Friday, May 1, 2009

Friday, May 01, 2009
Arrived in Palma de Mallorca by 7 a.m. today. IT'S RAINING!!! It's the first rain or "bad weather" we have seen since we left home. Although in Barcelona the second day we had a 5 minute shower in the afternoon while we were having beers on La Ramblas under some umbrellas. It is predicted to clear up here in the next hour and become a sunny 68 degree day. So we will just wait it out and hang out here on the ship and drink cappuccinos or something?!?!?
The rain seemed to let up so we got our $8 round trip shuttle tickets that take you from the pier to the city centre and went out to meet a shuttle. It was quite a drive about 2 miles, so there's no way we would walk that and still get all over the city. Palma, Mallorca is a picturesque town from the harbor. The Cathedral stands out over any other landmark as you approach it from the sea. The bus stopped very near the Cathedral and we walked across the street and were right in front of it. It just happens to be a holiday in Mallorca today, Workers' Day, very similar to our Labor Day. Most shops didn't open until noon or later. We did walk around the city and make our way to the ship's recommended store for pearls, Majorca. I found a classy sterling silver pendant with two large Mallorcan pearls in it. I had read about Mallorca being famous for its pearls so that was a sure stop in my shopping excursions. We snapped a number of pictures of the Cathedral and the lovely flower garden across from it and then headed back to the ship.
We were all hungry again by now so we went up to the Garden Café and had lunch. I finally found the guy making the personal pasta dishes and waited in a short line to get my made to order Alfredo pasta with mushrooms and broccoli.
After lunch Chip and I decided we need to go back into town so he could call his mom and I could call Rene' and check in to let them know we didn't get lost anywhere and will still be coming home on Saturday night. I can't believe here I sit tonight in the middle of the Mediterranean and tomorrow night I will be at home with my puppy dog.
We made our phone calls and then looked thru some shops and Chip found a tshirt for Kylie. Then we realized we had not yet had a Mallorcan beer. So we found a number of little bars and cafes which were now all open and oh, by the way, the sun came out and was shining and all the locals came out for their holiday and opened some of the stores and LOTS of restaurants and bars. So we went into this little bar and looked at their beers and the owner started talking to us about their local beer and asked us where we were from. Then he talked about how laid back it is in Mallorca and how stressed and pressured we Americans are. He said we should live there. Now Chip wants to go back….maybe someday. After talking to the owner a while we took our beers outside, which he said we could even walk down the street if we wanted. But we sat at the tables outside and he sent out some appetizers to us. We thought they were onion rings, since that's what they looked like and I bit into it. It didn't seem much like an onion and so I took another bite. Then the "onion" pulled out of the breading like it sometimes does only to see that these were actually squid rings!!! They were a little rubbery and I've stated in an earlier blog, I'm not a fan of rubbery food. It was really nice of the owner, but we didn't have much need for the squid rings. Now if Ivan and Denise had come back out with us, Ivan would have loved it!!
Alas is it our final evening on the Norwegian Jade so we began to pack our bags when we returned to the ship. That's always so sad. We are not putting our luggage out for them to take into the terminal though. With this FreeStyle cruising you can keep your luggage and just walk off the ship whenever you want instead of waiting for your luggage color tag to be called. We went to the final show which was a Magician/Comedian and it was enjoyable. I can never figure out how those tricks are done. We used some of our coupons from our booklet in the casino and I got a free pull on the "Win a Free Cruise" machine and won $30 in slot machine play. Of course that $30 didn't win me anything. So now I'm finishing this final blog and taking the computer up to the Garden Café at 10:30 p.m. in order to post it and let Chip get a late night dessert.
Two full weeks…….it actually felt like such a long time with so many ports and so much to do, I can hardly remember what I did where and when. I'll have to read my blog when I get home and enjoy it all over again!!!BTW, Ivan and Denise, it was great to meet you and hope to