Today I got up early and caught the 8am bus to Palma. It took a little less than an hour. The buses are air conditioned which is nice but they seem a lot higher off the ground than our UK buses and the drivers seem to have an uncanny ability to stop the bus right next to the wide gutters which run along the edge of the road – making for an ever bigger leap to get off the bus!
The main bus station in Palma is underground and the train station is next to it which makes life easy. I first headed off to check out the station for the train to Soller as A & I are planning to go there next week. I got instructions from a lady at the information point in the station, came out the station and turned right as she told me and walked right on by the little old station! I'm not sure what I expected it to look like but it just looked like a cafe when I walked by!
Next I went in search of one of the yarn shops I'd found on the Internet – Todo Punto. It was a nice little shop – mostly stocking Katia yarns. They also had a great selection of crochet cotton in a wide range of gorgeous colours. I was very tempted and if we go back to Palma on another day I might have to go back for some. I couldn't choose between all the colours and our case was already pretty close to the 20kg limit so we don't have much room for souvenirs! I then carried on up Blanquerna to a nice patchwork shop although unfortunately they had no fabric for sale as they had put on an exhibition of quilts for a couple of days and all their stock was put away. The quilts were nice and the ladies in the shop were friendly and happy for me to take some photographs of the quilts.
I then had a leisurely wander around some of the pedestrianised streets not far from the station and eventually saw a small cafe which I liked the look of (I first spotted the large sign saying Ensaimadas and had been determined to try one of these Mallorcan specialities today!). I ordered a coffee and an Ensaimada. It was very nice – a very light , sweet and dusted with icing sugar. Bit like a Danish pastry I suppose. They do other varieties too – I'm hoping I might have a chance to try another while we are here!
I carried on ambling around the streets in the general direction of the Cathedral. Most of the streets are quite narrow and they stayed nice and shady and cool for much of the day. I remember being impressed by the Cathedral last time I was in Palma. It is massive. I didn't get the best view of it up close. It looked much more impressive from further away when we passed it on the bus.
I made my way back up to the station and stopped for lunch at Cafe 1916 which is across the road from the station. I had a nice salad of goats cheese and bacon. I had seen quite a few ice cream shops during the day. First thing in the morning the many flavours of ice cream made an impressive display and I made sure I had one after lunch ;-)
My poor ankle was really protesting by now and felt quite stiff after all the walking around so I headed back to the bus station. The route goes along the front by the massive harbour which is full of amazing yachts. It's hard to imagine how much money is sitting in Palma Harbour. One of the yachts even had a helicopter on board painted in the same colours as the yacht! There were quite a few enormous cruise ships too. I only caught the name of one of the smaller ones – Costa Serena. When I was sitting on the balcony this evening having some supper I saw her cruising by no doubt on route to another Mediterranean port.
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