After living in Germany for 3 years, we have heard over and
over about the vacation destination on an island in the
Mediterranean Sea! We finally took the time to go, and April is the best time of
year as far as we are concerned. It was barely above freezing when we drove to
the airport, and it was in the low 70’s when we landed! There was still elbow
room to be had on the streets, at the beach, and in the pedestrian areas,
unlike the packed crowds of summer we heard about. It was humorous seeing locals wearing
winter coats while tourists were in shorts and flip-flops.
We stayed in a quieter town on the north-west side of the
island. This gave us down time to wander along the beach in Puerto de Soller
and enjoy the slower pace of life. We highly recommend the food at 54 Beach
Club, and had a terrific house-made lemonade and ice cream sundae at
Kingfisher.
In the town of Soller, we learned about the extensive
history of modern art on Mallorca at the Can Prunera museum, which is a
gorgeous home with stunningly engraved windows. We had outstanding homemade
ravioli at Can Llimona, along with a stupendous dessert. The fish soup at Luna
36 was delicate and worth writing home about!
The most serene restaurant was Can Gata, complete with a
resident cat in the garden courtyard. We noticed that we have been learning to
relax over the years in Europe, starting with thermal baths- just hanging out
(in bathing suits!) for hours. In Spain, if your dinner is 1.5 hours, the waiter
may comment about how quickly you ate! Thus, on the last night at Can Gata, we
were proud to have chilled over a 2 hour dinner, from bread to dessert!
We took a day trip to the capital city of Palma, where we
had a peaceful vegetarian lunch at a place on Temple Street called “Temple
Natura”. Even if you are not vegetarian, the garden courtyard is worth having a
bean burrito or whatever else in. The neighbor’s dogs gave us a friendly
greeting and visited for a few minutes. The cathedral in Palma is unique, and
worth the admission fee. The antique train from Soller to Palma was nice, though pricey, and the bus trip between towns is
practically a state secret. I wish I had taken a photo of the clean, well lit,
and organized underground train and bus station in Palma. For less than a
quarter of the price of the train, we took the bus back and even had a good pastry
from the bus station bakery.
We’re glad we went to Mallorca, and recommend an April trip.
If you don’t mind the heat and crowds, go any time!
