Episode 2-Palma

Palma is a dream, a delight, a delicacy of gastronomic proportions. I love Palma!

All has gone pretty much according to plan, I slept 4 hours on an uneventful flight from Newark but had to wait in line at the airport to have my Covid vaccination card manually verified while the Europeans raced through flashing their QR codes.

My hotel is perfectly situated in the heart of Old Town Palma just off Passeig de Born. By 2:00 PM (14:00 hours) I was checked in and hit the streets determined to stay on my feet and keep moving until at least 10:00 PM (22:00 hours) to force my biorhythms to adjust to Spanish time and I did.

Old Town the historic heart of Palma is wonderful, warm and welcoming. Only small sections of the historic town wall in front of the Cathedral remain with the extent of Old Town now demarcated (more or less) by wide modern boulevards with a total circumference of maybe 6 or 8 kilometers.
I circumambulated them in each direction to get my bearings and then spent several hours losing and finding my way through the maze of narrow streets and cobblestone alleyways that are Old Town Palma. But there are also wider avenues lined with couture and high end boutiques with islands of green spaces and outdoor cafes in the middle like Passeig des Born and Ramblas.

I had an early dinner of a delicious crispy salmon and kept walking until my reserves of energy ran low which I replenished with a strong cortado and several tasty pastries. I then soldiered on until almost 11:00 pm, slept like a baby and woke refreshed with a plan for the day ahead in hand.

I always like to visit the local produce and fish markets first thing in the morning in European cities. In Old Town Palma, it’s the Mercat de l’Olivar just a few clicks from my hotel on a route that took me through Palma’s lovely traditional Plaza Mayor.

The Mercat de l’Olivar is really beautiful and like many such markets nowadays has food stalls that are more like tiny restaurants. There’s one stall that not only has gorgeous rotisserie chicken but also rotisserie rabbit. The attendant told me that many people don’t like rabbit, not because it’s not tasty or good for you but just because it’s rabbit.

I arrived at Museu Fundación Juan March for its 10:00 opening just ahead of a group of boys and girls dressed in their school uniforms. I’m not sure why, maybe because I attended a military school as a kid, but I always enjoy seeing a group of happy boys and girls dressed in their school uniforms.
The museum is wonderful, nice collection with works by Picasso, Miro, Dali, Juan Gris and other contemporary Spanish artists. It’s housed in a gorgeous 17th Century mansion and is the perfect size for me, not too big to test my attention span.
Next it was off to see the Museu de Mallorca and the Banys Arabe but on the way I passed the civil courts building and noticed a television crew out front.

Of course I was curious about what was going on. Fortunately with my movie experience, I was quickly able to identify a member of the production team, approached him and asked,
“A que están esperando?” “Un juicio”, he said.
“Sobre qué?” I inquired. “Corrupcion”, he said.
“Así que aquí en Mallorca también existe corrupción?” I asked.
To which he responded, “Solo se existe corrupción aquí” and we both had a nice laugh.

Then I grabbed my swim suit, towels and a taxi and headed out to the beach but first a visit to Fundacio Pilar i Joan Miro.
Miro was Catalan from Barcelona but his wife was Mallorcan and he lived in Palma for 20 years prior to his passing in 1983.
The Fundacio is located in what was his home and his print studio and sculpture studio are open to the public maintained as they were on the day of his passing. It’s an absolutely incredible place.

I felt chills when I walked into his sculpture studio the walls of of which are covered with his drawings and the floors are strewn with odd pieces of things from which he derived inspiration for his sculptures. It’s as if you are dropped into the middle of his creative process. So totally cool.

Then I was off to the beach, opting to walk down Avinguda Joan Miro to Plaja Cala Mayor rather than hail a cab and I’m so glad I did.

I passed by and decided to pop in to the Jardins del Palau de Marivent, a place I hadn’t read about in any of the guide books.
The gardens themselves are incredibly beautiful and have almost a magical feel because almost everywhere you turn you happen upon a Miro sculpture placed discreetly among them.
The beach was lovely fun and relaxing but I had a hard time getting a cab back to the hotel. There’s no Uber here and it was like trying to hail a cab in the rain in New York City in the early 2000’s. After a half hour, I gave up and set off to walk the 3 miles back to Old Town but fortunately I got a cab before I was half way home.

All in all a really fabulous day. Tomorrow I’m off to Western Mallorca to see Valldemossa, Deia, Port de Soller and Soller.

And I’m returning to Palma via the antique wooden train that traverses the foothills of the Serra de Tramuntana as it has since the early 1900’s.