Mallorca (Majorca) - Spanish Balearic Island in the Mediterranean Sea

For a last getaway of the summer, we took a short trip to Mallorca, or Majorca, depending on who you ask.  We decided to stay on the northeast corner of the island to be near this.

[This article is picks up from our previous Mallorca post - Firefighting seaplane!]

I'd been wanting to see this since a planned trip to Mallorca was canceled back in 2001.  We stayed in Port de Pollença.  Pollença is a pleasant town on a wide bay surrounded by scrubby hills; small enough to be easy to find your way around, yet with plenty of restaurants and grocery shops.  During summer, a visit to Pollença might as well be a visit to England.  You'll here nothing but English accents everywhere you go, because the English seem to have adopted the town as their favorite on the island.  It has a nice walk along the beach past the end of the road, so you can get away from the car noise.  I've really started to notice how much more pleasant life is when there are no noisy, smelly, dangerous cars and scooters disturbing the peace.

From Pollença, it's only a short drive to the tip of the island, a dramatic peninsula with 1000'-plus rocky cliffs, pine forests, and views of the sea and nearby mountains that stretch for miles.  We drove up there at sunset one night.  For a sense of scale, notice the sailboats.

It was so relaxing to sit and look out over the ocean, with sound of the wind.  Until a jerk with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) known as a quad-copter (i.e., a 2'x2' contraption with four horizontal propellers powered by small gas engines) arrived.  He started up the really loud motors and hovered the thing here and there, totally obliterating the peaceful atmosphere on top of the mountain.  Boy, I can't wait until we have hundreds of those buzzing over our heads in every major city.

Leaning precariously over the edge of one of those cliffs, looking straight down, we could see how clean and clear the water was.

The next day, we went back and drove down to the end of the peninsula, on a winding road through pine forests and along cliffs.  This is how it looked from the lighthouse at the very end of the peninsula.  The cliffs on the right are the same cliffs in the first photo above, seen from about 10 miles further away.

We drove past this amazing cove.  It requires a hike or a private boat to reach.

Next article - Jellyfish attack at Cala San Vicenzo!