To Sineu

March 1, 2024

Looking over our schedule for our days here in Mallorca, I’m feeling particularly pleased with myself this evening:

Besides furthering the narrative, this also demonstrates “ how we keep track of our tour data”, the subject of a recent CycleBlaze Forum thread. This is it for us. For this tour we have nine months of entries like this, plus our detailed routes on RideWithGPS and our lodging reservation info available on the Booking website. We’ve been doing it pretty much like this for thirty years.

When we planned this part of the trip it seemed like such a slow way to start: just three twenty mile moving days in our first ten days on Mallorca? This afternoon though, after both being pretty much totally wiped out (myself especially) when we arrived in Sineu after a reasonably flat twenty mile ride, it looks brilliant.

So what’s going on here? Probably the biggest consideration is that we both still have colds. They’re better, but still with us. Aggravating that, it’s cold! We’ve arrived in what’s apparently the worst weather here all winter, by far. Our host here, as our previous one had, noted that before last week Mallorca enjoyed two straight months of beautiful conditions. Plus, we’re both pitifully out of cycling condition. Rachael’s barely been on her bike since leaving Tucson over a month ago, and I haven’t done much more than that.

So that’s why. The fact that we’re so old has nothing to do with it.

Today’s conditions: a high in the mid-fifties with about a twenty mph wind to chill the bones, which looks pretty much the same as the forecast for the next two days. We’re lucky that it’s not raining of course, or we’d have probably been in real trouble or embarrassing ourselves by calling a taxi. We feel grateful that we don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow or the day after if we don’t want to, though I’m sure Rachael will get out for a walk at least and I’ll take some sort of ride - just not the pair of 40 mile out and backs I had planned.

We left about 10:30, stopped a few blocks later at a bicycle clothing store to pick up some bike gloves (mine somehow failed to make the packing list) and then just biked. the only real stop was about eight miles from the end when we What’sApp’d our host to let her know we’d arrive in an hour, as she had requested. We arrived at our hotel in Sineu right at two, so we kept a not very impressive average of about 7-8 mph the whole way.

I stopped for very few photos, but there could have been many more as we biked first along the edge of the natural park I visited yesterday and then on a series of very quiet rural roads that were often paved, but sometimes not. The stills give at least some sense of how beautiful it is here, but the video gives a better feel. If I’d been willing to hold up the show we’d also be seeing shots of pigs, sheep, birds, windmills, fields of potatoes and beans, and the occasional alarmingly large puddle spanning the road that we carefully bike through because there’s no room around either edge to skirt it.

Video sound track: Pavane, by Pablo Segovia Gardel

Most of Mallorca is low elevation and fairly flat, but the Tramuntana mountains line the entire western coastline. We’ll parallel them at about a ten mile distance our whole way today, giving a dramatic backdrop to the rural scene.

Early in the ride we spent a few miles on paths like this, at the southern edge of the natural park. It saved us several miles, but perhaps not much time.

About half of the ride was on roughly paved, very quiet roads like these.

Such beautiful countryside! Its cold enough down here, but it doesn’t look like a day to bike up into the hills.

The towers of hundreds of old windmills punctuate the fields, reminding me of the Lassithi Plateau on Crete. We’ll try to include a few photos tomorrow.

Somewhat sheltered from the wind for a minute, we alert our host that we’ll arrive in an hour.

I think that must be Inca, closer up against the mountains. It looked like another appealing possible destination when planning out our itinerary.

Our host opened the door to greet us and then immediately pointed down below to the garage. If we’d known, we could have avoided the short but steep climb up to the main entrance, which was enough to finish me off. The garage is totally given over to bike storage, with racks and hangers for maybe twenty bikes. Not today though, as she tells us we have the whole garage to ourselves and in fact are her first guests of the year. It’s the first of March, and the beginning of the spring tourism season apparently.

Our place is great - we’re in a stylish hotel in a building we’re told is somewhere between 250 and 300 years old. We don’t stay long to admire it though. We leave as soon as we change our clothes for a nearby restaurant for lunch, where we each have the same thing - huge plates of grilled chicken breast, grilled vegetables, and fries. We each finish as much as we can and then box the rest for a cold evening snack. While we’re eating we enjoy looking around at the other diners that nearly fill up the hall (we were lucky to get in, I think). It’s a very appealing scene - families with children, the fathers warmly interacting with the kids in a way you don’t really see so much of back home. They’re probably all locals, and it’s likely we’re the only tourists in the room.

Afterwards we walk back to the bakery on the central square beneath our room, and then enjoy our cookies sitting on the wall in the sun sheltered from the wind. Outside the bakery, the tables and chairs are occupied by cyclists - maybe a dozen of them, with others straggling in while we watch. Warm this place up another five or ten degrees and dampen down the wind and it would be really idyllic.

Sineu’s a lovely small town, one I’m really pleased we’re staying three nights in. I haven’t quite put a finger on it yet, but there’s something of it that reminds me of Ceret, one of our favorite villages in France. We’ll see something of the village tomorrow or the next day, but for this afternoon it’s back to the room and under the covers to crash for a few hours.

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Today's ride: 20 miles (32 km)
Total: 51 miles (82 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	13
Comment on this entry	Comment	9

Steve Miller/GrampiesSo happy, happy, happy that you are feeling better (at least enough to pedal and enjoy the ride) and will be in the same happy place for a few days.
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2 months ago

Wendy BeaudoinSo glad to hear you are finally feeling better! I, too, was worried when you hadn’t posted for a while. I have moved from Carlsbad to Oceanside for the next month, and I am trying to make my plans for next year. As much as I have enjoyed it here, Tucson still seems to be calling me…..
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2 months ago

Karen PoretTo Wendy BeaudoinOceanside! One of my very best friends lives there. You’re in a good place, Wendy.. Hello to you..
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2 months ago

Karen PoretTo Steve Miller/GrampiesAgreed, Steve! Glad they are better and their riding pace was good considering what they probably really feel like..:)
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2 months ago

Rachael AndersonTo Wendy BeaudoinTucson is great! Hope things work better for you this time.
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2 months ago

Bob KoreisCold, but I'll take your weather to what we are receiving back in the PNWet. Nothing like some solar vitamin D to improve morale. Looks like a comfortable and accommodating accommodation to aid your recovery.
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2 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Bob KoreisThanks, Bob. Yes, I’d rather be here too even if we’re not up to experiencing much of it yet. I can’t believe there’s been a bit of snow back home this week.
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2 months ago

Janice BranhamI heart this video. Very happy to see blue skies again in Mallorca, and you two back in the saddle on a lovely ride.
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2 months ago

Rachael AndersonThanks. We’re in Alaró now and are both doing a lot better today. I got out on for a hike today and Scott went on a bike ride.
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2 months ago