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  • Palma – Airport Bus from City Centre

    Palma – Airport Bus from City Centre

    All good things must come to an end, with today being my last day in Mallorca and the rather lovely city of Palma. I haven’t actually made it out of Palma and its suburbs yet, there’s more than enough to see and do in the city itself.

    I picked up the bus (not literally) from the port area of the city, which wasn’t far from my hotel, which as can be seen above from the hoards of passengers was a popular stop. Although the bus was full with standing room only by the time it reached the city centre, but I had my comfortable back seat sorted.

    The real reason that I’ve posted this is that someone had left a pack of M&Ms on one of the seats and they suddenly went flying shortly after we set off. The driver probably thought that it was me since I was the only passenger, but it reminded me of a miniature version of the Sony Bravia ad where thousands of balls are set off down a hill. I feel sorry for what was perhaps a child who lost his or her sweets, but it did lead to an interesting game of pinball for some time, along with a smell of chocolate which didn’t disperse during the journey.

  • Palma – Royal Palace of La Almudaina

    Palma – Royal Palace of La Almudaina

    Citizens of the European Union can get in free to the Royal Palace in Palma on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons after 15:00, so this seemed the best time for me to go. The staff were also carefully checking passports, so this was a policy being enforced. The Royal Palace is located opposite Palma Cathedral, so this is the historic religious and political centre of the city.

    This Royal Palace, which is still today occasionally used by the Spanish Royal Family, was built as a fort for the Islamic governors of the island in 903. When the island was conquered by the Christian forces in 1229, King James I of Majorca turned the building into his own residence. However, when King James III died in 1349, it was never again used for permanent occupation by Royalty.

    The original Great Hall would have been an impressive sized set of rooms, but in 1578 it was split into two floors, which has disturbed the look of the rooms somewhat as it has cut across the natural lines of the original building.

    One of the tapestries on the ground floor.

    There are some Arab baths on the site, although these date back to the Roman period and remained relatively unchanged over the period of one thousand years.

    One of the Royal Family’s rooms upstairs in the palace.

    This is the new Great Hall (or Main Hall), which is actually the top half of the old room, although it still has some considerable size to it. Downstairs the rooms have walls between them, but here it has been left open-plan.

    And a photo of one end of the Great Hall, which had to be urgently repaired in 1985 when the ceiling was in quite a precarious position.

    A view of Palma Cathedral from the palace’s courtyard.

    And the Royal Palace itself from the palace’s courtyard.

    A rooftop garden with its collection of cacti.

    A view from the rooftop garden.

    A view of the harbour from one of the palace’s windows, they certainly got themselves a prime location in the city.

    It’s not a huge site and I was fortunate it wasn’t too busy when I went, as it does appear to get a little congested in places. There is also a chapel on the site, but I’ll post separately about that. The historical context offered is also underwhelming, there are a couple of information panels near to the entrance, but very little beyond that other than some brief room descriptions. Given how much space the authorities have to play with here, it’s not clear why they haven’t developed the site a little and added more context about the history of the city.

  • Palma – Beatnik

    Palma – Beatnik

    This is one of the best rated restaurants in Palma, but they were also offering 50% off main courses for anyone booking via The Fork (which I think is a bloody hopeless app, but more on which in another post). I do get correspondence from restaurants and pubs that I’ve written about, and I have a slight feeling that this restaurant might stumble across this post at some time. Not because what I’ve written is of any particular relevance, just that the hotel and restaurant seems very pro-active and on-line orientated.

    The ambience in the restaurant was comfortable, although it was slightly challenging for the staff since I was the only customer. That’s more testament to that I prefer to eat in the early evening, so I caught the last available lunch-time slot which was at 16:30, not really a popular eating time for Spaniards.

    I had already seen the restaurant’s drinks menu on-line, and I wasn’t entirely excited by it. They had no beers or soft drinks listed, but there were pages of wines and other spirits. For a restaurant which is so on-trend and contemporary, the lack of craft beers was obvious. So, I had sparkling water.

    Mini rolls were provided, which were a perfectly pleasant way to start. The service was friendly, attentive and authentic throughout, even given the limitation that the staff had that I was their only customer. There were other staff present in the restaurant and they were speaking freely about numerous business matters, none of which were confidential, but it was an interesting distraction to listen to.

    The grilled octopus, served with sauteed ratte potatoes and lemon aioli. The best octopus I’ve had is in Polpo in London, which is hardly surprising since it’s the Italian word for octopus. The accompaniment with the octopus was excellent, the potatoes were perfectly cooked and had a nutty taste, it was well seasoned and there were a range of tastes and textures. The octopus itself was served as a large portion and had a pleasant taste and the appropriate texture, although it didn’t quite have that melt in the mouth feel to it. But, bearing in mind it came in at under £10, this was certainly not a bad dish at all.

    I ordered fries to go with the meal, which just appear in the above photo, and they were fluffy in the interior and firm on the exterior, just how I like them. They were salty and pleasant tasting, all rather lovely. My post-meal cappuccino was also perfectly acceptable.

    As for the restaurant itself, which is located within a hotel, it’s clearly on-trend and has some really interesting ideas. I liked the menu and the concept and although I was initially surprised that they needed to reduce prices by 50%, it seems that November is a challenging month for restaurants and it can’t be easy to fill seats in locations such as this. If I was bringing a group of people here, I’d trust this restaurant to get it right as there was that feeling of organisation and effective management about the operation. The only slight limitation for me about the restaurant was that, bearing in mind I need things to be idiot-proof, it was too hard to find the way in, as it involved going into the hotel, speaking to the receptionist, going through a door, down some steps and then through another door.

    But, overall, all very lovely.

  • Palma – Final Evening

    Palma – Final Evening

    My final full day in Palma, and it’s looking rather beautiful in the evening light.

  • Palma – McDonald’s Update

    Palma – McDonald’s Update

    I’d feel very amiss if I didn’t mention some items on the McDonald’s menu in Spain that aren’t on the UK menu. I’ll also admit that the expected readership for this post is two, which is Dylan and Leon, my favourite McDonald’s connoisseurs. And I know Leon is up for trying new menu items, although the cucumber sticks were definitely an adventure too far.

    The chicken burger is probably available in the UK, but potato wedges aren’t usually available in the UK, although they sometimes are. I still prefer fries, but variety is the spice of life.  And the things in the middle at the back are chicken bites, which don’t appear very often in the UK either. But, they’re most lovely. They go really well alongside Chicken McNuggets, to spice things up a bit.

    And a layered coffee. Probably not for the tastes of young Dylan and Leon (not until Dylan is ten), but what is apparently condensed milk at the bottom and then some coffee arrangement above that I don’t understand. It’s particularly lovely. It looks pretty though. I nearly threw the glass in the bin thinking it was plastic, but I think it is actually glass…. It came with a proper teaspoon as well, very exotic for McDonald’s.

    Probably not suitable for children until they’re at least eleven, McDonald’s also do beer in Spain. Won’t be long now until Dylan and Leon can start to begin their lessons, from me, in the delights of craft beer. I’m sure starting them on thirds is fine at the age of eleven.

    Anyway, that’s my McDonald’s post aimed at two particular children finished   🙂    And hello from Palma, Mallorca and Spain!

  • Palma – Guinness Nitro IPA

    Palma – Guinness Nitro IPA

    I’d never seen or heard of this, although it has seemingly been available in limited locations for a few years. This is what Guinness say about it:

    “A complex mix of five hop varieties yields a strong body with citrus flavours. Berry sweetness arrives. Bitterness lingers.”

    I must admit, that went entirely over my palate, as I didn’t notice any strong body, any citrus flavours or any berry sweetness. It was all a bit bland. The “bitterness lingers” is a strange way to describe a beer though.

    Anyway, an interesting experiment, but it’s not that exciting a beer. If they want intense flavours, pinch some of the ideas and tastes from Brewdog.

  • Palma – Burger King Vouchers

    Just as a public information post…. I thought that I’d quickly pop into Burger King to update this blog and get a quick snack. The chain though has this ridiculous policy of having prices that verge on unrealistic on their boards and kiosks, whilst deluging out vouchers to locals. So, I had to ensure that I could find the voucher codes that could be typed into the kiosk so that I wasn’t over-charged.

    And, just in case they’re useful to anyone else, they’ve attached here. How lovely. And they probably don’t change the codes very often, the £1.99 Big Mac and fries has had the same code for four years in the UK (although I’ve never got round to using it).

    Right, back to local companies and sites and away from multi-nationals….

  • Palma – Orient Bakery

    Palma – Orient Bakery

    The selection of pastries and cakes on display looked sufficiently tempting for me to accidentally walk in on my way by this cafe.

    Everything was well presented and there was an air of organisation and professionalism to this operation.

    A contemporary and modern interior, all inviting and comfortable. I did feel sorry for the staff member who had to keep chasing a pigeon out of the cafe, which seems to be a common problem for many eating establishments in central Palma. The pigeon was no idiot, it sneaked in when the staff member was busy and could see the small pieces of pastry on the floor which it wanted.

    My knowledge about the pastry options in Greggs is near perfect, but my global knowledge isn’t quite to that standard. I asked what was in the pastries and the staff member explained that they had three empanadas, although I thought that they were a different shape. Anyway, my lack of pastry shape knowledge aside, they had two types of pork empanadas and one chicken empanada, so the latter sounded the best to me as it was the nearest to a chicken bake that I was getting.

    The empanada was heated up and the pastry was fine, although a little tasteless, but the filling was magnificent and packed with flavour. It was moreish and well seasoned, with a depth of taste to it and with a firm texture but with the meat still being tender and moist. The coffee was also of a decent quality with a suitable bitter flavour.

    The environment was all relaxing and laid-back, this has one of the most modern of interiors that I’ve seen in Palma so far, and it’s clear that they are keen to ensure that the food is all well presented. The service was timely and attentive, with the atmosphere feeling welcoming and comfortable. All very lovely.

  • Palma – Es Rebost

    Palma – Es Rebost

    The description of my visit here won’t take too long.

    I wasn’t acknowledged when I went in, but I sat down to peruse their menu. It didn’t offer anything substantially interesting, but I thought I might get a snack and beer. Anyway, the restaurant was way over-staffed which I imagine led to confusion as to who was meant to be serving each table.

    The upshot of all that is that no-one came to take my order and two staff members came to take the order of a nearby couple who had just come in and weren’t yet ready to place their order. So I left and I doubt anyone noticed. I think that’s the first time out of hundreds of cafe and restaurant visits that’s happened to me this year.

  • Palma – Castell de Bellver

    Palma – Castell de Bellver

    It’s a bit of a walk up to this castle, although that does afford for some extensive views over the surrounding landscape.

    The entrance gate to the castle, which was built in the fourteenth century for King James II of Majorca. It later became a military and political prison before being converted to its current use as a local history museum.

    The donjon, or inner keep, is separate to the main circular part of the castle. There was a drawbridge which connected this to an area near to the entrance gate, although that has long since gone with only the stone footings now visible. The only access now is via a high-level stone bridge from the main castle, although this isn’t open to the public. I can imagine that in future years, if visitor numbers increase, that more will be done with the empty space here, as there’s a lot more area to fill should they wish.

    There’s a lot of stonework here, with the defences being called into action on numerous occasions, although they were breached only once, in 1521.

    Looking down into the lower area and ditches of the castle.

    The inner courtyard of the castle.

    This is the stone path to the main inner keep of the castle.

    A view over the top of the courtyard.

    I liked this design, which is a fireplace in one of the upper rooms. However, underneath the fireplace are the steps down to the floor below.

    When the museum was established it was partly to display the collection of sculptures and statues that the island had collected, although this has been somewhat relegated to a room upstairs now.

    There are numerous locations around the castle where graffiti is a problem, although it seems to mainly be from the 1980s into the early twenty-first century. There are now signs threatening all manner of police and legal action for anyone who adds their own mark to the castle. Much as graffiti is dreadful, there does come a point where it becomes historically interesting in itself. Although to know that Dwayne was here in 2005 doesn’t add much to the proceedings at the moment.

    A boundary stone dating to 1937, although I had thought it looked much earlier, which is when access to the castle was restricted.

    There aren’t any particularly notable TripAdvisor reviews, although I liked this one, with the writer definitely being annoyed.

    “I was really annoyed. We went there only to find it was closed over Easter. Really annoying. Tourists are only there a limited amount of time, so we do not have flexibility over when we can visit.”

    I did quite like this one though as well, which is still relevant as the ticket desk is located by the car park, rather than at the main gateway. But, the half mile walk isn’t accurate, it’s a sixty-second walk, but I’m sure the poor ticket collector was pleased to receive a load of abuse from a British traveller.

    “So, I set out at around 9am to climb the 500+ steps up to the castle. I had a 20 min walk to that point but it was great exercise. We conquered the first part of the climb and were rewarded with some stunning views over Mallorca and the port. We negotiated the rest of the climb and make it to the entrance gate of the castle itself where an uniformed ” jobs- worth” tells me to go back down 50 steps and walk half a mile up the road to the car park where I will be able to buy an entrance ticket to the castle. I cannot write here what I told him!”

    And, maybe this is worth noting as well:

    “U expect a great view but it is not.”

    It’s hard to imagine how much better the view could have been….

    Anyway, it’s a relatively large site, which most children would no doubt enjoy exploring, with the entrance being moderate at €4. It was relatively busy when I was there, on a November weekday morning, so I imagine that it must be popular during the summer months.