Very noisy neighbours in paradise

Today began to the sweet sound of… No, the was nothing sweet about the “Drunk Karaoke sung by a tone-deaf donkey” singing emanating from the room next to us. But hey, it did wake us in time for breakfast!  The mattresses at the hotel were also comparable to a concrete slab, so both Manja and I started the day a little more groggy than usual.

That didn’t stop us from appreciating this “Biting” sign as we headed down to breakfast.  The Elevator was so busy that we decided to use the opportunity and exercise…  By using the stairs for 10-ish floors.

The way down was easy enough, but the lift congestion hadn’t lifted when we returned, so we did take the stairs up again too!

 

 

 

The breakfast buffet was lovely though – typical all-inclusive fare, which always makes for a nice change!

 

 

 

Today we also had a look at the view from our room.  it was much nicer during the day! Looking down, we also got a good look at the pool – party tourists included.  Given there’s beaches all around we decided that it wasn’t worth trying the hotel amenities.

 

And so we were off.  One of the key party destinations in Mallorca is “Ballermann 6“.  While that’s totally not either of our scene, we decided to tour the area and watched the people with a “I’m at the zoo!” like fascination.  I have to say, it is a very nice beach.  A bit of a shame to waste it on party culture.  What I did like was that a busker built a massive sand-castle.  I gave him some change, it’s a much nicer way of asking for money than begging, and the castle was impressive!
Oh, and I had to admit that Jeans and beach didn’t go well together.  We picked up some shorts at a shop, which I proceeded to wear for the whole next week.  It’s a year for change after all!

 

 

We took a couple of photos of the more quiet areas.  We even managed to snap one where it looks like we had the place to ourselves, because all the drinking tourists (it was before noon, and drinking had well and truly started) were behind us on the beach.

It wasn’t all that long before we’d had enough, and so we moved on to the local palace to have a bit of a look around and to have a smoothie for lunch ‘on-the-go’.

 

 

 

After that it was time to head to our inland accomodation for the next 2 nights, a lovely place called Casa Caimari (In, you guessed it, Caimari).

I was driving and Manja was directing.  She did a much better job than me – there was no squealing from her side of the car, only the occasional “You’re too far right…” which helped me get the hang of this whole “driving from the other side of the car” thing pretty quickly and accident free.

We arrived earlier than anticipated, and our rooms were not quite ready.  The host of the Airbnb, Maria, was fantastic though, and their dog welcomed us warmly…  Too warmly for Manjas taste, but I thought he was cute!
We could store our luggage and she told us all about the sights around the island, recommending local things and places in all areas.  It was like a virtual tour!  She also supplied us with some beach towels so we could spend the afternoon at a beach if we wanted, while she got our rooms ready.

 

 

We decided we’d take one of the longer drives to a slightly more out-of-the way beach at Canyon de la Calobra, via corkscrew road.  Turns out the tight streets we already found last night are quite common, and you can tell the locals from the tourists by how confidently they drive through them! Generally all the roads were really well maintained though.

Before we got to corkscrew road though, we stopped at a really pretty and steep lookout.  Even I had a moment about the heights when I looked over the edge…

 

 

Then I sat myself down on the wall, and I was pretty impressed that Manja just sat down on the wall as well. I have an adventurous companion on this trip I think!

An ice-cream later we were on the way again, off to meet the adventure of corkscrew road.

 

 

Corkscrew road was true to its name.  I REALLY want to come back by motorbike one day – loads of hairpin turns with awesome views, which made for about an hour of concentrated driving…. one way! Manja was kind enough to risk life and limb by attaching her GoPro to her arm and recording this video for your entertainment…  Entertainment if you like that sort of thing 😀

On the other side of the road, we were rewarded with a really stunning view, a beautiful path carved through the rock wall and a really nice stone beach with perfect water.

 

 

 

After a second traversal of corkscrew road we got back to our accomodation at Casa Camairi and had a good look around.  The room was quite nice, and the common room was really nicely setup too.

The beds were a little hard again, but not as bad as the ones from last night.  We felt almost right at home… except for the fact that the shared toilet/shower only had a curtain as a door… You can’t have it all I guess.  I’m sure we’ll manage that too!

 

 

After settling into the room we noticed that we were both REALLY hungry, and decided to try out a place recommended by our host.  And it was awesome!  Because we stayed at Casa Caimari we also got free wine, which was so good that even I didn’t turn it down!

The dinner was delicious and I was introduced to a new passion – Pimientos de Padron or “Fried Padron Peppers”.  Sooo good.  Could do the same with jalapenos for some more kick I guess? The waitress was also kind enough to take a photo of the two of us.

 

Eventually all the food had been eaten and we headed back to the Hotel exhausted but happy.

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Listening to…