Paris - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. I

We left Palma on Thursday and took a Ryanair flight to the Paris-Beauvais airport.  From there you have to take an hour and 15 minute bus ride into the city center.  We were supposed to meet the owner of our apartment-hotel near the Arc de Triomphe at 9 so we took a cab, went through the huge and terrifying traffic circle around the Arc, and made it to the address just on time.

And no one was there.

We were able to get into the main outdoor entrance which led to a big courtyard when someone else left the building.

But no one was there.

We tried to get in the interior door using the electronic key code they gave us.

But it didn't work.

After we walked around everywhere we could get into inside the building, we found a listing of all of the business that were housed there (and there were at least 20) and looked for Aparthotel Cocoon Paris.

But it didn't exist.

As a guy was walking in with his groceries, we flagged him down and asked him if he knew where this place was.  He lived in the building (the top floors were apartments, which seemed like a good sign).

And he had no idea what this place was.

He walked with us outside to look and see if maybe the address was wrong and in the process stopped a repairman and asked him.  He and the repairman talked about it for a while and even used their phones to check that the address was correct and all that.

And they couldn't find it.

The Hotel Le Royal Monceau, a five star hotel, was across the street and we walked over there and asked the doorman and concierge about our hotel.

And they had never heard of it.

The concierge walked over to the the building in question and spent ten minutes trying to figure it out all the while calling the two phone numbers we had for the 'hotel' multiple times.

And getting no response.

Then another gentleman from the hotel came over and eventually we got in when a person who lived there was leaving.  We asked her about the 'hotel' too.

Yep, no idea.

The gentlemen from the Monceau, decided that the whole thing was a scam (they even allowed us to use their check in computer to double check our reservation) and let us use their business center free of charge to book a new hotel.  (on a side note: they never once tried to get us to book a room in the hotel since rooms there were going for 900 euros a night, which was a smidge out of our price range.)  We found a new place in Montmare, about 5km away, hopped in a cab, and 15 minutes later we were dropped off in front of our hotel.

That existed!!

We finally checked into our new hotel at 10:30pm, at which point we were just ready to eat dinner.  Fortunately Paris is...  Paris, and we were able to get an awesome meal of Croque Madame and vino at 11:15 at night.  We stopped by a shop on the way home and picked up a bottle of wine, got back to the hotel and toasted our trip, and then went to bed.  Ending the second most amusing hotel story in the history of France. 

What Just Happened?!?! - Kate's Here!! Pt. IV

Beautiful picture that Kelly, Kate, and I are definitely not in.

As we were driving our rental car along the eastern coastal road in Mallorca, we stopped at a small turn-off overlooking this view.  As were were heading back to the car a small car pulled into the turn-off and two couples in their 60's(ish) got out.  At the car we decided that we should get them to take a picture of the three of us since 3 person selfies can be difficult.

I walked over to the two ladies who were standing at the guardrail and asked if they could take our picture, but the one lady continued talking to her friend.  I realized they were Spanish and so as I ask again in Spanish, while standing there with the universal sign of 'can you take a picture' (holding the camera out with the front facing you and ready to show where the shoot button is).  

As I'm asking, this woman starts talking to her friend again and gives me a slight 'turn away' shoulder.  Her friend glances up with her eyes, quickly looks back down, but never moves her head. Then talking woman akwardly turns into her friend so that she never has to face me and starts walking back to the car, with me just standing there holding a camera out.  I look over to the car where I make eye contact with one of the men in the group, and he does the most sheepish break-eye-contact-and-duck-back-into-the-car that has ever occurred while I am still standing there holding out the camera (now to just the empty space where people used to be).  They then all climb in the car with talking lady obviously forcing conversation and everyone else in silence, trying to look anywhere but where we are.

I turn and walk back to the car where Kelly and Kate are where we all look at each other and in silence climb back into the car, where we look at each other again and begin to burst out laughing.

It was the weirdest feeling not being ignored, but having someone, who obviously knew you were there, act like you weren't.  We still can't decide if the funniest part of the whole thing was talking/ignoring lady, or the other three members of the group who saw what was happening and just took it in silence.

Fortunately, a nice Dutch couple (who lived in Germany and were on the island for a week for a choir competition, yeah, they actually talked to us) took our picture a little ways down the road.

Bizarre.

Kate's Here!! Pt. III

While Kate was here we rented a car for a few days and used it to explore parts of the island that are hard or impossible to get to with the train or bus.  Also, if you do the math, it had been over half a year since I had driven a car, and I was doing it in a rental, with a stick shift, kinda-sorta knowing the road signs, and, most terrifyingly, on roads filled with Spanish and tourist drivers.

And it was awesome!  Driving a car is the best thing ever!

One of the first towns we came to was Galilea, which is built along a ridge line at the top of a mountain pass.  Almost all of the houses are perched on a cliff like this one.

Our next stop as we headed to the road that runs along the mountainous western coast of Mallorca was the town of Andrax.  The old town is up in the hills, across the mountains from Palma.  The Port of Andrax is a big tourist destination but the old town was quiet when we were there.

This picture was taken in front of the cathedral that we stopped to see in Andrax.  You get no pictures of that, but look at the great view with the Port out in the distance.

Gratuitous cat pic.  Except this cat looks like Ridley.

 We arrived at this cafe just as it was opening, before all of the (German) tourists in vans, bikes, motorcycles, and cars showed up.

We were able to get prime outdoor seating on the terrace which looked over a 500ish foot drop down to the Mediterranean below.

The sun was out and the water was calm and crystal clear.  It was an excellent stop for a coffee.

 Next to the restaurant was this little overlook that used to have some sort of shrine in the building at the top.

We had a nice Dutch couple (who lived in Germany now) take our picture at the top.

We stopped several times to admire the view.  The Spanish idea of security fencing differs slightly from what you may see in the USofA.

A section of the road that follows the Western Coast of Mallorca.

Why Can't I Live Here?

The Train To Soller - Kate's Here!! Pt. II

We finally took the historical train to Soller while Kate was here.  The train was first opened in 1912 and runs from downtown Palma, through the mountains, and back down to the city of Soller on the East side of the island.

The train travels 27.3 km (17 miles) in about an hour and goes through 13 tunnels on the trip.

The train is made mostly of wood and is supposed to be the exact way that it looked way back in the day and is even supposed to be maintained in the same way as it was 100 years ago, whatever that means.

Once you make it to the other side of the mountains, the train stops and gives you a chance to take a few pictures of the town of Soller down in the valley below.

The most impressive building in Soller is the St. Bartomeu Church which originally dates from 1236.  The most unique feature of the church is that it has a beautiful facade, but the rest of the church is fairly plain (unusual in Mallorca anyway).

The original hand-operated switch to change tracks.  I find this fascinating, Kelly thinks I'm a nerd.

These are the trams (different from the trains) which run from Soller to Port de Soller which is about 4km away.  Most of the old town in Mallorca were built about that far from the water to protect from pirate attacks (on a side note...  Whats a pirates favorite letter?  You think it be arrrrr, but its really the sea!).

While we were walking through Soller, a cat perched on a windowsill took one look at Kelly and let out a loud pet-me meeeoooooow.  After the (slightly longer than) appropriate cat petting time, we were wondering if Kelly was some sort of cat whisperer.  However, we were maybe 20 feet away when another person walked by the cat, it meowed, and they pet him.  Turns out this cat is just running a kind of pet-me racket.  Brilliant.

Kate and I in front of the two most Soller-y things in town, the church and fresh fruit trees.

Fin

Barthelona!

So, in February, flights to Barthelona (the proper way to say Barcelona in Spain) were uber cheap.  Like, 18 Euros each way.  So off we went to Barcelona for a fun weekend!  We've both been a couple times now so we were looking forward to going back.  Coming from Grand Junction and Palma, we were surprised by how many amazing restaurants were there.  In the past we've mainly eaten at local cafes and places near our hostel.  This time we looked more places up and went out of our way to find some good food that our taste buds were craving!  (e.g. HAMBURGERS!).  That being said, our trip to Barcelona definitely consisted more of food than anything else.  Sure we saw the main attractions (ones we hadn't seen on past trips) and rode the metro and visited our favorite areas. But really, we just ate.  A lot. 

At a restaurant called Milk, we found real Bloody Marys!

And Brunch!!

Really, real brunch.  If you didn't know, brunch is significantly more American than apple pie.  People in Europe just don't do brunch.  Usually, if you ask them if they have brunch, they ask you if you're American.

This is the remnants of our Hamburger from the restaurant Bacoa.  

Look, its a bar, no, its a clothing store.  Wait, its both!  Its a bar in the back of a women's clothing store.  Best.  Thing.  Ever.

Happiness is an espresso followed by a martini.

Hanging down by the water, drinkin' some wine.

We went to the La Caixa forum, to see an exhibit on the architect Le Corbusier.  Along with most of his original architectural models, they also had several of his paintings.  Some of which Kelly took pictures of before she was asked to put the camera away because thats not at all allowed.

Ice Cream!!!

Oh Mallorca...

Nothing better than being able to go from home in a city of 400,000 people,

to a small village on the Med,

(Es Camp de Mar if you're curious)

along windy back roads,

up into the mountains,

all in just a short bicycle trip (or 2).

Yes, you can see the Mediterranean in this picture.

Vuelta a Mallorca

The Vuelta a Mallorca bike race rolled through the island February 9-12.  The race is a over 4 days but with no real overall winner, just 4 individual winners.  The weather is great here this time of the year so we got to see many of cycling's stars on the island.  At the race were Vuelta a Espana winner Chris Horner, new World Champ Rui Costa, Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins, and a whole host of other cyclist getting their legs ready for the upcoming season.

Kelly and I arrived back from Barcelona on Sunday morning, just in time to head down to the waterfront and watch the Trofeo Palma, the first race.  It was a short, criterium style, race that gave the spectators plenty to see with several laps along the Paseo Maritimo, the main waterfront road in Palma.

We watched most of the race from and 'Irish' Pub along the road.  There is no better way to watch a race than sitting in a chair, in the sun, with a cold Guiness in hand.  As the race was winding down we wandered toward the finish where we saw Sacha Moldenado win, despite another guy raising his hands thinking he had won, whoops.

We missed Monday and Tuesday's stages in the mountains (ugh, work) but were able to take the train up to the winery filled town of Binissalem to catch part of the final stage.  We found a bench in the sun and waited for the peleton to arrive.  We were about 30km from the finish of the race which had split up in the mountains near the beginning.  A large group was off the front, followed by the peleton, followed by several stragglers.  25 minutes on the train each way for a solid 3 minutes of race watching, Id say that math works out...

Video highlights of the races

Kate's Here!!

Kate came and visited us for a week here and so we decided to show her the whole island by renting a car for a few days and seeing all the hard to get to sights.

Checking out the cathedral while we waited for Kelly.

Climbing the 300+ stairs to Castle Bellver.

Wandering the castle.

Look at these two! :)

Not a bad view of the island.

Toes in the Med for the first time. 

(technically the second in this shot but the first involved a ton of seaweed and wasn't quite as photogenic).

A warm day and a trip to the beach at Palma Nova.

Finishing it off with a trip to a futbol match.

Thanks for coming Kate!!!  We had a great time discovering the island with you.