Mallorca

The two hour train trip from Paris to Beauvais was through pleasant rural countryside. We caught a taxi to the airport, caught our Ryanair flight and arrived at Palma airport in Mallorca. We rang Kersten, a friend of our absent house exchangers as arranged, to tell her of our arrival. When our taxi pulled up at the front door she was there to let us in and give us a run-down on the necessities.

Over the next two days we caught up on some rest after hectic Paris. The pace of life is quite different here with siesta between one and four each afternoon. Our flat is very interesting. It is in Llucmajor, a village dating back before 1259 when the first church was erected. It looks directly onto a square with a fountain and shops. Most of the village is car free and the kids play in the square while the adults have a refreshing drink. We have all the mod cons but the layout is different with little nooks and crannies. The windows are shuttered and we can hang out of them and look down on passers-by as we are on the first floor.

Dinner with view of the square below through our windows.

looking onto the square which is lit all night.

There is a market three days a week with the extra large one on Friday so the town was very busy yesterday. The large supermarket has the most astonishing selection of meat and fish and everything we could need.

Lollies!

Cheese

The most amazing thing we saw was all the little pre-school children tethered together and to the teacher, by rope around one wrist. They had a great time chatting to people as they followed along through the market ... and not one got lost!!

 

Today was a warm, sunny day and we went for an 8km walk out of the village into the surrounding countryside. We passed an old disused water pump on the outskirts of the village which was dated 1700 and later stopped for lunch under the shade of trees beside a 'fountain' where fresh water was gushing from under the road. Two men who stopped assured us it was pure and we could fill our water bottles. We did and the water was cool and beautiful.

We strolled past farms which were productive but seemed to all be quite small. Most of them had the same trees growing... olives, oranges, mandarin, loquats and almonds and carob pods and there were rows of artichokes as well planted along walls. Most of the walls were dry stone walls using the rocks collected when clearing fields.

Artichokes,

Glenn down a country lane playing with his camera.

Wildflowers called 'Small fruited asphodel.'

Almonds.

We enjoyed the walk immensely. It was so peaceful with few cars in the narrow lanes. The air was fragrant with blossom and hummed with bees. No flies, probably because there are no large animals. We saw two horses and a few goats, otherwise the animals were generally poultry. Homes varied from large wealthy establishments with extensive gardens to small buildings of no more than two rooms. All were fenced and secured.

After our walk we had a cold beer at the bar just outside our front door. Convenient!