May 15, 2022
Bike Trails, Beaches and a Band
Wasn't That a Party!
Yesterday marked an important day for British soccer fans, of which there are quite a few here in PP. I'm not of that persuasion, so all I can say is there was a final on. Before hitting the sack, I put my ear plugs in and I was glad for it because they were still going strong at 2am. David didn't have his earplugs in and got to listen to the shenaningans.
Breakfast at the Eolo is a buffet with everything you could ask for, and more: fresh squeezed orange juice, eggs two ways, beans and bacon, cheese platter, Iberico ham, toast bar, fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts, tea bar, espresso machine, pastry platter and champagne. In other words, our daily breakfast is a 10-jammer on the Classen Scale.
We ate breakfast outside on the patio under the pines as we plotted today's plan. We decided to hold off on champagne until we complete Sa Calobra, the grand daddy of the Tramuntana mountains.
So, there is yet another post covid splurge I haven't revealed yet. We have our Bike Fridays with us, but we decided to rent lightweight road bikes locally just for the crazy climbing we are about to undertake. Back in early April, we reserved a couple of bikes from a business in Soller which is about 65km from here. These bikes have disc brakes and one of them (...mine) has DI2 shifting. That's bike-speak for electronic shifting. I'm getting ahead if myself except to say that today we have no wheels, as yet.
The first order of the day was to saunter up the street after breakfast to find some rental bikes. We came up with two Giant cross bikes. A quick change into cycling gear and we were off to get a sense of where we are.
We headed east along the beachside cycle path to Alcudia. It's situated on the far side of the arc of the bay and it also has a nice beach. Oddly enough, Tomas the taxi driver told us that people from English speaking countries flock to PP while non-English folks prefer Alcudia. I wonder if Google has anything to do with this? It happens to be where the all inclusives are located and the drinks are free. In any case, we found the roads tricky to navigate and ended up using our eyes to decide which way to go. Sometimes, maps just aren't worth the time. We passed through Alcudia and soon we were in Port d'Alcudia, the next bay over.
These aren't just beaches, these are BEACHES. If you are a sand and sun seeker, you'd love this. As far as we could see, there was a huge expanse of gorgeous sand and azure water. This area is actually called Platja de Muro and it's east of Port d'Alcudia by a hair.
We didn't explore any further because by this time, the sun was high in the sky and it was about 27 degrees. Luckily there was a nice breeze blowing to keep our temps in check. We decided we would cut back west again and visit Pollensa old town which is 5km inland from PP. Then, we would close the loop.
The roads for this part of the journey were more direct so were simple to navigate and with that came higher traffic volumes. Some roads had generous shoulders and some had none. First impressions are that locals are quite content to make room for cyclists and, unlike Sicilians, they do read and observe speed limits, sort of. For the Sicilians out there, we love you and your laissez-faire, animated approach to life. We try to incorporate it in every thing we do.
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Our route cut through some rolling agro regions with an abundance of ancient olive trees. Pleasant scents wafted from the flowering trees and shrubs as we cruised past. We popped out the other side at old Pollensa which is situated at the foothills of the Tramuntanas. We both came to a halt when we came upon a live band playing streetside. They sounded great and even had a brass section (trumpet and trombone). Their songs were in English, which is often the case here in Europe. They don't speak English but they sing the lyrics flawlessly. Their fans spilled out of the local coffee shop onto the sidewalk and were milling around with their wine and beer.
This happened to be market day and almost all the streets were packed with vendors. So we hopped off the bikes and strolled through the old town. When we reached the main square, it was jammed to the gills with people seated for lunch. Most looked to be local Mallorcans if I were to guess. This was no small square, so there had to be hundreds of people settled in for an afternoon of socializing, eating and drinking. We never seem to muster the appetite to eat much mid day. What's with that?
We are slowly loosening our personal covid precautions yet this was a bit of a stretch, so we kept on moseying. I bought and ate a sweet juicy fresh picked orange from one of the vendors for 0.25 euro. The fruits and vegetables on display made me just a little envious that we don't have produce like this.
After another visit to the band, we hopped back onto the wide shoulder of the direct raod to PP. In short order we were cruising back to our hotel by the beach. We hadn't explored to the west so we carried on to see the beach at that end of PP. What can I say? It is gorgeous.
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I waded in to see how warm it was and within a minute or so, it felt comfortably warm. Sill, nobody was swimming! Lots of sunbathers, but no swimmers. We looped back to return the bikes. Altogether, we rode 38km on fat tire bikes. Nuff of that, we're ready to saddle up on road bikes tomorrow.
We sort of missed eating lunch today, so finding dinner took on a bit of urgency. We strolled to the central square of PP, where there are plenty of restaurants with outdoor seating to choose from. As we passed by the first restauarant, the waiter recognized us from a couple of nights ago and invited us to sit down in one of the two remaining un-reserved tables. We were happy to please him. And, it turns out this guy was a pro at his job so just about everyone he talked to was smiling within a minute. That's an admirable skill. Of course, he had the co-workers and kitchen staff to back him up... they were all great at their jobs. We started with appies of padron peppers and bruschetta. I have been dreaming of those peppers since I first had them in San Sebastian.
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We were both craving pasta, so David ordered Bolognese and I ordered prawn tagliatelle. We were treated to melon slushy shooters at the end of the meal. All in all, another very rewarding day.
Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 38 km (24 miles)
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