Mallorca

What was only supposed to be an architectural, 4-day-long-weekend-trip, turned out to be a 7-day, beach-resort, lounge relaxing, stuff-your-stomach, melanomic, poolside-holiday trip complete with fruity sangria, colorful paper umbrellas to keep cocktail ice-cubes from melting, sandals, sunblock #30 and an assortment of designer g-strings.  Upon checking out the flight prices, a shorter trip was actually more expensive than a longer trip (airfare wise that is) so that's why we went for 7 relaxing days instead of 4 hectic days.   

Oh, I searched and I searched for the best deals on all the competing airlines.  For days I searched the net to the irritating tune from Jens, “Just book a damn charter package and get it over with!”   Jens gets impatient with my internet surfing.  "But just think of the money we are $aving, Hunny!", I would say to him.   

It’s traveling season so no way can I be sure that getting an employee deal will get us there and back as the tickets are always on “stand-by” basis.  But I checked the real prices anyway just to see what they are.  Turns out that I had a wad of travel points (I didn’t even know that), they were going to expire at the end of June, and we wanted to travel at the beginning of June.  We were in luck.  All that internet surfing really paid off.  I was able to use all of my points and pay by credit card for the balance points that I still needed.  Don’t get me wrong – when I say I had a wad of travel points, I mean like I was able to save $100 or so.  But that’s a savings that otherwise would have gone down the toilet had I not used the points.   

Now when I say: “I saved $100”, it is in comparison to the normal SAS price.  It turns out to be only a savings of about $40 compared to one of the other companies that we use very often and the savings was only if we in calculated the price of coffee and baggage and choice of seat on the other company.  But all in all, I was very satisfied in the end with the final price that we had to pay.  Plus Plus Plus – I found this wonderful hotel at the water’s edge on the side of a rising hill with the swimming pool practically up in the sky allowing for a full day of sunshine and amazing views.  So many other hotels in the same price category either had pools in the shadows of neighboring hotels or a walk from the coastline or very worn down and cheesy looking interior. 

Just two hotels away for example was a hotel for half price – great views and across the street from the beach.  One of the comments from a previous guest was “noisy” and the photos of the place looked somewhat old.  Well it turns out that the hotel caters to children  and they blasted children’s music every evening that we walk by on the way to dinner restaurants.  Sooooooooo glad I read that comment. It pays to surf and read what other guests remark on the hotels.  True the reviews can be conflicting or nit picking but you can gather a general idea to help make your decision.

We have been to Mallorca many years ago in a beautiful area called Alcudia. It’s more beautiful than I could ever begin to describe.  But we didn’t go back there because of all the screaming children.  God made the Alcudia beach just for children as you can walk for ½ a mile out into the beautiful azure blue water with white powder sand under your feet and never go deeper than your knees. 

So this time we picked a place that was more rugged in nature – hills, mountains and jagged coast line. We chose a place at the end of Palma Nova.  The half price hotel I just mentioned – it was at the begging of the next beach area called Magaluf.  Magaluf is the party place.  I took a walk one day to the far end of Magaluf.  OMG – it was a swarm of young guys and girls half drunk and on the make – and this was in the middle of the afternoon with bars banging out beats of bass from the latest top 10 songs.  If you want to sleep – and we do – Magaluf is not the place to go.  A work-mate of mine told me this about a month before we booked and I was soooooo happy for his 2 cents.  Our neighbors downstairs are a conservative couple.  They just returned from Mallorca one week before we departed. Just by coincident they booked a charter package to Mallorca and Magaluf was their hotel destination.  They were not post-card happy upon returning to CPH.

The photos of our hotel on theinternet showed a bunch of seniors playing Uno or sitting in one of the 3 restaurants on the hotel grounds, sipping on gazpacho or playing a wild game of bingo – I knew I had found the right place.

We landed at PMI at 10-ish in the morning and 30 minutes later by taxi, we checked-in into our apartment.  We unpacked, relaxed, took a little siesta and when we got up, we went on a hunt for the nearest restaurant to have dinner.  It’s a total tourist town so what looked interesting to Jens was a Tex-Mex joint.  He’s not even into that kind of food but he liked the look of the place and the menu as well.  So there we sat in the open air patio facing the beach eating dinner.  It was a wonderful palace as well as the food.

After dinner, we walked the beach promenade, and then back to the hotel, a little televisíoñ and then Zzzzz-land.   The next morning we are excited to see what the hotel restaurant looked like and what kind of food they are serving.  What a surprise, the place was like a tiny closet compared to the monstrosity at the Tenerife hotel were we stayed at this past winter.  The place was less than half-full.  We were able to get a window seat every morning.  The buffet selection was small but had more to choose from than you could possibly eat.  It was delicious, fresh and hot from the pan: poached eggs, thick bacon, pancakes, fresh fruit, cold cuts, cakes and pastries, nice selection of breads and cheeses, and on and on. 

Sitting next to us is this couple speaking Danish.  What are the chances that another Danish couple is staying at the same place as the one I found on Booking.com?  I booked 3 months ago to be sure to get a good price and get space on both the flight and the hotel – right?  And this couple says to us, “Oh we just booked this charter package last week and got a really great deal.”  “Charter package?” I ask confusingly, “Just last week?”

The woman goes on, “Oh yeah, because the weather is so nice at home, the charter companies are having a hard time selling their hotel allotments.”   

First of all - I planned this trip precisely for the month of June because for the last 20+ years here in DK, the rainiest month of the year is June.  But nooooo – not this year.  It’s so warm that the charter companies are having a hard time selling their packages. 

Second of all - I bought early to get a good price and space as this is the start the travel season and prices normally go up the longer you wait.

I continued to quiz the woman sitting at the next table and wondering what charter company she could possibly be talking about.  Sure enough, she mentioned one of the major Danish travel charter companies and I could just hear the voice inside of Jens’ head going: told you so!  told you so!    told you!    told you!    told you so!!

I gulp down my spit and asked, “May I be so bold as to ask you how much you paid?”

Well right then and there I just wanted to scream bloody murder.  They paid $500 less than we did and they were there for one day more than us.

I had to find some sort of consolation to make the situation better and bragged, "Well we have a superior room."   "So do we", the woman smiled as though we were good friends, not knowing I just wanted to smack her one.

But I’m a good sport so I just had to shake my head and laugh at it all.  But of course, eventually someone has to die!!!!

Seriously – all in all, at the time of purchase I felt I got a good deal and by the end of the week, as well as now, I can look back on a fantastic holiday and was lucky enough to share it with the one I love most.

Here are just some of the highlights and all 160 photos can be seen on my shutterfly site by clicking here.

 Having a bon-voy-age breakfast shot or should I say, an "Hasta La Vista Baby" bite in the airport lounge.

 At the front door entrance to the hotel - having a fresh smoke before checking-in.

 Double decker Tex-Mex burger and chili con corny in fried tortilla shell.

 Convert your in-flight barf bags into luminarias.

 Selection of breakfast cereals in hand-made and hand-painted Spanish pots.

 Our hotel room is just up at the top of the hill.

 Jens sitting on the steps that lead to our hotel on the top of the hill.

 This boat harbor and then 2 small apartment buildings in the background and then our hotel beyond that.

 The boat harbor marks the start of Magaluf and in the background is party town.

 Our morning view.

 The hotel lobby and swimming pool are on the 4th floor.

 The view from the pool is amazing because we are so high up.  Directly below are 3 floors of superior apartments (2 rooms or studio)

 The choice was ours: a morning swim or breakfast.

 Today we went into town, Palma, the capital of Mallorca. Google "La Seu" or "cathedral of Mallorca to find out more about this amazing building.

 At the cathedral.

 At the cathedral.

 At the cathedral.

 The main road along side of the cathedral.

 At the main square - Plaza Mayor.

 Last shot before getting back on the bus to Palma Nova.

 Our hotel is the long, white, low-laying building in the middle of the pix.

 Just 3 rooms and 20 steps away is this wonderful veranda.

 Standing near the doors to the lobby and the restaurant.  You can walk down to one of the several terraces to relax, lay out, play ping pong or pool table or go all the way to the end to the veranda.  A few steps to the right will bring us to our hotel studio.  If you wish, you can follow the sidewalk path down to the sea.  In the other direction you can go to the pool and choose any one of the louges which allows for wonderful views over the sea.  Tucked away in the corner is the lunch restaurant and you can choose to eat out doors or inside the building which has been built at the edge of the hillside and provides for wonderful views towards Magaluf while sipping on Sangria.

 Please excuse me while I scribe into something more comfortable.  Didn't do my normal 50 postcards this time.  So if you didn't get yours, blame it on the post man or consider this to be it. And yes those are real puka shells straight from Hawaii 1972.

 If you have been following my blogs, then you know we like to test Jens' coordination skills.

 Amazing flowers everywhere we go.

 This was our discount meal and surprisingly it was probably the best meal and the best deal of all the places we ate at.  We at so much this week, our g-strings popped a thread.

 This is one of the places I wanted to eat at and I checked it out before we went on vacation.  It's a swanky place but it was too hot to put on real clothes plus the website (click here) highly recommends table reservations in advance.  We hand no idea what we were doing or when so we just left it.  And then just by chance on our last full day, I ended up walking smack right in front of it.  Now that I know where it is, for sure we will hit it up next time.  (hey - it's only 3 hours away from here so there will for sure be a next time.)

 One of the many splendid views on my walk.

 One of the many beautiful homes that I can't afford.

 I've been eying this pizza restaurant all week long.  I wanted our last meal to be a special meal and not pizza.  Pizza on vacation is sooooo cheesy.  But the place was too adorable to say no to, so we sat here and took the chance.  Well I must say, the Sangria was of a color we've never seen before and it was so tasty.  And seriously, this was the best pizza I have ever tried.  I don't care for thin crust pizza and this crust was as thin as a playing card but my goodness it was sooooooooo delicious.  And what was really great about this place is that dessert was served across the street while eating the pizza - check out my shutterfly to see what I mean.

 Having one last beer at the lobby-bar while wating for the taxi.

A bibida bibida bibida bibida That's all folks!