Well, Brian requested off for the 4th of July about 2 months ago, and we switched plans dozens of times for what we wanted to do on the 4th. We considered going back to Switzerland and seeing that area again, but wanted to do something a little crazier..So we found tickets 2 days before Brian's vacation started to an island owned by Spain! Believe it or not, even though we bought the tickets 2 days before, we were more prepared this trip than any other trip we have taken in the last 5 months being here. We had a place to stay, a rental car, and actual plans for the days we were there. Ha!
Our first night, we landed and headed straight to our BnB. It was a little sketch, but all we needed was a bed to sleep on, and a shower. Oh the shower...lets just talk about that now.. Brian and I couldn't figure out the hot water in the house, so we ended up taking freezing showers every single night. It was painful..physically painful. I couldn't breathe when the water would go higher than my waste.
Anyway..So we dropped our stuff off and ran to the nearest Kebab stand!
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| Kebabs and Patata Fritas |
The next morning, we woke up and headed out for Serra de Tramuntana mountains on the Northwestern side of the island. It was about an hour drive from Palma, where we were staying. We went to Port de Polenca, then went up to the Northern-most point called the Cap de Formentor. The reviews I read online were saying this is a really scary drive, but worth it. I almost said to Brian that we shouldn't do it, but we decided to brave the roads and check out the scenery.
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| First stopping point was this beautiful view of Port de Polenca |
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| Mirador des Colomer |
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| The scary road to the Cap de Formentor |
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| At the Lighthouse at the Cap de Formentor |
After hitting up the Cap de Formentor, we decided we needed to hop in the ocean! On the way to the beach, we realized that Siesta was fast approaching, and we needed to eat before everything was closed for a few hours. We stopped at an awesome restaurant right next to the beach.
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| Delicious cold drink at the restaurant |
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| Cutting the Hamon. It was so good |
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| Tapas and Pizza! |
The water was so close, so after lunch, we took off for the sand. We didn't stay long as the beach wasn't huge. We thought we would find a bigger beach area.
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| The water was so warm! Baby bump ahead.. |
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| Awesome sand castle! If you sat next to it in the chair pictured on the left, you'd have to pay to get your pic taken. We are cheap and just snapped a picture of the sand castle! |
We then stumbled upon a town that both Brian and I read about online saying it was a very picturesque town called Alcudia. We had to stop and check it out!!!
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| He found a teeny shell and said he would be putting dis in his pocket for later. He is cute |
We then ran home, showered up (in our freezing shower) and headed to Palma for Dinner and site seeing
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| The beautiful Cathedral de Palma |
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| Inside the Cathedral. We accidentally went to mass.... |
Dinner was great! We went and got Paellas which is a dish we had in Menorca when we visited one of Mark's converts a few years ago. They cooked it for us and I had to get my hands on more of it! Its delicious!!! Except the Octopus. Gross
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| The tasty Paella!! |
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| Octopus...It was crunchy. Brian said I ate the beak... |
The next day was Sunday! We woke up and went to church. It was so cool to go to the spanish branch. There were actually 3 branches that we could go to. Brian and I were able to talk to a sister that just got back from her mission to Oregon and she explained why they had 3 branches and didn't have a ward. She said that Mallorca is growing so much that they would have to split the wards in a few years, so they keep them as branches so they can continue to grow into wards. Kinda cool!!
Trying to be good on the sabbath, we ended up just going to the beach, relaxing and reading books the rest of the day. It was fun.
Monday, we were rested and ready to hit the island again. Oh man, was it fun! We took off to the East coast, which was about an hour drive. Our first stop was to the Coves de Arta! Amazing Caves with Stalagtites/mites and columns that were formed over thousands of years. They even played a light show within the caves! Soo cool. It was hard for the guy giving the tour. He gave the tour in 3 languages -- Spanish, German, and English. Brian got to hear his explanation twice, and the people in our group were sick of him talking by the time he got to English, so it was a little hard for me to hear everything. It was completely worth going though. Very well lit cave!!
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| First, I must brag on this bakery we stumbled upon that morning.. The pastries were amazing!!! |
Ok, now to the Cave pics
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| The light show! |
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| So fun to watch |
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| This is coming out of the caves. The stairs went down another 20 steps |
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| Amazing view |
After the caves, we stopped for a bite to eat right off of a beautiful beach we found!
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| This was the most amazing italian. Delish |
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| Right outside the Lunch spot, and right next to the next beach |
So, short story, Did you know when you're pregnant, you're not supposed to lay on your back? This makes it a little difficult going to the beach when all you want to do is lay out. We bought chairs to lounge in the day previously, and I didn't want to invest in another chair --Cuz then you have to get your money's worth out of it, and stay forever. There was more we needed to do!!! So, I dug a hole and made myself a sand chair!!
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| That wave might look itty bitty, but it was a monster. So fun |
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| My makeshift chair |
Seriously though, the water had amazing waves. It was actually a dangerous time of day to be swimming because of currents. There were lifeguards telling us where we could swim and whatnot. We got in the water, and loved every second..until a wave hit me right in the belly...Brian had to come save me cuz I was getting pummeled by waves. We were recommended by Mark to hit up a quaint little village called Arta. So after the beach, we went and saw the beautiful church at the top of the hill, and strolled the street markets. We also stopped for a little snack -- Also recommended by my brother, Mark. The snack we got was a tortilla de patata tapa topped with tomato. Say that 5x fast. We found humor in that for longer than you need to know...
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| There were so many stray cats in Arta!! |
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| The church at the top of the hill |
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| tortilla de patata tapa topped with tomato |
So for our last night, we decided to not go straight home, but take in Palma city once more for the sunset. Then we ran home and grabbed a pizza outside our BnB.
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| What a beautiful Cathedral. It was seriously so so pretty. Pictures don't do it justice. |
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| We got fries too. That pizza was so good though! |
Now, those of you reading may think..man, do bad things ever happen when one goes on vacation? Brian and I were convinced this was the smoothest trip we have ever been on! No hiccups whatsoever!! We turned in our rental car the next day and hopped on our flight. We slept the 2 hour flight home. We walked out the door of the airport, and the shuttle we needed was right there. It was just great! Until....
I thought for a second about Brian's wallet. I hadn't seen it in over 24 hours. The last place he put it was under neath the seat in our rental car. Surely, he grabbed it. So I asked him.."Brian, um...where is your wallet?" His eyes got huge. We discussed the wallet the night before when we went to fill up the rental car with gas. He explained that he didn't have it (we just had cash in a zipper that was easier to hold) and that it was at our BnB. We didn't think of the wallet again until we were in Germany driving home. Brian said "...Its not in the rental car, is it?" The rest is history. Tuesday was a day of frustration trying to get through 2 language barriers (Spanish and German) to figure out where his wallet was. It is safely with the Hertz people at the Airport in Palma Mallorca...We have to get someone to go pick it up because of the sensitive information within the wallet. We are still working with the UPS people in Spain to go get it and mail it to us. Its a headache, but trips are never perfect!
