Cruise - Palma Mallorca

The weather was perfect coming into Palma and we looked forward to just wandering the port city. It was a fairly long, though certainly not strenuous, walk from the cruise dock to the main part of the city. There were dedicated bike lanes embedded in the walking area and both were well separated from the multi-lane road so it was quite pleasant.

The massive Catedral de Mallorca

Harbor full of gorgeous sailboats

Castell de Bellver overlooking the city

Ahhh...

So many sailboats!

One of several old windmills, now defunct

Roads and gothic churches - a mix of old and new

I wish the wisteria had been in full bloom

As the photos show, Palma was a very nice mix of old and new architecture and convenience. The waterfront is obviously prized as a pedestrian/cyclist space which makes walking a real pleasure. And even moving into the more commercial section of town, motorists were very polite and crosswalks were plentiful.

Overall we found Palma a bit too modern for our tastes. It's obviously a favorite spot for tourists and the city reflects that. 

Garden update - getting started for the year

I gotta get better about documenting my garden. If I actually want to improve my gardening skills that is. Which I do. So here goes - feel free to skip this if you have zero interest.

May 1st - 77 degrees and incredibly sunny. I know this isn't going to last but it seems to have become the norm that we get two weeks of super hot (for us anyway) weather in May and then things settle back down to mild temperatures and light rains in June. I kinda like that the soil gets a warm jumpstart this way.

With the warm weather suddenly coming upon us (we had snow and freezing rain just a few days before this) I figured it was time to get my cold frame planted and some shelling peas in one of the main gardens.

The cold frame - I'd purchased garden soil and left the bag in the frame for about a week so it could start to warm up faster (glass top on the frame too). When I opened the bag to spread it out the soil was indeed warmish. I weeded the frame, spread the soil, and made some trenches for my seeds. Then I got clever (I hope); I lined the trench with potting soil and planted my seeds in that. We'll see if that helps them sprout. I planted cilantro, parsley, and kale. Why nothing else? Because that's all the seed I had; apparently the cruise really interfered with my planning process. Sure; that's what we'll blame it on.

The cherry grove garden (previously known as the chicken garden) - I hoed and weeded and cultivated a small section for the peas. Planted two types, an Alaska and an Early, and have high hopes that they'll do well. I love peas and pea shoots. I've got enough left in the seed packets to plant another crop later this summer.

I haven't touched the other garden areas but have plans for them. The kitchen garden will be herbs and lettuces as it's getting more shade and I don't think the tomatoes will do well there anymore. The hill garden (formerly the squash garden) will be exclusively cucumbers as I have big pickle plans this year. And we're putting in a new garden at the old camp site - creatively named the camp garden - where I'll put the tomatoes, cabbage, and maybe some bush beans. No plans for the main garden as it's still full of rocks and tractor tracks as Chris works on the greenhouse.

Orchard update - looks like the fruit trees survived the winter and I'm seeing leaf buds on the cherry and plum trees; the apple trees are still bare. Rabbits got to the bark on my peach tree so I'm not sure if that will survive. I'll pick up some guards for the base of all the trees to help prevent this in future. And we're working on a better fencing system for both trees and animals.

Cruise - Cartagena

Our arrival in Cartagena was on a beautiful Saturday morning and we were greeted with music and cheering. Turned out it had nothing to do with our boat of course - it was their annual 50km (50!) run to all five forts around the city. Given the fact that the forts are all on hilltops this is one heck of a race. They deserved every cheer they got!

People starting off in the race

The port was very pretty and incredibly close to the old section of the city. A super easy walk and once you were there it was pedestrian only. I love when city centers limit traffic.

One of the forts - way up there

I would not want to climb this

Really don't want to run it!

This one isn't so bad...

We actually paid for an excursion this time - kayaking the coast. And it was worth every penny.

Inadvertent advertising

The weather was great - sunny, cool wind, fairly calm water. We paddled for a couple hours, saw a wee jellyfish (it wasn't Man-o-War season yet), oohed and aahed over cliff formations, and...

talked the guide into letting Chris climb a sketchy rope so he could jump into the water. 

Climb!

Much to my dismay I wasn't able to capture the actual jump (sorry honey!) as the camera chose that moment to give me trouble, but he had fun.

Back in the city center we saw pretty architecture.

Ate fantastic tapas at great prices. If we decide to do another trip to Spain I think we'll spend the entire time in this city, eating good food. A glass of red wine, a cappuccino, bottle of water, half order of fried baby squid (chopitos fritos), and a half order of the mixed fish fry (fritura de pescado) came to 14 Euro for heaven's sake. I just wish we had some idea of how to actually eat some of the fish. So many bones! Do you just chew em up? Is there a trick to deboning something this small? We did the best we could and left a bony mess on the plate.

Tapas at El Galeon Jr

After lunch we explored some more and found an archeological dig site. While remodeling some apartment houses they dug down and found ruins dating all the way back to 3rd century BC when the Punic (or Carthaginian) people lived there. They were followed by the Romans who built on top of the Punic ruins. Basically this city has been continuously lived in for centuries and everyone just built on top of the people who came before. So cool.

An active dig site

Overlooking the dig

You can wander from ruins to pretty city streets with very little effort. It's a wonderfully walkable city.

Typical street - clean, pleasant

We definitely wish we'd had more time to explore. We didn't go into any museums or shops. We did a bit of window shopping for shoes - so many shoes! (nearby Elche has over 1000 shoe factories) - and managed another sidewalk cafe stop for coffee. That included a local drink called Asiatico. Technically a coffee drink it consists of sweetened condensed milk, cognac, Liquor 43, and coffee. Very strong; very good. Definitely need some Liquor 43 - the golden elixir - now that we're home.

Next stop - Mallorca (or Majorca depending on your native language).

Cruise - Gibraltar

Gibraltar was our second stop and I have to admit it was a bit of a bust. It was pouring rain when we made landfall and though we did our best to ignore it, ultimately we gave up and just spent the day on the boat. We did find out that the anoraks, shoes, and rain gear we brought worked fairly well and dried quickly though (always a bright side, right?). 

Late in the day it did clear enough to get a couple shots of the rock.

Cruise - Madeira Embroidery

Besides beautiful gardens and toboggan rides, Madeira is also known for embroidery and its namesake wine. I got to kill two birds with one stone at the Bordal embroidery factory. We stumbled upon the factory by chance and while exclaiming over the shop goods, they invited us up for a tour. How cool is that???

Much like the carpet makers in India, the embroidery is done not here at the factory, but at homes across the island. It's a dying art and they're steadily losing their supply of skilled embroiderers. 

The patterns are hand drawn and the stitches are counted or measured using map tools. This determines how much the embroiderers are paid.

Example patterns

The pattern is punched into tissue paper using a tattoo-like tool.

Tracing the pattern

Then the tissue paper is brought back to the dying area and a special blue dye is used to transfer the pattern to fabric.

All their nails were painted with blue polish

There are thousands of patterns stored here.

Historical designs

The fabric is sent out to be embroidered and then brought back for washing, ironing, and cut work. 

Hand washing away the dye

Carefully cutting to reveal the stitch work

We were so fortunate to see everything and the women working there were incredibly friendly. I found out that you can take embroidery classes there too! Hmmm, an excuse to spend a few months?

Yes, I bought some.

Oh, and the wine? They just happened to have a supply of some local wine on hand. I tried the Verdelho, a medium dry Madeira, and still found it very sweet. Not so sweet that I didn't buy a bottle though...

Cruise - Madeira

Madeira was, by far, our favorite port. We both really wished we could have spent several more days (at least) exploring the island. As it was, we really only got to see Funchal and I'm sure just a small slice of that.

Early morning arrival

Funchal and a foggy mountain top

The weather was cool with lots of cloud cover. The mountain top was enclosed in fog which made us happy we hadn't booked the hike up to Pico do Arieiro (one of the highest peaks).

While wandering around and exploring the city we found many nifty shops that sold not tourist-stuff but everyday items: sewing machines and supplies, fabric stores, butcher shops, a huge fish market, and hardware stores with tiles that you could turn into murals.

The fish market was amazing. Very large, very clean, and it didn't smell like fish at all. We really wish we could have tried the scabbard fish but it was too early in the day for lunch.

Espada or scabbard fish

Not sure if this was tuna or swordfish

Can anyone translate?

The butcher shop was really neat - hanging smoked meats, beautiful cuts of pork and beef, and olives! I bought a smallish bag for 2 Euro and spent the day nibbling on them. They went great with the bakery sandwich of chorizo and garlic butter, baked into a traditional Madeiran bread Bola do Caco. Definitely need to figure out how to make that properly.

The olives were awesome

We opted to take the cable car up to Monte, a small village that overlooks Funchal. Great price (11 Euro per person, one way) and very pleasant views. It is 12,000 feet long and has a vertical rise of over 1,800 feet. Really glad we didn't have to make that climb by foot!

Back toward the harbor

Up toward Monte

Our Lady of Monte Church

That's just lovely

There are botanical gardens up there but we opted to just wander the streets and enjoy the local gardens. They grow bananas! And gorgeous geraniums are everywhere.

From the churchyard

Getting back down (at least 4 km of steep grade) could be done by walking, taking the cable car, or riding in a toboggan! I mean, who wouldn't???

Loading up

These toboggans used to transport goods but sometime in the 1850's tourists started asking for rides. Now it's a quick ride down 2 km and it's well worth the 30 Euro cost. I only wish I could actually convey how very fun and exciting this ride was. Once they drop you off, you can take a taxi or bus back to town, or do what we did which was explore by foot.

Steep, curvy, waxed streets make for an exciting ride

Being pulled on a rare flat area

It just doesn't do it justice...

Definitely a place we want to come back to.

Hidden lane

Just gorgeous