Mallorca = one heck of a 40th

I decided long ago that when Mark turned 40, we were going to do something big, huge! Especially since he would be turning 40 while we were still living in Europe. It was quite a trial getting all the details figured out. Where to go? Will he get leave? Should we take the kids?

Well the answers to those questions took time to work out. Where to go? it had to be somewhere in Spain, Mallorca sounded so exotic but it ended up being the most economical, go figure. Will he get leave? probably not, it was granted and then taken away about 3 times Arrgghhh! Should we take the kids? we truly enjoy spending time with our children. We aren't trying to get away from them all the time like some parents. They are easy, enjoyable and so fun to watch when they explore new things. But, it was time to go solo. Plus we had a perfect situation with friends where we could do a kid swap.

We found a hotel just off the southwest coast, in Santa Ponca. It was perfect, we could walk across the street and be on the beach.

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This is the view from our hotel room:
After you walk up these stairs:
You get to see this (I'm pointing to our hotel room):
Mallorca is small, it only takes about 40 minutes to drive across it. It was different than I thought it would be, in the middle of the island it looked like a desert, no green anything! On one side of the island there were dramatic cliffs, on the other side, nice white sandy beaches. On the north, green trees that you would never think there was a desert close by. On the south, the city of Palma.

The first day we went driving. We stopped in Inca to experience a market day:
What we found for sale was lots of clothing, made of linen, light and flowing skirts and shirts; leather handbags and beautiful produce:
Then we drove to the northern coast to the peninsula of Formentor and we were rewarded with spectacular views:
On our way to the penninsula, we met this big guy. It was weird, he was not spooked at all, he walked onto that road like he owned the place, calm and cool, which allowed me to reach for the camera case, get it out, turn it on and take the picture. He was really good at telling us, "You are the visitors, not me. Back off".
After that we drove back to the northwest coast to Valldemosa. I had actually been here before, when I cruised with my sister-in-law and Mark's grandmother. The monestary is very well known as the place where Chopin spent a winter seeking medical therapy for tuberculosis and brought along his lover, the french author George Sand. Interestingly enough, the two did not enjoy their stay in Valldemossa, they feuded with the locals and it did nothing to improve his health. But, he did write music while he was there and Mark and I got to see original transcripts and the piano he played on. PLUS, we were able to listen to a piano concert where a very talented musician played 4 pieces of Chopin music. That was so cool!
The next day we did very little. In fact, we did very little of this:
And very little of that:
Some more of this:
And more of that:
Mark did a lot of this:
And I did a lot of that:
These are the beach chair combo's that you can rent for the day:
The favorite treat of Mallorca are Ensaimada's, a pastry that tastes a little like a croissant with powdered sugar on top.
During our last day, we spent a couple of hours in Sant Elm, which if I would have known about ahead of time, we just would have found a local and begged them to let us hang until the hour before our flight left for home:
At the airport as we were waiting for our flight and trying to figure out what to eat for lunch, we decided we definitely would not eat here. For some reason I just get the idea of a terrible aftertaste to anything you ordered:
Happy birthday to my sweet husband and thank you so much for turning 40 this year!