Palma de Mallorca; Friday, 15 March, 2013

Still feeling slightly full from the previous evening I topped up the food levels at breakfast before heading out from the hotel and over to Poble Espanyol to have a look around that.

Having looked around there I had intended on catching the open-top bus one stop up to the Castell de Bellver, but as it was such a lovely morning I stayed on all the way back into town, bathing in the warmth and sun.

In town I visited the Royal Palace and the Cathedral, pausing between the two for a traditional Spanish long lunch. I then had a long wander through the labyrinth of small roads and alleyways of the old town, stumbling almost by accident upon both the Arabic Baths, so I had a look around them, before heading back to the bus stop near the Cathedral and finally taking the bus up to the Castell de Bellver.

I clearly hadn’t timed my visit particularly well as within a couple of minutes of arriving at a deserted car park, getting my ticket and walking towards the entrance nearly 20 full coaches crested the hill into the grounds and started to disgorge tour group after tour group.

In the end I spent quite a bit longer than I would probably have done at the site, just because it took so long to see anything, though I probably saw more than the tour groups, each of which was brought in round and out in less than 20 minutes flat. I spent longer than that just standing on the roof of the main building captivated by the stunning views over the Bay of Palma.

The car park was still a mess of badly parked coaches when I got back, just in time for the City Sightseeing bus to arrive and then very loudly on his horn point out to one of the coach drivers that he was parked in a bus stop (I didn’t know those open-top buses had such loud, or aggressive horns!) As he threaded his way back out of the car park, blasting his horn at every coach that attempted to reverse out on him, the bus driver proved who was in charge.

I got off the bus at the stop nearest to the hotel and walked back to drop my stuff off and freshen up.

A bit later, refreshed, I walked the short distance back to the street I had discovered the previous evening and fell upon the menu of a tapas restaurant devouring quite a lot of what was on offer.

Sated, and fit to burst, I staggered back to the hotel.