All Our Bags Are Packed!

                                                      Blog # 12: Palma de Mallorca

        Unlike Ibiza which was dry, somewhat desolate and uninviting unless you 

               want to spend twenty-four hours in clubs, Palma was quite a surprise  for us. 

    There was lots of foliage with a combination of semi-tropical and mountain feeling

Nestled in a valley was a small and beautiful village

                                   Ornate and historical churches are always interesting to see

                                                            Majestic skyline

     

                                          Photo op in all directions

                                                                Pretty town square

     Very (local) farmer's market - school children made home-made sweets to sell/generate          money for their school. The pastry cake was delicious! If we were not eating on the      ship, buying local cheese, meats and pastries would have been a special treat for us!

               Standard uniform? Most meat/cheese vendors throughout Europe wear black. 

                                   The olive seasoning/aroma was intense - very inviting!

                                                                Interesting shapes

This was the only manhole cover in the village that did not have a blue sticker on it - certifying that all was okay

Part of the our touring included taking a small, historical (1920's era) electric train.

Although this was a real train and locals (as well as tourists) use it for transportation             between port towns and the inland area, it still gave us a feeling of taking a 

Disneyland train ride

The train was a little rickety as well as noisy as it "clicked and clacked down the railroad track..."

                                                                    Still, it was a lot of fun

                                                                        All a board...

                                    We passed miles of lemon and orange groves

                   Small villages were below us as the train chugged up a mountainous area

                                                                    This might be a hotel

                                                                    Palma's cathedral

                                         This could be one the largest cathedrals in Europe

                                                    Enjoying our last lunch on the ship...

                                                                 ...and the view

Our cruise has ended: The Barcelona cruise port could not handle the quantity of boats and all of the tourists. we had to leave the ship at Tarragona which is an hour drive to the airport. Our bus driver got lost as he tried to leave the port and find the freeway. Once heading in the "right direction," he took the slow road to the airport. To make matters worse, rather than first stopping at Terminal 1, for some inexplicable reason, he started dropping people off at Terminal 2 which meant he had to do a lot of back-tracking. Our one hour ride turned out to be two hours and possibly missing our flight.

        Checking in was tough. There were (only) three agents serving Air France, KLM and Delta flights. The check-in line was a "mile long" and we were at the end of the line. After thirty minutes and the line not moving, Jerry had an idea. He found an agent who was sensitive to our situation; especially since Arlene couldn't stand for lengthy periods of time. The agent put us at the front of the line, gave us priority check-in, waved the overweight and allowed us to use the "Fast Track" security process. If it wasn't for the agent's help, we would have missed the flight.

                                             Flying over Paris - final approach to the airport

                                                             Jerry gets to ride along with Arlene