Palma De Mallorca

Simply a great day!

Started with a wake up up at 08:30 and Kelly's run to Starbucks! :-) then off to the Central Park Cafe for some breakfast. Smoked salmon lox with cream cheese and capers ... yeah baby!

Amazing!

Off the ship and down to the shuttle bus (8 euros return to the Cathedral Mallorca return) to get us to our bike tour.  It was very close to the shuttle drop off point so we wandered around the cathedral grounds before meeting up with our tour group at 10:30. Two other couples from Ontario, A couple from Switzerland and Florida plus us rounded out the group of ten.

Our guide Juan met us and got us all sorted with helmets & bikes. We then went off and enjoyed a great bike around the various sights that make up the inner city. Obviously the Cathedral Mallorca (also called the Palma Cathedral) made up the most of our route as we wound around the various walkways and embankments the lead up to and around the huge Cathedral.  Juan stopped a regular intervals to give us some of the history and relevance of the location.

Outside the Cathedral walls

Amazing gardens!

Great views!

Look close and you will see the Star of David on this Catholic Church

The construction was halted several times and at one point financing stopped completely. The Jewish community became involved and for that financial assistance, the Star of David was built into the Rosetta. More info here  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palma_Cathedral

 The bike tour we did was fantastic and a good way to get a taste of the old city. It is very clean here although some graffiti showed up from time to time. Great info from Juan our guide and amazing ride through the streets & narrow passageways. We went by several different churches that dotted the area. Also had a great lunch at one of the many tapas bars in the Placa Major. The lunch was included in our tour and provided us a chance to try any three pinchas or tapas from a huge selection of hot & cold items. This was our first experience eating this way but not our last!!! A cold beer washed it all down. 

Although we had purchased return bus transportation back to the ship, Juan suggested that we simply ride our bikes back instead as his bike van was in the parking lot there. Great idea!

Great food!

Biker gang stop as we head back towards the ship along the sea wall.

Kelly and the Harmony of the Seas

  After a 5 minute walk back to the ship, we showered and prepped for a cabin crawl that was arranged by several Cruise Critic folks. Our first stop was at a Loft suite looking over the boardwalk. Our hosts Patty & Guy welcomed us and we met several other cruisers enjoying the views and amenities of the room. We brought some snacks that we had purchased in Barcelona and added to a huge table of delicious treats... no one was going hungry!

View from the balcony.

Our cabin crawl gang headed out but we somehow missed their departure and not knowing exactly where they went, we were "forced" to stay back with Guy and some other guests enjoy the wine and treats :-) We also missed out on our Cruise Critic meet & greet but we got the low down from other guests that attended.

It was formal night so we skipped our "my time dinning" reservation and dropped into 150 Central Park, one of several specialty restaurants on the ship. They had room for us and so we enjoyed anther great meal.

Off to bed as we do a group tour of Marseille tomorrow with some of our cruise critic friends!