Day 2 - Palma
Gelati: 0, Wine: 3 glasses, Tapas: 0
Started the day with a hearty breakfast from the buffet as it turned out to be included in the price of my room. A pleasant surprise as it hadn't been clear when I booked. There was fruit, cereal, yoghurts, cheeses and all manner of salami and cured meats. Plus pastries and bread. There was also hardboiled eggs, the shells of which had been dyed, presumably for Easter. For some reason people were happy to eat the plain, red or purple eggs but not the green ones - except me. I had fruit+yoghurt then bread, cheese, salami plus my green egg. I thought I was been greedy but I was totally outclassed by the woman at the next table who methodically ate her way through 3 platefuls and had commenced on her 4th as I left.
Spent the morning following a walking tour in a leaflet I picked up from the tourist info booth. It took me through the old part of town, along the old medieval walls and up to the castle overlooking the down and then back along the marina to look at all the yachts. All the towns I've visited have real estate agents but not here. Here the equivalent is yacht agents. Same set up - glossy office with pictures of what is for sale just not houses.
I had been worried there wouldn't be much open given it was Good Friday. However, there are plenty of tourists around. If this is off season I'd hate to be here in peak season - too crowded. This meant most of the restaurants and cafes in the city centre are open along with a few shops. However, my personal favourite of things that were open was the Pueblos Espanol. This is a marvelously tacky theme park just outside the old city. It has mini reproductions of various famous sites around Spain all plonked down together, nestling up against one another. Thus you can walk past a fake fountain from the Alhambra before visiting a mini church from Toledo next door and then on to a tower (severely shortened) from Seville. How to 'do' Spain without all the tedious travel. Being a purely commercial venture this most definitely was open. It also had the best example of internationally understandable signage I've ever seen.
I didn't leave the hotel until 10am so it was 2pm by the time I'd finished the walk. A good time for lunch by Spanish standards but I was starving. I didn't spend too much time looking for a place to eat and ended up breaking some of my rules. It was in a main tourist spot and had a menu in several languages. Still they were friendly and the square seemed a pleasant place to sit. The food sadly was ordinary. I started with calamri which had been dipped in batter and fried. It had also been pre-cooked and kept warm so the batter not very crisp. On the plus side the calamari itself was tender and tasty. This came with a side salad of mixed greens, tomato and corn plus my own bottles of olive oil and vinegar to dress it. Main was a pork chop with chips and more salad and a glass of house red. I finished with a rather good coffee.
I shouldn't have boasted about the weather yesterday. While today started off the same as yesterday - mild temperatures and clear skies, the wind picked up as I sat down to eat. Some of my salad actually blew away at one point. After eating I had to flee back to my hotel for warmer clothes.
After a short rest - but not a nap - I ventured out again more warmly dressed. I wandered around the main shopping areas, along with many other disconsolate tourists, as most shops were firmly shut. I hadn't seen any sign of the parade I'd been told about. I didn't think it had been in the morning and I'd missed it, even with my 10am start as this is Spain after all. I did think perhaps it had been around midday when I'd been at the theme park but then around 6pm I stumbled across the marshalling area for the various floats which was a largish plaza in front of a church. I bagged a prime spot at the barrier near the exit from the square and settled in to wait - and wait. There was much milling about.
Each church parish had their own float and colour scheme and generally marching band. The most basic float just had poles sticking out the sides for people to hold onto as they pushed it along. At the rear was a ship's wheel-like arrangement to steer. The bigger ones actually had 15-odd people underneath who carried it along somehow. Going forwards was not too difficult but turning required them all to take tiny mincing steps in unison as they would jiggle around the corner. There was also a large one that had poles sticking out all sides but instead of being held by people so they could push, the poles rested on their shoulders and they marched along with folded arms. I wonder how many times they've dropped it.
Over time more and more floats turned up and settled in to their assigned spot and more and more people came. Eventually I couldn't leave even if I wanted to as I was jammed up hard against the barrier. Finally, the church doors opened and one of the large floats, complete with Virgin Mary, came out and every one cheered and I thought yes, we've about to start but it was a false alarm. That float just marched over to another Virgin Mary float which stood up and they both swayed at each other for a minute or two. Then the first one backed up (impressive) and sat down and we all went back to waiting.
Finally around 7:30pm it really did start. Each float was preceded by marchers in their KKK-like outfits hold large lit candles. They were surrounded by a cloud of small children with BBQ lighters whose job it was to relight the candles when they went out. Then came the float and then the band. The poorer (?) parishes had no band, the next rung up had a drummer band but the biggest (richest?) had a full brass marching band. There was clearly some effort to separate various bands but there was still some clear competition between them.
By around 9pm only about a third of the floats had left - there was a tight turn out of the square and the streets along the route are narrow. By now I was hungry and cold and all cultured out. I also realised the parade was between me and the main restaurant area but fortunately not my hotel. The crush had lessened so I was able to leave and go in search of food. I eventually found a place that served either pizza or curries or if you wanted to be adventurous pizza with a curry topping. It turned out to be better than I'd feared. I had pizza with a conventional hot salami topping. The base was good - thin and crispy, but there was too much topping. I ordered a glass of house red and the waiter took pity on me for some reason and poured me a double. I finished with flan (aka creme caramel). Mine is better.
Then back to my hotel but not too sleep. The acoustics here are dreadful. The man in the neighbouring room likes to watch TV as he goes to sleep. He had it tuned to repeats of Friends - I could hear it clearly. Finally the TV switched itself off but he snores. I is one thing to be kept awake by the person in bed next to you snoring but to be kept awake by the person in the room next to you snoring is just ridiculous. I don't know or care how many stars tomorrow's hotel has just so long as it has effective sound proofing.
