawling up Mallorca; Pushing Through Toledo
Apr 22nd, 2015, 05:16 AM
#22
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I am loving your report!!! We have cycled with Backroads and Trek Travel and I have looked at both of their Mallorca trips with a mixture of longing (the scenery, the food, the hotels!) and fear (the climbs, the hairpin turns!). Ultimately I decided on a yoga retreat in Mallorca and leave in 3 weeks - but I am hoping to incorporate some cycling into my week there (though admittedly I will miss The Van). I will be staying near Pollenca and look forward to reading about your time on that part of the island.
ps - have you read this http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/tr...sine.html?_r=0
ps - have you read this http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/tr...sine.html?_r=0
Apr 22nd, 2015, 07:56 AM
#23
lynnalan - We stayed near Pollenca for 2 weeks when our kids were quite small. lovely bathing beaches, and a good spot for doing day trips. I seem to remember that there is a nature or bird sanctuary nearby that might interest you.
I don't remember its being particularly flat though!
I don't remember its being particularly flat though!
Apr 22nd, 2015, 01:30 PM
#25
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lynnalan--I did a lot of birdwatching while I was there. The mountain ranges had great hawk/eagle watching; the Gorg Blau reservoir would have been better had the waterline not been so high; the shoreline was excellent.
My best resource was Steve West's excellent website: http://www.birdinginspain.com/
He has a good subcategory that includes maps: http://www.birdinginspain.com/birding-in-mallorca.html
I did not read any of the traditional cuisine stuff before we left. We did eat their sausage and a traditional tomato/honey spread at breakfast, plus the everpresent Spanish (potato) tortilla. In my next post, I add another dish onto the list, too.
I think I'll tag along for some quality yoga.
My best resource was Steve West's excellent website: http://www.birdinginspain.com/
He has a good subcategory that includes maps: http://www.birdinginspain.com/birding-in-mallorca.html
I did not read any of the traditional cuisine stuff before we left. We did eat their sausage and a traditional tomato/honey spread at breakfast, plus the everpresent Spanish (potato) tortilla. In my next post, I add another dish onto the list, too.
I think I'll tag along for some quality yoga.
Apr 22nd, 2015, 01:37 PM
#26
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<b> Next: Mountain Passes Not Be Me</b>
This was a “move day”—in more ways than one. We would be departing for another part of the island and another hotel.
More importantly for most of the people on the trip, it would be “mountain pass” day. Today’s rides along the Serra de Tranuntana would be the most demanding yet.
Me, I decided early to stay with the van. I saw that with the four options available to the group, the guides would be stretched beyond capacity without trying to find me on the road.
My husband, though, was quite happy cycling in the morning. The first part of the day took one through a string of small towns—Deia, Soller, and then Fornalutx--and he was dashing down expressos right and left. While waiting for most of the group to assemble in its main square, I got to walk around Fornalutx and just loved it.
Our guides had attached blinking lights to the back of all bikes and added lights to helmets at Fornalutx. It was tunnel time.
For those who did the long route of the day (52.7 miles with 5630 elevation gain), they would be spending 30 miles on route Ma-10—the “big ride” of Mallorca’s cycling offerings—with a nice six-mile uphill before one reached a tunnel. So supposedly, the “reward” for the climb was to get through the tunnel and to the “dry” side of the mountain range, where the weather would be miraculously clear.
So my husband likes hills. Did he do this? No way. The nice thing about getting older is that one can say, “If this were my last hour, would this be the stretch where I’d want my heart attack?”
He opted out, and quite a few of the really good cyclists did also. The real reason was that the temperature was dropping quickly, and the wind had picked up. Visibility was not poor, but it just wasn’t enough for persuade some of the others cyclists to go for it.
I’d say they made a wise choice. At the layout before the famous Tunel des Gorg Blau, we parked the van and looked to the other end. NO LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. Just fog.
I turned to my daughter and said, “Are you thinking the same thing as I—that this is a sci-fi time travel portal?”
I did serve a role: I distributed articles of my warm clothing to the now freezing cyclists pulling in for water and snack refills.
I was going to get out of the van at the loop stop on the bottom of the other side to do some birdwatching, but again, I could see that the guides were stretched WAYYY too thinly on the ground. I just did some watching from the laybys and called it a day.
Our lunch spot was PERFECT for this now chilly day. The Escorca Restaurant was lined with wood, had checkered tablecloths, and had SPACE HEATERS everywhere. Plus it had a resident goat who insisted on peering in the main window.
Again, our guide had arranged for really good “pick-me-up” food: good breads, salads, chicken—and a local speciality, Sopes Mallorquines, the Mallorcan soup/stew that is basically vegetables cooked over country bread. All felt good on the tummy.
Some of the guests continued onwards on their bike seats to our next hotel near Polenca, the San Brull. You know what I did.
<b>Next: There’s nothing like a Fire.</b>
This was a “move day”—in more ways than one. We would be departing for another part of the island and another hotel.
More importantly for most of the people on the trip, it would be “mountain pass” day. Today’s rides along the Serra de Tranuntana would be the most demanding yet.
Me, I decided early to stay with the van. I saw that with the four options available to the group, the guides would be stretched beyond capacity without trying to find me on the road.
My husband, though, was quite happy cycling in the morning. The first part of the day took one through a string of small towns—Deia, Soller, and then Fornalutx--and he was dashing down expressos right and left. While waiting for most of the group to assemble in its main square, I got to walk around Fornalutx and just loved it.
Our guides had attached blinking lights to the back of all bikes and added lights to helmets at Fornalutx. It was tunnel time.
For those who did the long route of the day (52.7 miles with 5630 elevation gain), they would be spending 30 miles on route Ma-10—the “big ride” of Mallorca’s cycling offerings—with a nice six-mile uphill before one reached a tunnel. So supposedly, the “reward” for the climb was to get through the tunnel and to the “dry” side of the mountain range, where the weather would be miraculously clear.
So my husband likes hills. Did he do this? No way. The nice thing about getting older is that one can say, “If this were my last hour, would this be the stretch where I’d want my heart attack?”
He opted out, and quite a few of the really good cyclists did also. The real reason was that the temperature was dropping quickly, and the wind had picked up. Visibility was not poor, but it just wasn’t enough for persuade some of the others cyclists to go for it.
I’d say they made a wise choice. At the layout before the famous Tunel des Gorg Blau, we parked the van and looked to the other end. NO LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. Just fog.
I turned to my daughter and said, “Are you thinking the same thing as I—that this is a sci-fi time travel portal?”
I did serve a role: I distributed articles of my warm clothing to the now freezing cyclists pulling in for water and snack refills.
I was going to get out of the van at the loop stop on the bottom of the other side to do some birdwatching, but again, I could see that the guides were stretched WAYYY too thinly on the ground. I just did some watching from the laybys and called it a day.
Our lunch spot was PERFECT for this now chilly day. The Escorca Restaurant was lined with wood, had checkered tablecloths, and had SPACE HEATERS everywhere. Plus it had a resident goat who insisted on peering in the main window.
Again, our guide had arranged for really good “pick-me-up” food: good breads, salads, chicken—and a local speciality, Sopes Mallorquines, the Mallorcan soup/stew that is basically vegetables cooked over country bread. All felt good on the tummy.
Some of the guests continued onwards on their bike seats to our next hotel near Polenca, the San Brull. You know what I did.
<b>Next: There’s nothing like a Fire.</b>
Apr 25th, 2015, 06:05 AM
#28
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annhig--You are always welcome on my next trip. I just hope you can drink your body weight in beer like I can. I will allow wine as your substitute
<b>There’s Nothing like a Fire</b>
If there was a theme for the week, it was the danger of fire. At Cap Rocat, the candle on a table in one trip guest couple's room fell over and set everything on the table on fire. The wife screamed, the husband came flying out of the shower, whipped off his towel, and beat the fire out.
Poor guy—not only did he lose a lot of his clothing, but whenever we other trip guests saw flames anywhere, we called him to be on alert and to be ready to strip down.
On this chilly evening at the <b>Hotel Son Brull</b> Crta. Palma- Pollença, km 49.9, 07460 Pollença +34 971 53 53 53 www.sonbrull.com , the management thought that lighting a fire in the bar’s fireplace would be a nice touch for our olive oil tasting. The chimney started smoking right away, and outside at the top of the chimney, two guests spotted bursting flames. We quickly looked for our personal “fire marshal” but the management decided calling the actual fire department would be a better idea.
Everything ended up OK. And the olive oil tasting went on.
<i>FYI, olive oil tasting/demos and winery tasting/demos have been a part of 60% of the cycling trips we’ve been on, no matter what the company. We find it to be interesting that be it Turkey, Slovenia, Spain, Italy or France, all countries claim to have superior olive oil or wine.
The BEST olive oil demo/tasting we ever had was on a VBT trip in Tuscany, and the second best was on a VBT trip in Andalusia. All others have paled in comparison. Our guides on this Mallorca trip tried to do a good tasting, but I’d say this was the ONLY category where the trip was a little less value that others we’ve been on. Hey, they were limited to Mallorcan olive oils, so the tasting itself had to be limited anyway.</i>
What was Hotel Son Brull like?
Peaceful.
It’s situated a couple of miles from Pollença. Surrounded by olive and cypress trees, this former Jesuit monastery was in ruins when a Mallorcan architect became convinced he could bring it back to life. It has been converted into 23 rooms, some of which are fantastic, and some of which are downright strange (see below). There’s a sort of Scandinavian tech feel to it, a feel all of us liked.
Rooms are arranged around an inner courtyard. Its olive mill and press still remain as the centerpiece of the very rustic hotel bar which runs on one side of the courtyard, but just outside the bar, an infinity pool now overlooks the hills and valley.
Some of the rooms apparently were sublime and well designed. My daughter’s/son-in-law’s and ours were not. So if you ever book here, do avoid Rooms 2 and 3. And from what I've found online, I guess Room 1 is also in the mix.
Why?
They all are a prime example of a POOR use of space and light. The architect really got it wrong.
Let me bolster my case. Here are some photos of Room 1 <b>courtesy of TripAdvisor</b>:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationP...c_Islands.html
http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationP...s.html#1462012
As you can see from those photos, one enters on the ground level to a little sitting area banked by a two-story window against which a floating staircase rises to the second level.
The bright bottom space is rather useless. The cramped and dark second level, visually open to the stairwell with a low glass railing, has just two bedside desk-type lights. That’s it. No other light.
Here's what happens:
The pendant light in the stairwell just lights the area BELOW the bed level. The two-story window via the glass railing actually means one cannot get dressed without showing off one’s body to persons outside. So to get dressed, one has to walk downstairs, close the curtain panels (no easy feat) and then dress in darkness.
Luckily, we travel with flashlights. We then dragged a floor lamp from the downstairs area upstairs. Those acts improved things enough to function. And the bathroom was really spacious, bright and nice.
So while I may be whining at full volume here, I know, we did NOT feel hard done to. We may not have loved our room, but we liked the facility and we liked the people who worked there a lot.
In fact the place was so great that I personally want it to be better. Do you guys ever want to say to someplace: "You are SO close to perfection, if only you would..."? I feel as though I should write management and say: “Just floor over the open stairwell to add privacy and room to the sleeping area level. Raise the pendent light! And for goodness sakes, add some other lighting to the bedroom area.”</b>
One other note: Please be aware that if you stay here, you should have a car unless you came to hike or cycle. This is not a beach-side or inner town property. Then again, if you have a cycle, the two lovely towns of Pollença and Port de Pollença are quite near you. Taxi service is available, too.
Our group had dinner at the hotel that night, and the food was quite good.
<b> Next: Pollença and Port de Pollença </b>
<b>There’s Nothing like a Fire</b>
If there was a theme for the week, it was the danger of fire. At Cap Rocat, the candle on a table in one trip guest couple's room fell over and set everything on the table on fire. The wife screamed, the husband came flying out of the shower, whipped off his towel, and beat the fire out.
Poor guy—not only did he lose a lot of his clothing, but whenever we other trip guests saw flames anywhere, we called him to be on alert and to be ready to strip down.
On this chilly evening at the <b>Hotel Son Brull</b> Crta. Palma- Pollença, km 49.9, 07460 Pollença +34 971 53 53 53 www.sonbrull.com , the management thought that lighting a fire in the bar’s fireplace would be a nice touch for our olive oil tasting. The chimney started smoking right away, and outside at the top of the chimney, two guests spotted bursting flames. We quickly looked for our personal “fire marshal” but the management decided calling the actual fire department would be a better idea.
Everything ended up OK. And the olive oil tasting went on.
<i>FYI, olive oil tasting/demos and winery tasting/demos have been a part of 60% of the cycling trips we’ve been on, no matter what the company. We find it to be interesting that be it Turkey, Slovenia, Spain, Italy or France, all countries claim to have superior olive oil or wine.
The BEST olive oil demo/tasting we ever had was on a VBT trip in Tuscany, and the second best was on a VBT trip in Andalusia. All others have paled in comparison. Our guides on this Mallorca trip tried to do a good tasting, but I’d say this was the ONLY category where the trip was a little less value that others we’ve been on. Hey, they were limited to Mallorcan olive oils, so the tasting itself had to be limited anyway.</i>
What was Hotel Son Brull like?
Peaceful.
It’s situated a couple of miles from Pollença. Surrounded by olive and cypress trees, this former Jesuit monastery was in ruins when a Mallorcan architect became convinced he could bring it back to life. It has been converted into 23 rooms, some of which are fantastic, and some of which are downright strange (see below). There’s a sort of Scandinavian tech feel to it, a feel all of us liked.
Rooms are arranged around an inner courtyard. Its olive mill and press still remain as the centerpiece of the very rustic hotel bar which runs on one side of the courtyard, but just outside the bar, an infinity pool now overlooks the hills and valley.
Some of the rooms apparently were sublime and well designed. My daughter’s/son-in-law’s and ours were not. So if you ever book here, do avoid Rooms 2 and 3. And from what I've found online, I guess Room 1 is also in the mix.
Why?
They all are a prime example of a POOR use of space and light. The architect really got it wrong.
Let me bolster my case. Here are some photos of Room 1 <b>courtesy of TripAdvisor</b>:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationP...c_Islands.html
http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationP...s.html#1462012
As you can see from those photos, one enters on the ground level to a little sitting area banked by a two-story window against which a floating staircase rises to the second level.
The bright bottom space is rather useless. The cramped and dark second level, visually open to the stairwell with a low glass railing, has just two bedside desk-type lights. That’s it. No other light.
Here's what happens:
The pendant light in the stairwell just lights the area BELOW the bed level. The two-story window via the glass railing actually means one cannot get dressed without showing off one’s body to persons outside. So to get dressed, one has to walk downstairs, close the curtain panels (no easy feat) and then dress in darkness.
Luckily, we travel with flashlights. We then dragged a floor lamp from the downstairs area upstairs. Those acts improved things enough to function. And the bathroom was really spacious, bright and nice.
So while I may be whining at full volume here, I know, we did NOT feel hard done to. We may not have loved our room, but we liked the facility and we liked the people who worked there a lot.
In fact the place was so great that I personally want it to be better. Do you guys ever want to say to someplace: "You are SO close to perfection, if only you would..."? I feel as though I should write management and say: “Just floor over the open stairwell to add privacy and room to the sleeping area level. Raise the pendent light! And for goodness sakes, add some other lighting to the bedroom area.”</b>
One other note: Please be aware that if you stay here, you should have a car unless you came to hike or cycle. This is not a beach-side or inner town property. Then again, if you have a cycle, the two lovely towns of Pollença and Port de Pollença are quite near you. Taxi service is available, too.
Our group had dinner at the hotel that night, and the food was quite good.
<b> Next: Pollença and Port de Pollença </b>
Apr 25th, 2015, 07:54 AM
#29
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<b> Next: Pollença and Port de Pollença </b>
After a very nice breakfast, the group headed out at dawn to cycle to the Cap de Formentor lighthouse. A favorite cycling route, the road to it simply becomes clogged with traffic of all sorts—cars, cycles and walkers—by 9 am, even this early in the season. Our guide said that within two weeks as the tourist season heated up, he would have to reroute the trip.
Again, although the weather was iffy, our first week in April made cycling routes ideal.
I stayed back at the hotel to go birdwatching. As I mentioned in a post above, I relied upon Brit-turned-Catalonian Steve West’s website for a lot of my information: http://www.birdinginspain.com/birding-in-mallorca.html.
I got a taxi shortly before noon for the 10- to 15-minute ride to the Port de Pollença to meet my family. The day was glorious, so much so that even with a chill, we were determined to eat outside at a less-than-wonderful facility with a fantastic view.
All family members reported that the cycle to the lighthouse had been lovely. They all also said that someone at some time was going to have to shut that road down to/from the lighthouse to vehicular traffic.
I mounted my cycle (the first time in 48 hours, I think) for the ride from the port town to the “real” town of Pollença. It was a lovely ride—and what a fun place to congregate at the end.
This town is ancient. It was founded by the Catalans in the 13th century away from the coast in an effort to avoid pirate attacks. It's the picture-perfect, cobblestoned-street, tiny window boxes type of town.
We cycled toward the Plaça Major, the central square, full almost to capacity with cyclists from everywhere in the world, and we plopped by one of the many outdoor cafés to start on beers.
This medieval town's real call-to-fame is the 365-step stairway right out of square leading up to a large 13th-century church, Esglèsia de Nostra Senyora dels Àngels (Our Lady of the Angels), which was built by the Knights Templar.
I wish I had done more research—I would have returned HERE for Good Friday, simply because this staircase is where a true Passion Play takes place. It must be so dramatic.
Because I had done basically zero cycling for the day, I was the only one of my family group who did the staircase. The steps are not steep, plus one can cheat when knees start hurting by going to the right to a side road.
After I descended (always more iffy for me than going up), we mounted our cycles and headed out of town via lovely side streets and bike paths to the hotel.
That night, we had our last dinner, a BBQ outside the hotel. The temperature, as it had all week, dropped dramatically after sunset, but the hotel and our lead guide had arranged for fleece blankets and it was lovely. I listened to owls and watched bats, dreamily content.
<b>Next: Our Last Day of Cycling</b>
After a very nice breakfast, the group headed out at dawn to cycle to the Cap de Formentor lighthouse. A favorite cycling route, the road to it simply becomes clogged with traffic of all sorts—cars, cycles and walkers—by 9 am, even this early in the season. Our guide said that within two weeks as the tourist season heated up, he would have to reroute the trip.
Again, although the weather was iffy, our first week in April made cycling routes ideal.
I stayed back at the hotel to go birdwatching. As I mentioned in a post above, I relied upon Brit-turned-Catalonian Steve West’s website for a lot of my information: http://www.birdinginspain.com/birding-in-mallorca.html.
I got a taxi shortly before noon for the 10- to 15-minute ride to the Port de Pollença to meet my family. The day was glorious, so much so that even with a chill, we were determined to eat outside at a less-than-wonderful facility with a fantastic view.
All family members reported that the cycle to the lighthouse had been lovely. They all also said that someone at some time was going to have to shut that road down to/from the lighthouse to vehicular traffic.
I mounted my cycle (the first time in 48 hours, I think) for the ride from the port town to the “real” town of Pollença. It was a lovely ride—and what a fun place to congregate at the end.
This town is ancient. It was founded by the Catalans in the 13th century away from the coast in an effort to avoid pirate attacks. It's the picture-perfect, cobblestoned-street, tiny window boxes type of town.
We cycled toward the Plaça Major, the central square, full almost to capacity with cyclists from everywhere in the world, and we plopped by one of the many outdoor cafés to start on beers.
This medieval town's real call-to-fame is the 365-step stairway right out of square leading up to a large 13th-century church, Esglèsia de Nostra Senyora dels Àngels (Our Lady of the Angels), which was built by the Knights Templar.
I wish I had done more research—I would have returned HERE for Good Friday, simply because this staircase is where a true Passion Play takes place. It must be so dramatic.
Because I had done basically zero cycling for the day, I was the only one of my family group who did the staircase. The steps are not steep, plus one can cheat when knees start hurting by going to the right to a side road.
After I descended (always more iffy for me than going up), we mounted our cycles and headed out of town via lovely side streets and bike paths to the hotel.
That night, we had our last dinner, a BBQ outside the hotel. The temperature, as it had all week, dropped dramatically after sunset, but the hotel and our lead guide had arranged for fleece blankets and it was lovely. I listened to owls and watched bats, dreamily content.
<b>Next: Our Last Day of Cycling</b>
Apr 25th, 2015, 08:12 AM
#30
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<b>Next: Our Last Day of Cycling</b>
We had another lovely breakfast, just not one at dawn. Our guides assured us we’d have time for a coffee at our cycling target, <b>Campenet</b>, to make it back in time to shower before we left the hotel.
They were right: even I had time to do it all. I had to skip the coffee in Campanet, a cute little town, but I did not mind. The weather again was just a perfect spring day. Our biking route from the hotel to Campenet square was beautiful, and not yet packed with other cyclists.
Because it was a Saturday, we had to expect other events going on in the locality. And sure enough, there was a local triathlon taking place, sharing part of our route with us. Goodness they had a great day for it.
Everyone made it back to the hotel with time to spare, sad that such a great trip had to end.
I complimented our guides again on their routing. Often the first and last days of trips are not rides worth remembering; on this trip, they were both lovely. What a great job they did.
We all stripped our bikes—and again, I have to complement our guides for their sheer organizational achievements. On foldable tables, they had set up categories for everything. Odometers, bags, bungees, you name it, had a specific box in which they could be placed. Plastic bags for personal clips, etc were on the table for the taking. I was willing to adopt these two people any day.
After we all had checked out, we had a poolside lunch of sashimi, fish tacos, fresh fruits, gazpacho and more. What a terrific way to end a lovely stay at this hotel.
We all ascended a shuttle bus to Palma. Our choices were a stop at the train station from whence we had started or the airport.
Our family group would have one more night together at the <b>Boutique Hotel Calatrava</b> in Palma.
<b>Next: A Perfect Ending to Mallorca: Boutique Hotel Calatrava and Simply Fosh</b>
We had another lovely breakfast, just not one at dawn. Our guides assured us we’d have time for a coffee at our cycling target, <b>Campenet</b>, to make it back in time to shower before we left the hotel.
They were right: even I had time to do it all. I had to skip the coffee in Campanet, a cute little town, but I did not mind. The weather again was just a perfect spring day. Our biking route from the hotel to Campenet square was beautiful, and not yet packed with other cyclists.
Because it was a Saturday, we had to expect other events going on in the locality. And sure enough, there was a local triathlon taking place, sharing part of our route with us. Goodness they had a great day for it.
Everyone made it back to the hotel with time to spare, sad that such a great trip had to end.
I complimented our guides again on their routing. Often the first and last days of trips are not rides worth remembering; on this trip, they were both lovely. What a great job they did.
We all stripped our bikes—and again, I have to complement our guides for their sheer organizational achievements. On foldable tables, they had set up categories for everything. Odometers, bags, bungees, you name it, had a specific box in which they could be placed. Plastic bags for personal clips, etc were on the table for the taking. I was willing to adopt these two people any day.
After we all had checked out, we had a poolside lunch of sashimi, fish tacos, fresh fruits, gazpacho and more. What a terrific way to end a lovely stay at this hotel.
We all ascended a shuttle bus to Palma. Our choices were a stop at the train station from whence we had started or the airport.
Our family group would have one more night together at the <b>Boutique Hotel Calatrava</b> in Palma.
<b>Next: A Perfect Ending to Mallorca: Boutique Hotel Calatrava and Simply Fosh</b>
Apr 25th, 2015, 09:31 AM
#31
In fact the place was so great that I personally want it to be better. Do you guys ever want to say to someplace: "You are SO close to perfection, if only you would..."?>>
I do sometimes, AZ, with varying results. A B&B in plymouth that I have stayed at quite a lot did not have a conveniently placed electrical socket for plugging in the hairdryer so that you could see yourself in the mirror while you dried your hair; the day I mentioned it, they fitted an extension to solve the problem.
Another place [more expensive] that I stayed once had a very dark landing which I thought was quite dangerous; I mentioned this tactfully on checking out and got a very dusty response.
I bet you can guess which one I went back to.
Thanks for your descriptions of Mallorca - we really liked this area and found more than enough to do in our 2 week stay.
I do sometimes, AZ, with varying results. A B&B in plymouth that I have stayed at quite a lot did not have a conveniently placed electrical socket for plugging in the hairdryer so that you could see yourself in the mirror while you dried your hair; the day I mentioned it, they fitted an extension to solve the problem.
Another place [more expensive] that I stayed once had a very dark landing which I thought was quite dangerous; I mentioned this tactfully on checking out and got a very dusty response.
I bet you can guess which one I went back to.
Thanks for your descriptions of Mallorca - we really liked this area and found more than enough to do in our 2 week stay.
Apr 25th, 2015, 09:36 AM
#32
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<b> A Perfect Ending to Mallorca: Boutique Hotel Calatrava and Simply Fosh </b>
Well, this day turned out to be just one of those days where we knew we were "living large"--so much so that we needed to start feeling really guilty. And it's one thing to spend money; it's another thing to feel as though you totally got FAR more than your money's worth out of it. I promise, I promise I will pay this forward.
I've already said that I thought this particular cycling trip was The Bomb in almost every way possible. We never in our wildest dreams expected our last day in Palma to surpass it.
After being dropped by our shuttle bus at the Palma bus/train station, we snagged a taxi to the <b>Boutique Hotel Calatrava</b> Plaça Llorenc Villalonga, 8, 07001 Palma de Mallorca +34 971 72 81 10 http://www.boutiquehotelcalatrava.com.
My husband and I would stay one night here before flying to Madrid as we made our way to Toledo; my daughter and husband would stay two nights before flying back through Madrid to the US.
The hotel was just perfect for us. We all said later we felt totally and ruinously cossetted.
Located at the base of Palma’s historic center, just a park across from the beach, this boutique hotel offered modern, wood-floored rooms within a historic structure. The front-desk associates were primed from the get-go to meet any need, any request. We all looked at each other as we waited for our rooms: was this real?
One service we did not need from the front desk was a reservation for that evening. As soon as I told them where we were headed, the two associates broke out into big smiles. "You did well, madame." Once again using thefork.com, I had reserved weeks before the Michelin-starred <b>Simply Fosh</b> for dinner. I had been keeping my fingers crossed that it would be good.
After checking in and with a bit of time on our hands, we explored the historic center of Palma a bit. The town was filled with visitors on this Easter weekend. Some shops were closing down on this Good Friday, but others were staying open. We meandered uphill a bit, zigzagging from square after square, finally heading indoors to a corner small local bar before heading back to the hotel.
Later on, a taxi took us to Simply Fosh, Carrer de la Missió, 7, 07003 Palma, Mallorca +34 971 72 01 14 www.simplyfosh.com. With its spare but so pleasant stripped-down interior, we felt as though we had just stepped from our hotel right into a sister restaurant.
Looking around the space, my daughter and I again reminded the guys that they had been against bringing jackets. Even though there were men in the place with shirtsleeves, the jackets dominated. But then again, it was not 80 degrees outside.
What to order. We had had bad luck recently with a tasting menu in New York (don’t get me started—I’m still trying not to write The-Mother-of-All-Nastygrams to the restaurant or place The-Mother-of-All-Bad-Reviews on Trip Advisor until my blood pressure lowers), but we have often felt that in the right place, tasting menus make the most of our dollar, acting less as a bill enhancer and more as a true showcase of the kitchen’s and the sommelier’s talents.
Here is our logic:
--Instead of ordering one or two wines that make no sense with the courses that everyone at the table has ordered, one can gets a variety of wines that enhance the taste of each course.
--And instead of totally "missing" with an entree one really doesn't like, one gets an opportunity to get a "hit" with the next one.
So we pondered. OK—it was not cheap. 78 Euros per person for the tasting menu we preferred (there was a cheaper tasting menu option BTW); 40 Euros per person for the wine pairing. But we looked at the cost of each entree on the a la carte menu, and we looked at the cost of two bottles of good wine and did the math. Hmm.
I called for a vote. All were in.
Best decision of the trip.
Our waiter, Michael, was a wonderful person who perfectly timed pouring the paired wine each dish. I thank him right now for making our last dinner together such a great experience in every possible way.
What did we eat? Our meal was similar to the one currently shown on their website:
--Salad of Smoked Eel, New Potatoes & Artichokes with Passion Fruit
--Foie Gras with Mango, Orange Blossom & Salted-Chocolate Bread
--Smoked Bomba Rice (the Spanish use this in paella) with Slow-Poached Egg, Iberian Ham & Black Truffles
--Fillet of Wild Sea Bream with Soller Prawns (regarded as some of the best in Spain), Chervil & Licorice
--Spiced Loin of Venison with Beetroot, Roasted Apple & Coffee Jus
Preserved Orange Cream with Hazelnut, Dukkah (an Egyptian spice mix) & Bergamot
Chocolate & Olive Oil Truffle with Raspberry-Red Pepper Jelly
I hope the above listing can even begin to suggest how great it all tasted. It was simply excellent.
We thanked Michael again, got into a taxi, returned to the hotel and said goodbye to my daughter and son-in-law. We thought we would not see them when we left in the early a.m. for a flight.
How wrong would we be.
<b>Next: US Airways Screws Up Again</b>
Well, this day turned out to be just one of those days where we knew we were "living large"--so much so that we needed to start feeling really guilty. And it's one thing to spend money; it's another thing to feel as though you totally got FAR more than your money's worth out of it. I promise, I promise I will pay this forward.
I've already said that I thought this particular cycling trip was The Bomb in almost every way possible. We never in our wildest dreams expected our last day in Palma to surpass it.
After being dropped by our shuttle bus at the Palma bus/train station, we snagged a taxi to the <b>Boutique Hotel Calatrava</b> Plaça Llorenc Villalonga, 8, 07001 Palma de Mallorca +34 971 72 81 10 http://www.boutiquehotelcalatrava.com.
My husband and I would stay one night here before flying to Madrid as we made our way to Toledo; my daughter and husband would stay two nights before flying back through Madrid to the US.
The hotel was just perfect for us. We all said later we felt totally and ruinously cossetted.
Located at the base of Palma’s historic center, just a park across from the beach, this boutique hotel offered modern, wood-floored rooms within a historic structure. The front-desk associates were primed from the get-go to meet any need, any request. We all looked at each other as we waited for our rooms: was this real?
One service we did not need from the front desk was a reservation for that evening. As soon as I told them where we were headed, the two associates broke out into big smiles. "You did well, madame." Once again using thefork.com, I had reserved weeks before the Michelin-starred <b>Simply Fosh</b> for dinner. I had been keeping my fingers crossed that it would be good.
After checking in and with a bit of time on our hands, we explored the historic center of Palma a bit. The town was filled with visitors on this Easter weekend. Some shops were closing down on this Good Friday, but others were staying open. We meandered uphill a bit, zigzagging from square after square, finally heading indoors to a corner small local bar before heading back to the hotel.
Later on, a taxi took us to Simply Fosh, Carrer de la Missió, 7, 07003 Palma, Mallorca +34 971 72 01 14 www.simplyfosh.com. With its spare but so pleasant stripped-down interior, we felt as though we had just stepped from our hotel right into a sister restaurant.
Looking around the space, my daughter and I again reminded the guys that they had been against bringing jackets. Even though there were men in the place with shirtsleeves, the jackets dominated. But then again, it was not 80 degrees outside.
What to order. We had had bad luck recently with a tasting menu in New York (don’t get me started—I’m still trying not to write The-Mother-of-All-Nastygrams to the restaurant or place The-Mother-of-All-Bad-Reviews on Trip Advisor until my blood pressure lowers), but we have often felt that in the right place, tasting menus make the most of our dollar, acting less as a bill enhancer and more as a true showcase of the kitchen’s and the sommelier’s talents.
Here is our logic:
--Instead of ordering one or two wines that make no sense with the courses that everyone at the table has ordered, one can gets a variety of wines that enhance the taste of each course.
--And instead of totally "missing" with an entree one really doesn't like, one gets an opportunity to get a "hit" with the next one.
So we pondered. OK—it was not cheap. 78 Euros per person for the tasting menu we preferred (there was a cheaper tasting menu option BTW); 40 Euros per person for the wine pairing. But we looked at the cost of each entree on the a la carte menu, and we looked at the cost of two bottles of good wine and did the math. Hmm.
I called for a vote. All were in.
Best decision of the trip.
Our waiter, Michael, was a wonderful person who perfectly timed pouring the paired wine each dish. I thank him right now for making our last dinner together such a great experience in every possible way.
What did we eat? Our meal was similar to the one currently shown on their website:
--Salad of Smoked Eel, New Potatoes & Artichokes with Passion Fruit
--Foie Gras with Mango, Orange Blossom & Salted-Chocolate Bread
--Smoked Bomba Rice (the Spanish use this in paella) with Slow-Poached Egg, Iberian Ham & Black Truffles
--Fillet of Wild Sea Bream with Soller Prawns (regarded as some of the best in Spain), Chervil & Licorice
--Spiced Loin of Venison with Beetroot, Roasted Apple & Coffee Jus
Preserved Orange Cream with Hazelnut, Dukkah (an Egyptian spice mix) & Bergamot
Chocolate & Olive Oil Truffle with Raspberry-Red Pepper Jelly
I hope the above listing can even begin to suggest how great it all tasted. It was simply excellent.
We thanked Michael again, got into a taxi, returned to the hotel and said goodbye to my daughter and son-in-law. We thought we would not see them when we left in the early a.m. for a flight.
How wrong would we be.
<b>Next: US Airways Screws Up Again</b>
Apr 25th, 2015, 09:47 AM
#33
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annhig:
You have convinced me: I shall write them. I think the least they can do is add a bit of lighting to that upstairs--and that really show be an easy fix. Just raising that darn pendant light would solve 1/4 of the problem.
You have convinced me: I shall write them. I think the least they can do is add a bit of lighting to that upstairs--and that really show be an easy fix. Just raising that darn pendant light would solve 1/4 of the problem.
Apr 25th, 2015, 10:37 AM
#34
go for it, AZ.
I'm glad you took the tasting menu - whenever we have had them we have really enjoyed them. in the UK they can be ruinously expensive, especially if you take the wine-pairings but in NZ and OZ we really enjoyed them.
I'm glad you took the tasting menu - whenever we have had them we have really enjoyed them. in the UK they can be ruinously expensive, especially if you take the wine-pairings but in NZ and OZ we really enjoyed them.
Apr 28th, 2015, 03:58 AM
#35
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annhig--Re tasting menus...
We had a favorite local restaurant near us years ago where the husband and wife had trained in France. He actually was from France from a culinary family; she was from the US, but born to cook in France. Their overall food was fantastic; their tasting menu was the best deal ever.
My husband, thank goodness, never did a lot of business socializing. His work was enough, thank you. No schmoozing. But he delighted in bringing special foodie clients from SF and NY with whom he became really close over the years with us to this place. Their jaws would drop at the relatively cheap prices.
So I'd say our attitude toward tasting menus arose from such a positive experience. And in fact, it's only lately that we've run into such problems.
We had a favorite local restaurant near us years ago where the husband and wife had trained in France. He actually was from France from a culinary family; she was from the US, but born to cook in France. Their overall food was fantastic; their tasting menu was the best deal ever.
My husband, thank goodness, never did a lot of business socializing. His work was enough, thank you. No schmoozing. But he delighted in bringing special foodie clients from SF and NY with whom he became really close over the years with us to this place. Their jaws would drop at the relatively cheap prices.
So I'd say our attitude toward tasting menus arose from such a positive experience. And in fact, it's only lately that we've run into such problems.
Apr 28th, 2015, 04:13 AM
#36
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<b>US Airways Screws Up--Again</b>
We had said goodbye to our beloved daughter and her husband in the hotel lobby. The hotel associate at the front desk ordered us a taxi for the early am and scheduled a wake-up call, too.
We would be heading to Toledo the next day, flying from PMI to MAD and then getting a driver straight to Toledo.
We were pretty much packed—I had reorganized everything in my suitcase again since we were now off a bike—and I felt I could get a good night’s sleep.
At around 3 a.m. I turned over in bed and saw my smartphone blinking. I wondered: should I check it or just turn over and snore a bit more? Eh—I’m an email junkie. I checked.
It was a TripIt alert telling me that my daughter and husband’s flight to the US on Sunday, the day after ours, originally scheduled for around 1 pm, had been rescheduled for close to three hours earlier.
OMG--There was just no way they could make that flight, given that the earliest flights out of PMI to MAD were around 9:30 a.m.
I’m sure everyone is running into this: with the US Airways/American merger, one is always re-enacting the Abbott-Costello routine of “Who is on First?”
Playing around with pricing, I had booked the kids' flights on US Airways because the same routing was almost a thousand cheaper than doing it via Iberia or American, even though they were technically flying Iberia and American. I guess my “deal” came back to haunt me.
Thank goodness I had a record on my phone of the kids’ flight info with all of their American, Iberian, and USAirways confirmation #s.
Since I had booked all their flights through US Airways, I checked that record first on the website. The result? “We are having problems locating your record.”
I tried to locate a US Airways desk in Madrid. No luck. One number was no longer functional; I found another number that told me to try another number, which was busy.
I tried calling American because it was their flight that had been changed—and I did get help. The very kind and very helpful local agent said, “This is REALLY strange: I’m entering the American record and getting just our info—and yes, there is no way they can make this flight. I then enter the US Airways system and enter their confirmation number, and it shows me nothing. It SHOULD show me something.”
Oh no--I had been making this call via my little Spanish SIM, the one I thought I’d only use for text, and now I was out. I tried getting an outside line on the hotel phone and had no luck.
The heck with it. My husband and I went down to the front desk and the desk clerk said, “Madame, just use my phone. It will be easier.”
I called American back, and somehow got this same Madrid, very sweet American Airlines rep. She connected me to “Maribel” at US Airways who then told me that I had been alerted to this problem days ago. I had? Then I asked her what the rearrangement was. Dead silence. “Please hold.”
While I was holding, my husband had awakened the kids. We both knew that my son-in-law was due to report to the hospital at 6 a.m. Monday, and since he is in early residency, the words, “Oh gee, I was delayed getting back from my vacation in Mallorca” was not going to win friends with the supervising residents.
Maribel got back on the phone. She said, “An email was sent out on March 27.” I said, “Hmm, my kids checked in that night, and no one alerted them to any change in the itinerary. “ She said, “That’s not my problem. It was sent.”
????
So I said, “Well, can you tell me what the itinerary actually is? I have checked their confirmation number on the US Airways website and there is nothing there.” And hey, it was 3 a.m. and I’m not at my best and I told her that I thought she should be giving me a little more respect instead of just attitude, and a little concrete information about the actual revised itinerary instead of just talk would be a bit more productive.
It was at this point that my son-in-law took over the phone.
Good move. My husband was really warming up to him. I could see him saying to my daughter, "What I would have done."
The son-in-law identified himself, explained that he would be needing a bit more information if she could provide it, and then said, “Could you tell me the email address to which this update was sent?” She told him. He said, “Hmmm. That address automatically forwards to four persons. Not one of us received any email--and all of us check it three times daily."
"So let’s move forward. Can you give me an updated itinerary?”
Again, she put him on hold. So I think we all know that NOTHING had been done and Maribel was scrambling.
After five more minute on hold, it turns out that US Airways had moved them (probably in the last five minutes) from a direct MAD flight to their home airport to another 1 pm flight through…drumbeats…Philadelphia.
Instead of getting home at 3 pm their time, it would be closer to 11 pm.
My son-in-law asked if they could route through another city, but Maribel was having none of it. She suggested he take it up when they checked in for their flights.
My son-in-law hung up and said, “We’ll take care of this. We ARE getting home. Get some sleep.”
I did, but I re-checked the US Airways website with their confirmation number. Yeah—now the record showed up.
Later we would find out that my daughter and husband were not aggressive enough at PMI and MAD, but hey, they are young.
There is enough time to become “mean” in life.
Like Maribel.
And me.
<b>Next: Getting to Toledo</b>
We had said goodbye to our beloved daughter and her husband in the hotel lobby. The hotel associate at the front desk ordered us a taxi for the early am and scheduled a wake-up call, too.
We would be heading to Toledo the next day, flying from PMI to MAD and then getting a driver straight to Toledo.
We were pretty much packed—I had reorganized everything in my suitcase again since we were now off a bike—and I felt I could get a good night’s sleep.
At around 3 a.m. I turned over in bed and saw my smartphone blinking. I wondered: should I check it or just turn over and snore a bit more? Eh—I’m an email junkie. I checked.
It was a TripIt alert telling me that my daughter and husband’s flight to the US on Sunday, the day after ours, originally scheduled for around 1 pm, had been rescheduled for close to three hours earlier.
OMG--There was just no way they could make that flight, given that the earliest flights out of PMI to MAD were around 9:30 a.m.
I’m sure everyone is running into this: with the US Airways/American merger, one is always re-enacting the Abbott-Costello routine of “Who is on First?”
Playing around with pricing, I had booked the kids' flights on US Airways because the same routing was almost a thousand cheaper than doing it via Iberia or American, even though they were technically flying Iberia and American. I guess my “deal” came back to haunt me.
Thank goodness I had a record on my phone of the kids’ flight info with all of their American, Iberian, and USAirways confirmation #s.
Since I had booked all their flights through US Airways, I checked that record first on the website. The result? “We are having problems locating your record.”
I tried to locate a US Airways desk in Madrid. No luck. One number was no longer functional; I found another number that told me to try another number, which was busy.
I tried calling American because it was their flight that had been changed—and I did get help. The very kind and very helpful local agent said, “This is REALLY strange: I’m entering the American record and getting just our info—and yes, there is no way they can make this flight. I then enter the US Airways system and enter their confirmation number, and it shows me nothing. It SHOULD show me something.”
Oh no--I had been making this call via my little Spanish SIM, the one I thought I’d only use for text, and now I was out. I tried getting an outside line on the hotel phone and had no luck.
The heck with it. My husband and I went down to the front desk and the desk clerk said, “Madame, just use my phone. It will be easier.”
I called American back, and somehow got this same Madrid, very sweet American Airlines rep. She connected me to “Maribel” at US Airways who then told me that I had been alerted to this problem days ago. I had? Then I asked her what the rearrangement was. Dead silence. “Please hold.”
While I was holding, my husband had awakened the kids. We both knew that my son-in-law was due to report to the hospital at 6 a.m. Monday, and since he is in early residency, the words, “Oh gee, I was delayed getting back from my vacation in Mallorca” was not going to win friends with the supervising residents.
Maribel got back on the phone. She said, “An email was sent out on March 27.” I said, “Hmm, my kids checked in that night, and no one alerted them to any change in the itinerary. “ She said, “That’s not my problem. It was sent.”
????
So I said, “Well, can you tell me what the itinerary actually is? I have checked their confirmation number on the US Airways website and there is nothing there.” And hey, it was 3 a.m. and I’m not at my best and I told her that I thought she should be giving me a little more respect instead of just attitude, and a little concrete information about the actual revised itinerary instead of just talk would be a bit more productive.
It was at this point that my son-in-law took over the phone.
Good move. My husband was really warming up to him. I could see him saying to my daughter, "What I would have done."
The son-in-law identified himself, explained that he would be needing a bit more information if she could provide it, and then said, “Could you tell me the email address to which this update was sent?” She told him. He said, “Hmmm. That address automatically forwards to four persons. Not one of us received any email--and all of us check it three times daily."
"So let’s move forward. Can you give me an updated itinerary?”
Again, she put him on hold. So I think we all know that NOTHING had been done and Maribel was scrambling.
After five more minute on hold, it turns out that US Airways had moved them (probably in the last five minutes) from a direct MAD flight to their home airport to another 1 pm flight through…drumbeats…Philadelphia.
Instead of getting home at 3 pm their time, it would be closer to 11 pm.
My son-in-law asked if they could route through another city, but Maribel was having none of it. She suggested he take it up when they checked in for their flights.
My son-in-law hung up and said, “We’ll take care of this. We ARE getting home. Get some sleep.”
I did, but I re-checked the US Airways website with their confirmation number. Yeah—now the record showed up.
Later we would find out that my daughter and husband were not aggressive enough at PMI and MAD, but hey, they are young.
There is enough time to become “mean” in life.
Like Maribel.
And me.
<b>Next: Getting to Toledo</b>
Apr 28th, 2015, 10:52 AM
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What a wonderfully written report. Thank you, AlessandraZoe. The dinner at Simply Fosh sounded exquisite. And, I'm anxious to hear how your DD and SIL made it.
ps-I'd be with you and annhig in the van...
ps-I'd be with you and annhig in the van...
Apr 29th, 2015, 04:01 AM
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Thanks for the encouragement TDudette and MaiTaiTom.
The DD and SIL ended up with the endless layover in PHL, and at least they did get home. Had they gone directly to the USAirways rep in Madrid and gone a little berserk (I sure would not have had problems!), I think they could have been routed far more efficiently, but they were not unhappy. Just tired!
The DD and SIL ended up with the endless layover in PHL, and at least they did get home. Had they gone directly to the USAirways rep in Madrid and gone a little berserk (I sure would not have had problems!), I think they could have been routed far more efficiently, but they were not unhappy. Just tired!
Apr 29th, 2015, 05:13 AM
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<b>Next: Getting to Toledo</b>
Our flight to Madrid went off without a hitch.
Now that we were departing from Palma, we had a better appreciation of how big its “little” airport is. Since we had gone to the Canary Islands last year, we had expected PMI to be around the size of Grand Canaria Airport (LPA).
We were dead wrong.
Our excuse: This is not a major American tourist destination. It is, as the European participants on the forum know, an extremely popular European tourist destination.
PMI (also known as “Son Sant Joan”) is the third largest airport in Spain and handles over 22 million passengers per year; expansion plans are in the works so that it can handle 32 million. Twelve countries send direct flights here. The Spanish carrier Air Europa and German carrier Air Berlin use Palma Airport as their main base.
We were surprised by how sprawling PMI was; we were not surprised by how sprawling Madrid airport was. We had landed in MAD around four or five years ago when we toured Andalusia, and we swore we walked a couple miles before we ever got to its exit. In fact, one of the reasons we checked luggage on the way over was that we expected to walk that distance again. This trip, we noticed two significant changes to MAD: 1) we saw many more people-movers that halved our walking distance; 2) we noticed a huge improvement in the signage. In fact, we think MAD’s signage may be one of the best of any airport.
One thing that wasn’t working that well at MAD was baggage delivery, though. We waited at least ½ hour at the baggage area, and we were starting to get worried that our awaiting driver would think we had not made the plane.
At last the bags came and we exited. Our driver was there. Yeah!
A month or more prior to leaving on the trip, I was planning our transportation to Toledo. I had assumed that we’d get a taxi to Atocha in Madrid and then take a train to Toledo, and then take a taxi to our hotel. But when I talked it over with my husband he said, “Why do all that hassle? Can’t we just take a taxi straight to Toledo?”
Ok. I asked this board, and someone raised the possibility that a taxi driver might not want to take us. Perhaps a shuttle service was available. I used suggestions from this board and found others.
My finalists for personal, not group, transport were: Shuttle Direct (57 Euros per person); Personal Transport (150 Euros per vehicle); Sun Transfers (160 Euros per car); and Airport City Transfer (150 Euros per car). I went with <b>Shuttle Direct</b>, http://www.shuttledirect.com/en/airport/MAD/
It worked out great. The driver was indeed waiting for us with an IPAD with our name displayed. The trip, only around 80 km south, took little more than an hour in total comfort with no hassle — until the end. Streets had been closed off in Toledo for the Easter weekend, which I had anticipated, but the driver, although he wanted to get us right to the door, had little idea of how to circumvent the situation. He was asking right and left and was sweating bullets. We assured him everything would be OK and convinced him to drop us off near the cathedral.
Luggage is not meant to be rolled on Toledo’s cobblestones, but we got to the hotel just fine.
Would I have done it differently? No.
I was not sorry we did not do the airport-to-train-station-to-hotel thing. While a local taxi driver from the Toledo station may have been able to get us less than 10 yards from the hotel, closures or not, we just were not up for complications at this stage of the trip.
I do suspect we would have had little trouble getting a taxi from the airport to Toledo, and that option may have cost us a bit less; however, it was nice to have something guaranteed, simply because we were rather exhausted.
Now as to the hotel. Hmm.
I had booked us into the <b>Hotel Santa Isabel</b>, Calle Santa Isabel, 24, 45002 Toledo +34 925 25 31 36 www.hotelsantaisabel.net in the fall. Pickings were slim in Toledo around the Easter holiday, and I knew this hotel was on the Easter procession route, so I was willing to deal with a 2-star hotel for a few nights.
We were booked into Room 303. I knew our room would have no view and I knew it would be small. I was not prepared to be UNDER the hotel’s rooftop terrace and its iron spiral staircase, so even though the terrace is supposed to be closed at 10 pm, little kids were running around up there well past midnight (welcome to family life in Spain, where sleep at night is not a requirement).
We headed out to explore the town. The Cathedral is just a spit from the hotel, and we managed to squeeze past various Asian tour groups (South Korea, Japan and Taiwan were very well represented) to get a gander at the town. But it was tough going.
My husband, with the instincts of a migrating bird, honed in on a super quiet local bar, where we had a few beers and a cheese plate for lunch.
I still find it funny that the man who cannot speak one word of Spanish other than “cerveza”—he does not even say “please” or “thank you”—has instinctive international bar manners. He always nods at the locals when he arrives, and they always nod back. I guess acknowledgement, verbal or non-verbal, is the ultimate form of politeness, when one thinks about it. Anyway, when we left, all the locals nodded goodbye. My husband returned the nod. I just give a blank stare to all which I think means, "What he said."
We headed back to our room to partake of Spanish tradition: SIESTA!!!!
It’s strange how we had been on “Spanish time” for over a week, getting up early and eating very late with our cycling group, but had never once, except for the day we landed in Spain, had opportunity to rest midday. And we were not surprisingly exhausted.
So while the hordes of tourists roamed our street below, we zonked.
We awoke in early evening, and we then just walked around Toledo, now able to take in some views. Day trippers, even on Easter Saturday, had clogged all walkways and possible viewpoints just a few hours before but had now gone back to from whence they came. I swear the tourist population had dropped by 50% since noon.
And wow, now I saw why my husband had remembered Toledo from all of his travels years ago—this hilltop town’s location was just amazing. At place after place, we could see for miles in the distance. Now I could see why this had been the heart of Spain, “The Imperial City”, for so many years.
This town’s major claim to fame, one of its reasons for being named a UNESCO World Heritage site, is that for centuries, Christians, Jews and Muslims managed to live side-by-side no matter what ruling power came into being. There’s no doubt that when Alfonso VI of Castile conquered it for the Christian Reconquista in 1085, the Jews and Muslims quickly ended up on the short end, but still, Toledo did manage to keep for a few more centuries some intellectual awareness that killing off other religions was not good for its economy.
Eventually, though, religious intolerance destroyed years of Toledo’s economic and academic excellence, peaking during the reign of Columbus’ buddies, Isabelle and Ferdinand and their lovely contribution to Spanish culture: The Spanish Inquisition.
<b>Next: Easter Procession</b>
Our flight to Madrid went off without a hitch.
Now that we were departing from Palma, we had a better appreciation of how big its “little” airport is. Since we had gone to the Canary Islands last year, we had expected PMI to be around the size of Grand Canaria Airport (LPA).
We were dead wrong.
Our excuse: This is not a major American tourist destination. It is, as the European participants on the forum know, an extremely popular European tourist destination.
PMI (also known as “Son Sant Joan”) is the third largest airport in Spain and handles over 22 million passengers per year; expansion plans are in the works so that it can handle 32 million. Twelve countries send direct flights here. The Spanish carrier Air Europa and German carrier Air Berlin use Palma Airport as their main base.
We were surprised by how sprawling PMI was; we were not surprised by how sprawling Madrid airport was. We had landed in MAD around four or five years ago when we toured Andalusia, and we swore we walked a couple miles before we ever got to its exit. In fact, one of the reasons we checked luggage on the way over was that we expected to walk that distance again. This trip, we noticed two significant changes to MAD: 1) we saw many more people-movers that halved our walking distance; 2) we noticed a huge improvement in the signage. In fact, we think MAD’s signage may be one of the best of any airport.
One thing that wasn’t working that well at MAD was baggage delivery, though. We waited at least ½ hour at the baggage area, and we were starting to get worried that our awaiting driver would think we had not made the plane.
At last the bags came and we exited. Our driver was there. Yeah!
A month or more prior to leaving on the trip, I was planning our transportation to Toledo. I had assumed that we’d get a taxi to Atocha in Madrid and then take a train to Toledo, and then take a taxi to our hotel. But when I talked it over with my husband he said, “Why do all that hassle? Can’t we just take a taxi straight to Toledo?”
Ok. I asked this board, and someone raised the possibility that a taxi driver might not want to take us. Perhaps a shuttle service was available. I used suggestions from this board and found others.
My finalists for personal, not group, transport were: Shuttle Direct (57 Euros per person); Personal Transport (150 Euros per vehicle); Sun Transfers (160 Euros per car); and Airport City Transfer (150 Euros per car). I went with <b>Shuttle Direct</b>, http://www.shuttledirect.com/en/airport/MAD/
It worked out great. The driver was indeed waiting for us with an IPAD with our name displayed. The trip, only around 80 km south, took little more than an hour in total comfort with no hassle — until the end. Streets had been closed off in Toledo for the Easter weekend, which I had anticipated, but the driver, although he wanted to get us right to the door, had little idea of how to circumvent the situation. He was asking right and left and was sweating bullets. We assured him everything would be OK and convinced him to drop us off near the cathedral.
Luggage is not meant to be rolled on Toledo’s cobblestones, but we got to the hotel just fine.
Would I have done it differently? No.
I was not sorry we did not do the airport-to-train-station-to-hotel thing. While a local taxi driver from the Toledo station may have been able to get us less than 10 yards from the hotel, closures or not, we just were not up for complications at this stage of the trip.
I do suspect we would have had little trouble getting a taxi from the airport to Toledo, and that option may have cost us a bit less; however, it was nice to have something guaranteed, simply because we were rather exhausted.
Now as to the hotel. Hmm.
I had booked us into the <b>Hotel Santa Isabel</b>, Calle Santa Isabel, 24, 45002 Toledo +34 925 25 31 36 www.hotelsantaisabel.net in the fall. Pickings were slim in Toledo around the Easter holiday, and I knew this hotel was on the Easter procession route, so I was willing to deal with a 2-star hotel for a few nights.
We were booked into Room 303. I knew our room would have no view and I knew it would be small. I was not prepared to be UNDER the hotel’s rooftop terrace and its iron spiral staircase, so even though the terrace is supposed to be closed at 10 pm, little kids were running around up there well past midnight (welcome to family life in Spain, where sleep at night is not a requirement).
We headed out to explore the town. The Cathedral is just a spit from the hotel, and we managed to squeeze past various Asian tour groups (South Korea, Japan and Taiwan were very well represented) to get a gander at the town. But it was tough going.
My husband, with the instincts of a migrating bird, honed in on a super quiet local bar, where we had a few beers and a cheese plate for lunch.
I still find it funny that the man who cannot speak one word of Spanish other than “cerveza”—he does not even say “please” or “thank you”—has instinctive international bar manners. He always nods at the locals when he arrives, and they always nod back. I guess acknowledgement, verbal or non-verbal, is the ultimate form of politeness, when one thinks about it. Anyway, when we left, all the locals nodded goodbye. My husband returned the nod. I just give a blank stare to all which I think means, "What he said."
We headed back to our room to partake of Spanish tradition: SIESTA!!!!
It’s strange how we had been on “Spanish time” for over a week, getting up early and eating very late with our cycling group, but had never once, except for the day we landed in Spain, had opportunity to rest midday. And we were not surprisingly exhausted.
So while the hordes of tourists roamed our street below, we zonked.
We awoke in early evening, and we then just walked around Toledo, now able to take in some views. Day trippers, even on Easter Saturday, had clogged all walkways and possible viewpoints just a few hours before but had now gone back to from whence they came. I swear the tourist population had dropped by 50% since noon.
And wow, now I saw why my husband had remembered Toledo from all of his travels years ago—this hilltop town’s location was just amazing. At place after place, we could see for miles in the distance. Now I could see why this had been the heart of Spain, “The Imperial City”, for so many years.
This town’s major claim to fame, one of its reasons for being named a UNESCO World Heritage site, is that for centuries, Christians, Jews and Muslims managed to live side-by-side no matter what ruling power came into being. There’s no doubt that when Alfonso VI of Castile conquered it for the Christian Reconquista in 1085, the Jews and Muslims quickly ended up on the short end, but still, Toledo did manage to keep for a few more centuries some intellectual awareness that killing off other religions was not good for its economy.
Eventually, though, religious intolerance destroyed years of Toledo’s economic and academic excellence, peaking during the reign of Columbus’ buddies, Isabelle and Ferdinand and their lovely contribution to Spanish culture: The Spanish Inquisition.
<b>Next: Easter Procession</b>
