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.

A Good Day for a Ride