Day 7: Palma de Mallorca

We took a cab in to the city today, getting out at the Real Club Nautico. This is the club that hosts the King's Cup regatta, and also where my grandmother would take me to swim while she had drinks with her friends.

Crossing the Paseo Maritimo, we walk up through a new park, pausing to admire the reckless attitude toward playground safety, demonstrated by the Mallorcan playground equipment.

This area is the Palma of my childhood, the streets that I used to wander in the stifling heat, absorbing the "ancienteness" of it all, imagining myself as a princess, an heiress, sometimes a nun, whatever form my fancy took that day. You can see how easy it would be to enter another time here...

Twisting alleys are the most common thoroughfare in this part of the city.

The past is always watching. . .

and so is the church.

The old apartments can stay fairly cool if they are shaded--the walls are thick and the floors are tile.

We went over to the Banys Arab, which housed, of course, the old baths of the city.

 

We sat in the garden, inhaling the scent of exotic trees and flowers, and spotted one of the islands famous salamanders.

Above the Paseo Maritimo sits the Catedral. The sea waters used to come all the way up to it's walls, so that it rose out of the water.  Now there is land below, a lovely modern park and further along the continuation of the Paseo, shooting out of town along the water, continuing on to the popular beaches outside of the city.

There was a wedding in the Catedral, so we went in to admire the interior. The rose window is one of the largest in the world, and we caught it just as the light was coming in, so that it cast its colors over the whole ceiling!

After sitting at a cafe, having a cool drink and people-watching we were ready to meet my parents and some friends for dinner at Ca'n Eduardo. This restaurant has been here for ages--it is right on the docks where the fishermen bring in their catch, so you know the food is fresh! But on the way we had to make one more stop to see the dancers and musicians in full Mallorcan costume.

Does every culture have some sort of bagpipes?