Palma

Well our last port of call was quite a surprise, we had fabulous weather, a free shuttle bus to take us into the city centre and several hours to ourselves to wander the narrow streets around the cathedral and beyond.  We set out with roughly €20 between us so we knew that we wouldn’t be doing much shopping and we also knew that it wasn’t enough to go on the round the city tour bus either, the last straw was that when we got to the cathedral it was closed (it opened 10 minutes later at 10.00am but by then was queued up to get in) and they wanted four of our precious euros each, so we didn’t go in after all.

I wasn’t going to post this first picture, me eating a hearty breakfast, but then it was taken after a very healthy early morning (7.15am) swim during which I managed 30 lengths before I had to stop and have a shower.  Having started swimming again has made me realise how much I miss it and how good it is for me, so if I can find the willpower I will try and get back to Meadowlands at least  once a week.

I would really like to come back to Mallorca and Palma for a longer stay, it seems to be an island with a lot going for it and reading the small brochure that came with the cruise there is quite a lot to see and do and certainly the people seem very friendly and not too pushy.  Apart from the men with the horse and cart who want to take you on a sight-seeing tour that is – they did not want to take no for an answer.  There was an abundance of living statues, one couple in particular all covered in red dirt and dressed to look like old American farmers were very good and I even gave them one of our precious euro coins.  We spent a few more when we saw a sidewalk café with a little strawberry tart in the window and we calculated that we had enough for one of them plus two cappuccinos but the big splurge had to be another handmade lace tablecloth that we saw in a shop window.  They took Visa of course and so another €48 was added to our credit card.  But the area known as the Rambla (they have a similar one in Barcelona called Las Ramblas) is great for tourist type shopping.  Our one failure was to get a fridge magnet as they were all priced at €2.95 and we refuse to pay more than €1.00.  Our biggest discovery was when we were lost (at least I was) and we found this lovely 4 lane highway where down the centre of it was all ladies selling flowers in bouquets, bunches and pots, the scent of the lilies was very strong and some of the hydrangeas were pure white.  Hilary managed to find our way back to the coach stop, my only technique was to keep going downhill knowing that it would eventually lead to the sea, but hers was more scientific – keep looking for the cathedral because it was near there the coach dropped us off….. it worked and we got back to the ship long before the allotted time.  We had sufficient time in fact to have a nice cup of tea before we went to the stern to watch The Great British Sail Away.  It was good fun actually with lots of flag waving and singing but we had practised for it the night before in the Theatre Royal as a prequel to the Headliners version of At the Hop.

We had seen that done before on the RTW so we knew that it was a very high energy show and the cast did themselves proud, as always I had a chat with them afterwards and gave them a bit of praise for they do deserve it.  It is a shame that they have to appear in front of such a bunch of old farts to be quite frank as after about 4 claps on the beat of a song they all go back to sleep.  These kids really need to see people dancing in the aisles but as I said to them if I did it I would be the only one – and I am always disgusted when half way through the last number some of the audience get up to leave so that they can grab their seats for whatever is happening next in the Crow’s Nest or wherever they are heading off to.  Shame on them, for the dancers and singers all leave the stage at the end of the performance to go up the aisles to stand by the doorways so that they can talk to the audience.  Last night they had to practically force themselves through hordes of greybeards trying to get out - it’s just not right!

OK rant over, I’m going to post this now together with a few photos of Palma.  Tomorrow it really is heading home time; no more stops it’s just full speed to Southampton, but with a bit of luck and if the timing is right we might just see the Rock of Gibraltar out of our window.  Night all…