ESCAPE FROM THE HIGHLANDS TO THE ISLAND OF MAJORCA
Day1 Tuesday 6th September 2022
Whilst much of the UK had been basking in record summer temperatures and suffering from a lack of rain, the Highlands had been windy for months and the wind very often blew big grey clouds over the land. We were not parched, but, nor were we out having barbecues every day, nor unable to sleep at night due to high temperatures.
Luckily, we had a long standing booking to go to Majorca at the start of September - a booking that should have been fulfilled a number of times, but had been cancelled or postponed due to Covid. However, September came and we were able to go, so we did. Not exactly a Highland Gourmet trip, but the food is always important, so it counts as far as I am concerned.
We had stayed on Monday night with Sandra and Chris in Forgandenny so as to make the journey to Edinburgh airport an hour long, rather than the three hours it would have taken us from home. So, come 0530, we were up and off, ready to fly to the sun.
Such an early start meant breakfast at the airport, never the most enticing of prospects. We went to All Bar One and had a very good sourdough toast with crushed avocado, feta and poached egg. A perfect start to the holiday.
All went well with our journey and we were in Majorca by lunchtime and after an hour bus ride, we were at our hotel in Port de Pollenca, a place we had visited before and liked a lot.
In no time we were in our room overlooking the beach and Pollenca Bay, and the sun was certainly shining.
The hotel was really very nice indeed and it had a lovely terrace, just perfect for sitting with a cold drink, watching the world go by. We found that very quickly, although we had misjudged the heat and had to change into fewer and lighter clothes soon after the first drink.
The weather really was warmer than normal for the time of year. We seldom had a daytime temperature below 30 degrees and night-times were commonly in the mid twenties.
Later in the day, we thought we should walk to the centre and find somewhere to eat that evening. It is not far, and you do pass by the La Gola bird reserve, right in the centre of town which is largely overlooked by most visitors. We would walk around it later in the week.
The port and town is hemmed into the coast by the Tramuntana mountain range which runs along the whole of the north east coast of Majorca and these form a more rugged backdrop to the town.
After a very pleasant stroll around the front, we settled on La Llonja for dinner. It is right out on one of the quays and is surrounded by all sorts of boats. We had a nice table and we could watch everybody come and go and, in Spain, they come into restaurants until pretty late by our standards.
As is common in Majorca, we were given Pa amb oli. This is ubiquitous in Majorca. It is most unusual to find a restaurant that doesn't serve it at the start of most meals. Essentially it is just tomatoes on bread with oil. That, of course, belies the beauty and simplicity of the dish.
In La Llonja, they give you the bread along with a simple local Ramallet tomato cut in two. They also give you some black olive tapenade and some good olive oil. Your job is simply to crush the tomato into and onto the bread and drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt. Delightful, and so was the tapenade.
Sharon's starter was home-made spaghetti with a rocket and walnut pesto. It was delicious.
I can never resist a plate of carpaccio of beef and I didn't this time either.
Sharon followed her starter with grilled sea bass with a pink peppercorn sauce, all on a sweet potato and spinach puree.
I had chicken stuffed with roast peppers, a wild mushroom sauce, vegetables and rice.
This was the menu of the week and it came with a lemon cheesecake and fruit compote, which we both enjoyed. All this with a small carafe of wine each for less than £33 a head.
Once we had finished, we walked back past the bobbing boats towards our hotel.
The moon was bright and reflected on the waves in the bay. A nice end to a good day, despite all the sitting in cars, planes and buses.
DAY2 Wednesday 7th September
Breakfast at the hotel was served until 1000, so we took advantage of that and had a bit of a lie in after all our travelling the day before. It was worth the wait. There was an endless choice of cereals, fruits, yoghurts, breads, pastries, cold meats, cheeses as well as sausages, eggs, bacon and hash browns. There were oils and juices, honey, olives and smoked salmon.
It was time to get out there and explore a bit.
Most of the town lay to the north of our hotel, but it was only a stroll along the beachfront away.
It was very hot and our mission was to find the locations of a number of restaurants that we wanted to try out during our stay. One of those was Ca Les Monges, which was supposed to do nice tapas. We were, by now, needing a cold drink, so we stopped at the restaurant and after our drink we ordered patatas bravas, prawns in garlic and chilli and Pa amb oli. They did not disappoint with a cold glass of white wine.
Sharon was enjoying herself.
It was still very hot, so we went back to the hotel, so that we might take advantage of the rooftop pool and lounge area. It would be fair to say that the pool was more of a plunge pool for cooling off rather than anything of Olympic dimensions. Cooling off was certainly what was needed, despite the shade from the parasols.
Luckily they had a little QR code block on every seat. Scan with your phone, pick your drinks and a young man soon brought them up to you. No need to struggle up and down to the bar in the lift in this heat!
As was soon to be our habit, we had a gin and tonic on the terrace between 5 and 6.
It was another beautiful evening for a walk along the front to the next restaurant for dinner.
Tonight's choice was Abbaco, which promised us clean, seasonal, fresh and local food in a carbon neutral setting. We were there for the food, the environmental credentials were a welcome addition. Sharon liked the living plant wall beside our table.
The menu described our first choice as crispy glass bread with cluster tomatoes and pickles. It was really more Pa amb Oli. The bread was very light and crisp, hence the name, but it was the pickles which made it all stand out. Pickled chillis, two different seaweeds, big caper berries, pickled red onion and tiny olives - excellent.
We also shared the best croquettes of chicken and Thai basil pesto and a nekkey brava sauce. I have no idea and could not find out what a nekkey brava sauce was, but it was very good indeed. The croquettes were truly outstanding.
My main was Black Angus entrecote, piquillo pepper gel, potatoes, glazed shallots, yuzu and honey. The tastes were really very good, but the beef was particularly gristly at one end of the cut. The rest was as tender as you might want, but the whole was somewhat spoiled by that.
Sharon had a terrine of crusted lamb with basil and pine nuts, grilled vegetables and glazed red pepper sauce and spices. The lamb was falling apart and it was all rather good.
We did not have room for any dessert and wandered home in the warmth of the evening, buoyed by the fact that the maitre d' had taken the price of my meal off the bill, even though I had eaten most of what was on the plate.
DAY3 Thursday 8th September
Would you believe it, we awoke to another hot day!
After a reasonably early breakfast, we walked along the coast to a small nature reserve.
There were some fine coastal views.
The reserve is, apparently, important for migrating birds and for wetland habitats. However, given the extreme temperatures of recent months, the wetlands were now dry lands. This hide should have had views over a body of water full of wading birds. there was none of that!
The reserve is also important for the stands of Tamarisk bushes, which are the low green bushes in the photo. Tamarisk is notable for the ability to tolerate very salty or alkaline conditions. This is very close to the sea, so any water here is likely to be salty.
These seed heads look like some kind of Allium to me, but I could not track them down to be sure.
Not the best photo on the world, but there were hundreds of snails climbing to the top of some of the taller plants. Quite why they would do that in such high temperatures and so exposed to predators, is anyone's guess.
It was a hot walk back, cool shower and down to the terrace for a cold drink - Strawberry Daiquiri for Sharon - no alcohol, of course!
A bite of lunch at the hotel - crispy chicken poke bowl for me.
Prawn and avocado salad for Sharon.
Now, the next photos may be distressing or upsetting for some readers.
Sharon had organised a bit of horse riding for us in the late afternoon. I had foolishly agreed on the basis that it included a cheese and wine tasting.
In any event, we were picked up from the hotel and driven to a ranch outside town and, lo and behold, here I am on a horse. A very big horse, called Pirate.
Despite appearances to the contrary, Sharon had not had any wine before she had got on her horse, although she does have a distinct lean to one side.
Sharon is sufficiently confident on a horse to be able to take a selfie!
Indeed, the guides kept a few of them back so that they could run, or trot, or canter - whatever it is that horses do when they're not plodding sedately and safely.
I was sufficiently confident to look backwards.
Here I am elegantly dismounting.
Here is Sharon pretending she wasn't falling off.
Once we were off the horses and sitting down, out came the food.
A wee bowl of bread along with four spreads, I guess you would call them. Almond jam (who knew), Almond paste with chillies, Almond paste with black olives and sobrasada. Sobrasada is a Majorcan pork meat and pepper spreading sausage. It doesn't have as much paprika as chorizo and it was rather good.
Cheers.
I have to say that all the wines and cheeses were really good. The owner was passionate about local produce. You cannot buy the wines in any supermarket and none of it is exported.
Majorcan wines have a bit of a peculiar history. When the Phylloxera pest was introduced to Europe from America, it very quickly wiped out huge swathes of continental vineyards. Majorca, as an island, escaped this for some time and when Europe was burning vines, Majorcan production skyrocketed at the expense of quality and, eventually, at the expense of local, less productive grape varieties. However, Majorca did not remain immune from Phylloxera and production plummeted and the industry was nearly wiped out. Today, wine production is increasingly based on older varieties, that were more resistant to Phylloxera, despite their lower yields. The focus is more on quality than quantity.
Certainly all the 4 wines we tried were really very good, as were the cheeses.
After all that excitement, we were taken back to the hotel, where we had a quiet evening on the terrace.
DAY4 Friday 9th September
Another hot day ahead and we were up early as we intended to walk across the the hills to another little village and beach. That sounds a bit more strenuous than we actually intended, although it did have some moments!
There was a bit of walking through the town to get to the countryside. If you look carefully you can see our route going up the hill just over the roof of the house.
The track was not difficult to follow here, but it wasn't the easiest of walking either.
There were some nice views to the sea back down the hill.
Quite unexpectedly, we came across this tortoise on the path. This is a Hermann's Tortoise and is one of three tortoises which are found naturally in Majorca.
We did not disturb it and left it to carry on searching for something to eat.
We still had a bit to go before we reached the highest point at the Coll de Siller.
It turned out to be a bit of a scramble to get up to a wider path and we needed a bit of a sit down to recover from the exertion and the heat.
The landscape was much different from the coastal areas we had so far experienced, almost like home, but a lot warmer!
By now my shirt was like a wet rag, but I will spare you any sight of my unadorned torso.
It wasn't long before we could see the sea on the other side of the island.
It really made the sense of achievement all the greater for taking in these views.
Our goal was just around the corner - Cala Sant Vincenc. We were going to be swimming in that crystal blue water as soon as we could.
There is a nice little beach at the end of the cove as well as a couple of less attractive hotels, but the water is the main attraction. The hotels did have a role to play all the same.
The provision of cold drinks was their role and they fulfilled it admirably.
After that, it was time to hit the waves.
Of course, all that splashing about makes you hungry, so the beachside hotel bar provided lunch in the form of a tuna salad for me....
...and a honey crusted baked cheese salad for Sharon.
Of course, we weren't about to climb back across the hills to get to our hotel. We got the bus back instead. Great decision.
Opposite the bus stop was this statue. It is a likeness of Lorenc Cerda Bisbal, a Majorcan painter who lived between 1862 and 1956. Apparently he painted a lot of landscapes of northern Majorca, hence the statue here.
Famous, locally, he may be, but his work is not going for terribly massive amounts of money.
As we walked back to the hotel from the bus stop, there were huge thunderclouds gathering ahead. We actually heard great claps of thunder, but not a drop of rain fell on us.
After a bit of a freshen up and quite a bit of a snooze, it was time for a gin on the terrace before dinner.
For the first time on this visit, we went to a restaurant that we had been to on our last trip here - Belleverde. This was a vegetarian/vegan place, unlike anything we normally go to. However, we remembered it as a little courtyard filled with fig trees and twinkling lights, serving food that was tasty and different.
Happily, it was still like that!
There were no twinkling lights when we arrived, but the fig trees were still very much in evidence. It really is quite a delightful little space to eat in.
My starter was described as a culinary challenge. It was a smoked "cheese", which seemed to me to made from almonds, a fig chutney and a local beer ice cream - a kind of ploughman's starter.
Sharon had a pine nut gazpacho with a wasabi ice cream.
For main, I had an exceptionally tasty homemade spaghettini with truffle pesto and shavings of fresh Majorcan truffle.
Sharon had a house salad with fresh rhubarb, broccoli, mint, cashews, walnuts, leaves, figs, coriander ice cream and a strawberry balsamic dressing.
By now the lights were beginning to twinkle.
As we had only eaten vegetables! We had a pudding.
Gingerbread chocolate mousse with a cherry coulis for me.
Carrot cake trifle with a yoghurt cream for Sharon.
A fine end to a great day.
DAY5 Saturday 10th September
Hot again - no real surprise.
After breakfast, we walked towards the centre, deviating to walk round the little reserve that we had seen earlier in the week It was a quiet oasis yards form the main promenade.
We watched this Grey Heron for a while, but he didn't catch anything.
Whilst this is close to the beach and the tourists, it is a doorway to a wilder side of town.
We spent some time watching schools of fish swim in the murky waters.
It was all very peaceful.
It is obviously not all natural with this fine wall canalising the water at one point.
While it was a wildlife reserve, we did not expect to see an elephant on the roof of a house!
They came in all shapes and sizes.
There was even one named after me!
Apologies for the belly button!
Just to prove that we had gone on holiday together.
By now it was time to get back to the hotel as we had somewhere we needed to be after lunch, which for me was a tuna tartare salad. Sharon was not so hungry.
We had arranged for the hotel to get us a taxi to take us to another vineyard out of town. Taxis are, apparently, entirely random and we had been told to expect a wait of up to half an hour. It actually arrived in 2 minutes and we were at the vineyard nearly 45 minutes before the tasting was due. We coped in the sunshine, though. Can Vidalet was a beautiful place.
Happily, the vineyard lived up to the location and the wine to the setting. It was all very good and we had a great time. There were 8 Irish cyclists with us and they were good fun to talk to. The little nibbles with the wine were very good, too.
The taxi, on the other hand was close to an hour after we had called for it! However, we were in no real rush.
The olive oil was particularly good.
The wine was outstanding.
We were not hungry that evening and we had a welcome quiet night.
DAY6 Sunday 11th September
Sunday was another stunning day and, hot again.
We decided to have a bit of a lazy day, on the roof, under the parasols.
However, there is only so long you can lie about in the sun before you need to eat and drink. So, it was on with some appropriate clothes and out to look for a restaurant. In fact, I had a look online for something close to the hotel that was a bit Majorcan. Sure enough, it was just around the corner. Great! No need to walk any distance in the midday heat.
We were soon sitting down to, well, tapas, as per usual. It is just so hard to see past little plates of things that you can pick at over a glass of something cold.
That was actually water, but the wine was on its way!
We knew we were on a winner when the specials board had fresh fish, slow roasted lamb with rosemary, pork with sobrasada sauce and honey.
That was all a bit much for lunch, so we had patatas bravas, with a really good bravas sauce, garlic prawns and meatballs with an even better sauce. Perfect with a glass of local wine.
Rather than fry on the roof again, we went onto to the beach for a lie about and the occasional jump into the sea to cool off. Cooling off was a relative thing. The sea temperature must have been well into the 20's, it was like a tepid bath, it was lovely.
Here I am looking like a Greek God.
I'm not sure that I mentioned it before, but we had been in the water here earlier in the week, so it wasn't a first time - after all, if they provide a beach, you might as well take advantage. There was even a wee guy selling mango,pineapple, melon, coconut and banana. At least, that is what it sounded like as he wheeled his barrow up and down the sand.
Here is Sharon in the water as well.
If I recall we had another wee snooze later in the afternoon, before a gin on the terrace and a walk into town for dinner.
We were eating at Stay, out on the quay. A more modern, trendy sort of place. very big, but we had eaten there on our last visit and it had been good. The situation next to the boats on a big open wooden terrace is very nice.
They gave us a shot glass of a potato soup with a creamy mousse on top. It was ok, but I do wonder why it was needed.
There was no menu. There was, instead, a QR code on the table, which you scanned to give you access to all the menus - very 21st Century and, doubtless, a covid innovation.
It certainly allowed us to look at the wine list and we chose a bottle of the Blanc de Blanc from the vineyard we had visited a couple of days before.
We both liked it just as much as the first time we tried it.
My starter was a tempura of vegetables and prawns with a very zippy little sauce. It was a big helping, but it was tasty. I might have been able to make a lighter batter, but I wasn't complaining.
Sharon had Burrata, with cured ham.
We both had a lovely piece of sea bass with shredded veg, potatoes and a garlic sauce. It was advertised as Pil Pil sauce, but the chilli was underwhelming to the point of absence. Nonetheless, it was really tasty and the fish was perfect.
The failings of the QR thingy became apparent when it came to ordering dessert. The restaurant was now packed and everybody is trying to access the same thing on their phones. No luck for us. The waiter (because they still had lots of these) gave us a spare tablet to look at the menu. They obviously all carry them for people who cannot access the menu otherwise through stupidity or technical incompetence or overloading of the system. What's wrong with a piece of paper?
I had a chocolate brownie with hazelnuts hiding under the ice cream and a cherry compote. Very good, but the brownie was a cake and not a brownie.
Sharon had a cheesecake with a creme brulee type topping, apples and a raspberry ice cream.
It was all pretty good, especially for such a busy place. People were still arriving as we left after 10pm. We didn't leave before they offered and we accepted a digestif and couple of wee chocolates. Sharon had sambuca and I had a whisky. All liberally poured at the table. The whisky was J&B, not something I will ever buy unless I lose my tastebuds, but it was the one and only whisky I had all holiday and it was free, so I cannot complain.
We walked back to the hotel in the romantic moonlight!
DAY7 Monday 12th September
Our last day and it was an early start. We had been picked up from the hotel and by 6 o'clock in the morning we were on a large catamaran heading out to sea. It might have been dark, but it was 25 degrees.
We were heading east, towards the sunrise. A bit less than an hour later and the sky was beginning to brighten as the sun began to come up.
Kate Winslett was right up there to get photos.
It was getting better as it got brighter.
We were not alone in seeking the sun.
The real treat here was to see dolphins and the sunrise.
We were not to be disappointed. There were loads of dolphins and it was difficult to keep track of where to take photos.
And, the sun kept rising.
The dolphins kept swimming past us.
Soon, the sun was well up.
We weren't just there for the dolphins and the sun. We had a something else to do. Our neighbours' son had tragically died a number of years ago. He was a bit of an adventurer and they have had friends deposit some of his climbing gear in far flung and exciting places. It was our job to place this "nut" in with the dolphins. No doubt he would have loved the chance to see and even swim with these creatures.
The perfect spot.
Time to say goodbye to the dolphins and head back to port.
It was looking like another fine day.
Sharon was enjoying the breeze in her hair.
On the way back into Alcudia port, we passed this large building with what looked like a giant figure standing on the roof.
It turns out that is exactly what it is. This is a sculpture called Figure, by artistic couple Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu. They are both sculptors and now create works which are signed by them both as though they were one artist. The building and the gardens here are a huge art collection, sculpture park and gallery. Even the house is a work of art, being the only European work by Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy. It was designed to reflect different cultures that once held sway in Majorca. It has been a protected monument from 2011.
If only we had known, we would certainly have tried to visit.
Maybe next time.
We also passed by this lighthouse. This is the Faro de Alcanada, built in 1861. Not very well built it would seem as rotten wooden beams were replaced in 1863. In the early years of operation, lighthouse keepers made the light work, but there were sailors on the island as well, dealing with supply issues. That arrangement ceased in 1866, when only the keepers remained, with maybe one or two visits a week for supplies. If there was an emergency, they had to raise a white flag to bring help.
Remarkably, to me at least, in 1917 rotating light panels were introduced. These reflected light made by burning gas. The remarkable thing is that they made the gas on site through mixing calcium carbide rocks with water. This reacts to give you acetylene gas. Who knew? How amazing that they made their own gas to power the light rather than candles as in most British lighthouses. The site is now unmanned and powered by solar panels and batteries.
There was very basic food on the catamaran, but we were fortunate to get back to the hotel before the end of breakfast service, so we had a bit of a brunch.
We also had a sleep and a generally lazy afternoon on the roof. We had been up very, early after all.
Nonetheless, it would eventually be time for pre-dinner drinks on the terrace before our last meal on the island.
Just to prove we were still together after all this time.
We went back to the place where we had lunch the day before, Mar y Sol.
We had a nice seat near the street, which caught whatever breeze there was coming up off the sea. It was a little marred by a dysfunctional family of children, parents, and grandparents. The children were noisier than we were used to, indeed, the holiday had all been about peace, quiet and tranquility. However, they didn't stay for ever and it became much more civilised and we ordered dinner.
Before the order arrived we were given a simple plate of crisp calamari. Not something that I would normally order, but they were very good.
Unfortunately, they were not ours! The waiter had taken them to the wrong table, so we didn't get to finish them when the error was discovered.
Still, we soon had our own nibbles of bread, olives, alioli and an outstanding tomato and herb mix. Lovely.
We shared a house salad of prawns and avocado with a really nice balsamic type dressing.
My main would not win any prizes for presentation, but the tastes were fabulous. Almost all of the mains came with a baked potato, but inside was a big melting blob of alioli, rich in garlic, salty almost and crispy on top. What a surprise that was. The vegetables were laced with smoked sausage of some type and were really tasty. The pork with the sobrasada sauce and honey was fabulous. Excellent all round.
Sharon had a spinach and ricotta type cheese ravioli, which she enjoyed immensely, but for me, it wisnae Majorcan!
Then it was the short walk to the hotel, before a rude awakening to catch our transport at 3am! We were back in Inverness by lunchtime on the Tuesday and I had covid by the Thursday and Sharon had it by the next Monday!
Luckily that wasn't our only souvenir from Majorca. We brought back some wine and some almond pastes, so we will be having a wee Majorcan evening as soon as we have recovered.
Comments
Post a Comment