Getting some winter sun in Mallorca, Spain COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

The castle was well worth the admission fee! The courtyard must have been so full of life when the castle was in use. That staircase was incredible. I wonder exactly how it was built back then. From the top the castle had excellent views in all directions.

I must admit I hadn't thought about how they built it - with difficulty I would imagine...

[chezp]

Saturday 11 January – part ten: just give me another room!

We headed back to the car and headed out. Our destination was Carrefour, having seen one on the way in, as we might be able to pick up some diabetic chocolate for my dad, and maybe some of the Spanish pink fizz (not its proper name obviously ) that I like. We found our way in, and soon found that they had a massive cycle display:



This seems to be a trend here. Our hotel has a cycle centre, and we saw quite a few cyclists on the roads today, so obviously this is peak time for cycling in Mallorca right now.

We headed to the produce section, trying to see if they had any macaroons, although sadly they didn’t but we did find these beauties there:



Something we weren’t expecting to find here was this:



Hmmm…. maybe we’ll have to get that for lunch on Monday. Tomorrow isn’t an option, as they’re closed on Sunday, like just about everything else.

We headed off to find some diabetic Valor chocolate for my dad that he loves, and can’t get at home. We ended up buying 10 bars of it. That should do for part of his birthday and Christmas present this year. No luck on the pink fizz, but then again, we’ve never seen it in Carrefour before, so that wasn’t a huge surprise. Instead, we got some cookies, just in case all the restaurants are closed for lunch tomorrow (we’ve been stung like that before! :rollyes2: ) and some water. They have a separate area just for water here.



I also found these!



We headed to the checkout, and it was back to the car with our purchases. We made our way back to the hotel, seeing some interesting sights on the way…


We think this was a prison….


When we got there, the problem with parking was quickly obvious. Good grief, they literally have about 10 spaces outside the hotel, then you’re on to the road outside. Now that wouldn’t have been too bad, except the cars were parked so badly that you could’ve fitted another one in between, had they all parked together. Mark pulled up, while I went to ask what to do at the desk. The guy couldn’t help, and to be honest, I couldn’t see any other on street parking, so I was a bit panicked at this stage. He told us we could park outside the hotel for a little while, and then try again, so I went down once, and no luck.

In the end, about 20 minutes later, we went down, and Mark spotted some parking on the street further down the road. However, he wasn’t keen on it, as no-one else was parked there. He thought his luck was in, as he saw someone reversing out of the hotel car park spaces, so we both ran back, but it was actually supposed to a disabled space that two cars had parked in. Maybe not…

He headed off to park up further down the street, while I took the water back to the room. By the time I came out, he was just finishing up, and he wasn’t the first one there any longer. I guess it’ll get busier along there as the night goes on.

We headed up to the room to relax for a bit, with me taking occasional photos outside of the view as darkness started to fall.



Although it was a bit colder, and politically a lot more stable it reminded both of us of our trip to Egypt three years ago, as it’s unusual to have such long days and reasonably pleasant weather, plus again, we were staying half board there, something we don’t often do.

The only problem we had during this time was Mr and Mrs Noisy next door, who arrived back in their room, and put their TV on, and we could clearly hear in our room. I figured, when I heard the sliding door to the balcony shut, that maybe they’d had it on loud, so that they could hear it out there, but how wrong can you be? We’ll return to this later…

We headed down to dinner just after 6:30pm, which is when the restaurant opened. Bearing that in mind, it was already quite busy, and got a lot busier with more and more people coming in. I was going to get a glass of wine, and we were thinking about getting a bottle, but although there was a huge rose selection, I hadn’t heard of any of them. I asked someone if any one of them was sweeter, but he told me they were all “trocken” which is German for dry. That tells you something. Trust me, their German was a lot better than their English, and indeed I did feel as if we were a bit in the minority here, as there weren’t many (if any ) English speakers here. I’m sure it’s different in the summer, but this is obviously a huge destination for the Germans.

We went up to sample the buffet, and there was certainly lots of choice…



I started with the pumpkin and carrot cream sauce, which although very watery, was also very tasty. In fact, that’s something I can say about everything I tried – it was all very tasty. The fish was pretty strong, but the flavours were good.

They had a very good dessert selection as well, and much of it I could eat, as with my allergy to tree fruit I do sometimes suffer on that front. I must admit I was worried about that, given the German theme here, as a lot of their desserts tend to be the fruits I can’t eat – i.e. apple, cherry etc. I had a good plateful from the buffet!



All in all, I thought the food was great, although the service, even though it was a buffet, was definitely lacking.

Es Siurell

Appetiser 8½ 8
Entrée 8 8
Dessert 8½ 8
Service 6½ 8
Atmosphere 8 7½

Average score: 7.90

There’s no score for value for money, as this was included with the hotel, as we’re staying half board.

We headed upstairs, and after a while we went to bed. Now usually this is where the story for the day stops, but not today.

After lying there for about 20 minutes, listening to the music from the bar below, and Mr and Mrs Noisy who’d just returned to their room. Once again, their TV was blaring out, and Mark even thumped on the wall to try and get them to turn it down. The idiots went straight to the door to see who was there although the sound did go down… for a few minutes.

In the meantime, I could’ve sworn that the music from the bar downstairs was getting louder and louder. It was all I could hear from the ear that was in my pillow – a thud, thud, thud sound from downstairs.

Eventually, I’d had enough, got dressed, went downstairs to reception, and demanded a new room, telling the guy on reception that we couldn’t sleep because of the noise. He gave us another room immediately, and I went back, and we packed up our things. Mark headed upstairs to take the first load of stuff, while I carried on packing. When I left, I made sure to slam our door as loudly as I could, although I doubt Mr and Mrs Noisy heard a darned thing. In truth, it might have been different if they’d been the only problem, but they weren’t. The noise from downstairs was getting worse, and when I went down to reception, I could see why, as it was pounding away down there. They were obviously having a party, and I didn’t want to be a part of it.

I headed up to our new room on the third floor, which was a bit different from the layout downstairs. We got the feeling downstairs was more of a luxury room, as the bed was bigger, as was the balcony, but to be honest, I didn’t care. I just wanted a good night’s sleep. And with that, we headed to bed, hoping that would be what we’d get…



The weather today was wet and cold when we left London with temperatures in the mid 30s, and dry and cloudy with some sun peeking through and temperatures in the low 60s, although it felt colder than that.
The best thing today was Castell de Bellver.
The worst thing today was the noise in our first room at the hotel.
Today we tried going to Valldemossa
And the result was it’s a lovely little town.
The most magical moment today was seeing Palma from the Castell de Bellver.

Next: how can you let a child do that?

[lauriep]

What a great selection of grab 'n go at Carrefour! Dinner at the hotel sounds and looks tasty, but what a pain with the parking and then with the noisy neighbors and party! I'm sure that went on well into the night, too. I hope you were able to sleep once you got settled into your new room.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by lauriep

What a great selection of grab 'n go at Carrefour! Dinner at the hotel sounds and looks tasty, but what a pain with the parking and then with the noisy neighbors and party! I'm sure that went on well into the night, too. I hope you were able to sleep once you got settled into your new room.

We did. It was so much better up there. I couldn't believe the amount of noise from the bar when I went down to reception.

[disney_duke]

Great selection of eats at Carrefour.
That is horrible of the hotel to have the music like that! It really should be in separate room, far away from the rooms. Wow. And noisy neighbors are so frustrating! I can totally relate to how upset you were at that point.

[shazza]

The Moo Cookies are cute - you did buy some, right?

A question for you - not familiar with the term "half board" - assume it has something to do with meals included?

[cubfancolleen]

Glad they had another room to give you, but too bad it was not as big or luxurious. I would have been cranky about all that noise - especially if it interrupted my ability to sleep!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Great selection of eats at Carrefour.
That is horrible of the hotel to have the music like that! It really should be in separate room, far away from the rooms. Wow. And noisy neighbors are so frustrating! I can totally relate to how upset you were at that point.

Sadly, we've been there before with where we used to live with noisy neighbours and they are just the worst.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by shazza

The Moo Cookies are cute - you did buy some, right?

I didn't - I was good and put them back... strong willpower there!

A question for you - not familiar with the term "half board" - assume it has something to do with meals included?

Half board means breakfast and dinner are included, while full board includes lunch as well. That's different to all inclusive holidays, which literally mean everything's included - they usually add in drinks, snacks etc. on top of full board.

[purplegal]

We now rent automatic when we go to Portugal, its much easier for my husband, it does cost more probably about an additional $200 euros for one month. It is definitely worth the extra money for us.

[Disneybine]

You're right, Chez. Mallorca is the #1 tourist destination for Germans. It's ridiculously cheap to go there for a beach vacation, so Mallorca gets a lot of party tourism And most people on the island do speak at least some German. We have a joke over here that Mallorca is like Germany's 17th federal state

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Disneybine

You're right, Chez. Mallorca is the #1 tourist destination for Germans. It's ridiculously cheap to go there for a beach vacation, so Mallorca gets a lot of party tourism And most people on the island do speak at least some German. We have a joke over here that Mallorca is like Germany's 17th federal state

Now it all makes sense! And I guess a lot of Germans maybe go there cycling in the winter as well?

[KMB733]

Dinner looked really good, sorry the service was lacking though. It amazes me how some people don't really that they aren't the only ones staying in a hotel. Thankfully you were able to get another room!

[pamcarey]

Dinner looked pretty good, and I'd have been very happy with your dessert plate. Yum! Sorry about the noisy room. I'm glad the hotel could move you.


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[SuperDave]

Falling behind on this!

The views from the castle in Palma are amazing. Loved the pics of the waterfall earlier in the day! That was crazy with seeing a torture chamber on your visit. I remember the one I saw when I visited Warwick castle in England some years ago!

Too bad for the noise at the hotel, but at least you got another room.