A Few Days in Mallorca

I took a little break from visiting our family in Czechia to visit Mallorca for a few days recently. I’d never been to Mallorca, and the main reason I selected that destination – I could fly there directly from the small local airport in Pardubice!

There was another charter flight leaving for the Bulgarian seaside resort city of Burgas. Most of the flights from this airport in the summer are travel agency charters going to sunny resort cities in Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.

But there are a few Ryanair flights to Spain as well – I flew on Ryanair operated by their subsidiary Lauda.

This airport is shared with the military, and on that side the hangars are covered with grass and trees for camouflage.

A couple of hours after leaving the warm and hazy Czech countryside, we arrived in warmer and hazy Palma.

I spent 3 nights at a very small isolated hotel in the Tramuntana mountains near the tiny village of Orient. The hotel was in a converted 400 year old monastery made out of stone and was extremely peaceful. There were more bicycles than cars that passed the road in front of the hotel, and there weren’t many of those either.

I had work to do half of the time that I was in Mallorca, but I was still able to get out and see some of the sights in my rented Fiat 500.

One day, I did a visit to the far northeast corner of the island – Formentor – which was gorgeous. The road is closed to most private vehicles in the summer months between 10 AM – 10 PM and I was too lazy to get up that early so I drove to Port de Pollença and took the bus from there, which wasn’t as efficient as self driving but worked just fine.

The lighthouse at the end of the road (and land) – Cap Formentor – was interesting but the viewpoints along the way, more so.

Mirador de Es Colomer was really spectacular, not as busy as I expected, and you can see here how some of the viewing areas had a nearly vertical drop of about 200 m right down to the sea.

Looking back down to Port de Pollença.

I walked around the town of Port de Pollença, including the main square.

Another day I drove to Sóller, a very popular historical town about an hour north of Palma. It was very close to my hotel as the crow flies but took about 40 minutes to drive through the mountains on a narrow, winding back road with many switchbacks, most of which I had to drive around in first gear as they were so tight.

One of the highlights of Sóller is the historical tram from 1913 that goes right through the town square in between tables where people are having brunch and drinks!

I didn’t have time to ride on the tram which goes down to the port, but it was cool to see going by a few times.

I spent my time in the area hiking up through the hills through orange groves and a tiny village called Binibassi to the very pretty town of Fornalutx.

It was hot out (the weather app said 38) and I was literally dripping when I arrived at the main street (which was full of patio tables) after grinding uphill in the late morning sun.

The patio in this picture was where I had a much needed lunch and refreshing smoothie.

Sadly, I hadn’t paid attention to the bus schedule and after walking to the bus stop to bring me back to Sóller, I realized I’d missed it by about 5 minutes and had to walk all the way back as the bus only came out there once an hour. It was easier going downhill but still hot.

Since my hotel was so isolated, I’d bought the half board package which included breakfast and dinner. The dinners were really good.

For my fourth and final night on the island, I moved to the main city, Palma. Palma reminded me of a smaller Barcelona, especially with a pedestrian street like this that led to my hotel.

In the historical center of Palma, I explored a few areas:

The Plaça Major, the main square.

Can Forteza Rey, a building clearly inspired by Gaudi (Barcelona vibes here).

Colorful areas amongst the brick and stone.

The Church of Santa Eulàlia, parts of which date to the 1400s.

The Palma City Hall.

An ancient olive tree (‘Olivera de Cort’) that stands in the square across from the City Hall.

Closer to probably the main attraction of Palma, the gardens were picturesque.

La Seu: the Cathedral of Palma.

Across the small plaza from the cathedral is Royal Palace of La Almudaina – formerly an Arabian fortress, dating to the 14th century. It is the official residence of the Spanish royal family in Mallorca, and was complete with its own lush garden area.

I didn’t have time to stop here.

My hotel had a rooftop terrace with small pool and lounge area overlooking the Plaça de Ses Columnes.

My final point of interest in Palma was a fantastic small restaurant where I was introduced to Galician beef. The owner helped me select appropriate side and wine pairing for this massive steak, which was simply divine!

Sadly, my short time in Mallorca came to an end with an early morning flight. I’d love to come back and explore more as I know that I only scratched the surface.

I arrived in Dusseldorf, Germany – which was actually hotter than Mallorca.

I explored Wuppertal, another city in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, as I was interested in seeing the “schwebebahn” – a suspended train over the river. It was 39 degrees outside and the river looked inviting, as unfriendly as it likely was.