valeriesbookofme

When we would walk toward the Cathedral we could see what looked like a fortress up on the hill. Looking it up, it was called Bellver Castle, a 1300s castle built by King Jaime II of Mallorca, used as a prison for two centuries but now housing a History Museum. It also apparently had a breathtaking view of Palma. We looked at going there by public bus but we couldn't really understand the directions. Plus, apparently the bus let you off at the bottom of the hill and it was a 15-minute climb to get to the Castle. So we opted to pay for the red Hop On, Hop Off double decker bus that we had seen around Palma for the past few days. And we were quite glad we did. We rode the whole route and saw some great Palma neighborhoods as well as getting off at two places--Puebla Espanol and the Castle--that were so interesting to visit. We actually got off at the Puebla Espanol by mistake, thinking it was the Castle but golly it was gorgeous. I haven't been able to find much information ...

One place that Richard had been quite anxious to see was the village of Valdemossa. The photos on the Web were especially lovely and we figured out we could get there on our own by a city bus from Palma. Took about half an hour and was Euro 3.70 roundtrip. So much nicer than going on a tourist bus trip. Not that we didn't enjoy yesterday's but in this case we just wanted to see Valdemossa and wander around. We took the 10:00 bus, glorious sunny day. And Valdemossa certainly delivered on beauty. There were tourists there, like us, enjoying the beauty, but it was by no means crowded. In fact, it's been like that all week. Tourists, but not jam packed. Which makes seeing the places, and going into the churches, wonderful. We eat at small cafes with reasonable prices. Richard eats a lot of spaghetti, and I have eaten tapas, paella (which was a bit disappointing--should have researched it) and moussaka. The last was what I had in Valdemossa and it...

We decided, before we came to Mallorca, that we would only take one tour. It was an expensive one for us anyway--the Island tour which advertised that, via bus, train, tram and boat, it would take us through much of Mallorca. Well, western Mallorca anyway. It sounded like a good way for us to see the island so we booked it. Both of us are "strolling" tourists. We like to stop where we want to stop and really don't care if we see everything as long as we are enjoying what we are seeing. Anyway, Tuesday morning we arrived at the allotted bus meet-up point (me having worried that we would miss it of course, I always worry) and, after a late start, we were off. The bus took us as far as the train station, about a ten-minute ride and then we took an old fashioned train to Son Reus where we transferred to a tram and on to Port Soller.   Soller looked like a really nice beach resort but we didn't stay there. We immediately went dow...