Mallorca, Spain

Today we visited the island of Mallorca, pronounced my-your-ka. It is a very popular tourist destination, known for beautiful beaches. Annually, they have about 13 million visitors. The largest percentage are German, British and Spanish. 

We docked at the capital city, Palma. Here's a view of Palma from the ship.

Originally, I had booked a Flamenco show for this stop. I was extremely disappointed when it ended up being canceled. So, last minute I booked us a tour called Easy Palma. Note to self: tours labeled easy are full of walkers, wheelchairs, and people who are barely mobile. I understand they want to see the sites, too; but we're not in that category yet. No more easy tours!

Our first stop was the Catedral Basilica de Santa Maria de Mallorca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I've noticed Spanish historic places have long names. Construction of the Catholic cathedral started in 1229. Work continued into the 17th century. We only saw the outside, but it was magnificent. 

View from the ship 

On the left side of the cathedral is the Royal Palace of La Almudaina for the royal family. Spain still has a king, but similar to England, he is a figurehead. The palace is only used for official functions. The royals don't stay there. 

There are beautiful gardens around the palace.

Many tourist photos of Mallorca feature windmills. At one time, there were 3,300 windmills on the island. There are still some to be seen in the middle of the city in various states of repair.

Mark Zuckerberg's mega yacht named Launchpad is currently parked in the marina. It cost $300 million, and is 387 feet long. To put that in perspective, longer than a football field. Doesn't everyone need one???

But, Mark is conservative compared to Jeff Bezos. His yacht, Koru, left here recently. It was $500 million, is 417 feet long, and is the world's largest sailing yacht. Must be rough. 

Our last stop was Castell de Bellver. It was built on a hill in early 1300s for King James II as one of only a few circular castles in Europe. Originally, it was the residence of the king, then it was a military prison, and is now a museum.

It has four towers. Three are attached to the castle. The fourth is freestanding, with a drawbridge connecting it. It was a last level of escape in case of attack, but the castle was never attacked. 

View of castle from ship

Aerial view from web

Views from up there were incredible!

Today is the last day of this cruise. Tomorrow, we dock in Barcelona. We are planning to take a ride on the hop on, hop off bus before the ship leaves again tomorrow afternoon. 

The next cruise is ten days visiting southern Italy and Greece. More adventures await!

We enjoyed our first visit to Spain. I was surprised how mountainous each city was. The people were friendly, and prices were reasonable even though the dollar is 11% below the Euro.