Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: Day 4 - Saturday Criss Crossing Majorca In A Nissan Micra

Saturday, March 04, 2017

Day 4 - Saturday Criss Crossing Majorca In A Nissan Micra

Majorca is famous for these old windmills

Today we got a rental car early and criss crossed Majorca. It was fun getting out of the city of Palma and seeing some of the country life. 400,000 live in Palma and about the same live on the rest of the island. 80% of the island's economy is tourism - and most of what is left is agriculture. They raise sheep - citrus - almonds - olives. We went up in the mountains and down to the shore in the southeast.

Nothing is sadder than visiting a park or beach after the visitors have gone home. In the summer Majorca loads up with visitors mostly from England - Germany - and the rest of Spain. Today we saw empty downtowns - empty beaches - restaurants closed - and guest homes shuttered up.

Majorca has about 1400 square miles. That is about the same as Long Island - except Long Island is long and skinny. It is almost the same size and shape of Oahu - the Hawaiian Island that has Honolulu. Also Palma - the capital of Majorca - has about the same number of people as Hawaii's capital. There are many differences between Majorca and Hawaii - besides cultures - the main difference is that Hawaii has no off season. The weather is the same all year around.

What makes Majorca so popular among the Euros that it is a short plane ride and it is so much warmer and sunnier than the homelands. In the case of Hawaii - there is the a big cover charge to get there - a plane ride that is at least 5 hours from civilization. Even on a straight flight from Florida it is 10 hours.

After a world class buffet breakfast at our hotel - that included champagne - we picked up our rental car and went into the mountains. They say you can find almost any climatic region in the mountains of Majorca. They love to show pictures of the leaves turning color - just like the Northeastern USA. We found a grove of grapefruits. We found endless lines of olive trees behind stone walls along the narrow country roads.

We crossed the island west to east to Mondrago National Beach Park. The beach is open all season - but all the restaurants - hotels - and concessions - are closed. Lulu loves beaches. In the next 15 days she will see tons of them - but it did not stop here from going the distance to see this one.

After a wonderful supper in Santanyi - we stopped in a Bauhaus store. We loved these stores in Berlin - and wanted to see a Spanish one. It reminds me of a cross between Lowes - Home Depot - Walmart - and Ikea. They offer all sorts of housewares - many in knock down state - like Ikea. We did not buy anything - but always pick up ideas at a Bauhaus.

Finally - I dropped Lulu off at our hotel - got fuel for the rental car - returned it to Enterprise - and walked back to our place. Our hotel offers free cava - so we spent some time downstairs before sacking down for the night. Cava is a Spanish sparkling wine offered in both white and red.

As I finish this story - it is almost 10 PM here. Lulu is napping - I promised to wake her up for the FSU-Miami game about to come on TV. We can watch it using our Slingbox. Slingbox is a device hooked to our TV back home that sends live or recorded programs - on the Internet - to our computer here. Last night we watched FSU girls lose to Miami - we hope we do not see the boys do the same tonight.