Puerto D’Alcudia to Manacor ….and onwards to Cala d’Or, Can Pastilla & Home

June 2nd/3rd, 2024

Another lovely morning as we wake up to our morning songbird however it is our last one here so we say goodbye to the Bonavida Apartments and Alcudia Beach ….

it has been a very enjoyable stay…but now we are moving to the south east coast to a popular seaside area called Cala d’Or to check out this part of the island.

Enroute we dropped into Manacor a town that may be familiar to many of you…the birthplace of Rafael Nadal aka “Rafa” and the site of the Rafael Tennis Academy. Annie is a bigtime tennis fan and by default I have become a fan as well. Rafa is/has been a favorite of ours for quite some time and it seemed like a golden opportunity to stop and see the site of the Academy and Museum dedicated to him. He began playing tennis at age three and turned pro at 15. Known as the “King of Clay” for his skill playing on clay courts Rafa has won a record 13 French Open and 22 Grand Slam titles second only to the not so likeable Novak Djokovic. The facility is quite the going concern as we noticed  lots of parents bring their prodigies for tennis camps etc.

The “museum” featured interactive games testing your reflexes etc. and of course a huge amount of trophies and other memorabilia…nothing dramatic but fun to do…

Lunch was in Port Cristo a nearby town which also has caves to visit but we figured one set of caves was enough on this trip.

Then onwards to Cala d’Or which is a resort area on the southeast coast of the island. The shores are dotted with pine-fringed coves and a huge number of resorts catering to a range of tourists. One of the coves below, Calo des Pou, is typical of the area…and it seems the area in general would make a good base to explore the eastern part of the island. BTW the authorities do some interesting things at many of these beaches. In the first pic below there is a matt which is laid out to permit handicap access, a thoughtful idea and one we saw repeated at several other beaches.

We are staying in Cala d”Or, for 2 nights at the Apartamentos Parque Mar, beautifully situated on a rocky bluff overlooking the ocean. The plan here is very simple…just enjoy the moment !!! It was pleasant just to hang out in one place…

…however we found the little town area near the Apartamentos to be a true mini “tourist trap”…overpriced with modest looking fare so opted to dine at “home”…

 

June 4th, 2024 

After breakfast it is time to check-out and basically wrap things up….we are returning the car at the Palma airport. We found the drop-off point no problem and the return was beyond easy, when mentioned that we had photos of the car from the pick-up, she said, oh don’t worry you have full insurance, just take the shuttle to the airport….

…which we did, then taxied to the BQ Apolo Hotel…they let us check-in early and to boot offered us a welcome drink, on the house since we were “members” of BQ Club, albeit staying for the first time. The hotel is in Can Pastilla a suburb of Palma, on the ocean and quite pleasant…

Tonite is our last dinner in Mallorca and hope to finish the trip with a nice meal. After some sleuthing we find a place a bit outside the oceanside area which is rated as the #2 resto in Can Pastilla ….Fins, Tapas and Cocktails does not disappoint > as a confirmed meat eater my Steak Tartar is excellent, as is Annie’s Iberian Secret….the dessert is superb as well..

Can Pastilla has been fun but we would not want to spend more than night here as it is very close to the airport +++ but also also directly over the take-off flightpath …btw this is not a regional airport as flights come/go every 4 minutes. But we need to get our sleep so early to bed tonight…

June 5th,2024

No time for breakfast, taxi to the airport which is extremely busy. We are flying with Swiss Air and check-in is smooth and quick. Luggage free there is plenty of time to have a coffee and a Napolitana chocolate pastry before boarding for the 1.5 hour flight to Zurich finally we take-off and get some nice views of Palma…

Nice smooth flight and we land in Zurich on time, leaving us 75 minutes to make our connection to Vancouver. A long walk through seemingly endless duty free and high end shops…we had bought baguette sandwiches at the Palma airport so avoid the egregious Swiss Franc food prices! Customs etc. super quick (yes they are efficient) however in the waiting room we are subjected to a Canadian passport check (before the gate passport check)…utter bedlam, this is another immigrant flight full of east Asians and there are 2 agents to check 260 passengers and 5 babies> our government in action!

This then leads to a 45 minute wait on the tarmac as “our” tardiness meant we have lost our takeoff slot, finally we take-off and we are off. We are flying on Eidelweiss Air (Swiss Air discount airline), luckily we were able to land side by side seats so no need to hassle with any adjoining hoi polloi and they feed us some odd snacks from time to time…

…as well as a quite decent hot meal > wine is not included which is probably just as well. We will see whether a “dry” flight will be better for jet lag and although we catch a few hours of sleep, it is a long flight:

Passing over an expanse of ice and snow we know we are making progress…

…and finally land in Vancouver only 30 minutes late. By the time we leave the airport, get our car from our daughters home the earliest ferry we can get is 19:00….it sure makes for a long “day” of travel. Nevertheless we are safely home and can now think about what to do next….thanks for coming along….see you next time!