Another beautiful sunrise as we sail into Palma de Mallorca, along with incredible panoramic views of the city and the Cathedral on our way to the pier. 

A few days ago, however, RCL announced that we were changing our port time in Palma, arriving and departing an hour earlier due to protests.  No one could tell us what the supposed protests were, but when we searched the internet we did see that they had been protesting some of RCL’s big ships coming into port and definitely protesting the over tourism of the island.  Palma meet Asheville, Asheville meet Palma.  We hear ya Palma!  At any rate, we had originally thought about getting a car from the guy at the little kiosk in the parking lot of the terminal, then driving out to the other end of the island for some coastal hiking. But, not knowing what type of protests there might be – or where – we decided to nix that idea and just stay in town and wander.  The city has a shuttle bus for 10 Euros each (a much better buy than that darn Toulon boat shuttle) so we figure it is safer to just do that. 

And in the long run, probably a good decision because we are at the end of the pier.  One of the worst/furthest berths from the terminal. It would be a 15-minute walk just to get to the car kiosk.  And there is a huge Costa ship already in port.  Yeah, shuttle and town.  Far better decision.

Got the first bus to town, headed to the Cathedral, Le Seu – where we’d never been – and got in line for tickets.  The Cathedral is immense, huge and gothic.  Soaring arched columns frame vibrant stained-glass windows.  Side chapels hold golden statues of saints, wooden framed paintings, more stained windows and this bizarre chapel that in bas relief has one wall that looks like the ocean, one wall that looks like a garden and the back wall that sort of melds them both together?  Truly strange.  There is a crazy massive chandelier over the altar.  And tiles in front of the altar – could be a tomb, could just be tiles – that depict an angel and a skull and cross bones.  Eerily beautiful.

The treasury room holds icons and precious jewels from the church, but also this scary statue of an arm with a hand, but also with real arm bones inside.  Eek.  Ok, that’s good enough to end the tour. 

Time for a cappuccino break.  A nice little restaurant tucked away in the corner of the courtyard next to the Cathedral is the perfect place to sit for a bit and get our bearings. Unfortunately, we have been having data problems – it has been hard to connect to mobile data now that we are in the Baleric islands.  Weird. We had no issues on mainland Spain.  So today again, we have no data at all.  We have to get Wi-Fi from the museums or restaurants.  And this restaurant does not have Wi-Fi, so getting bearings is a bit rough, but we’ll work it out.  Plus, our next stop is just across the courtyard at the Palace Real de la Almudaina.

We’ve been here before, but you know memories – we only remember half of what was here – and it really is an amazing building.  Built in 1229 originally as a Muslim castle, in 1305 Jaime II took charge of transforming it into a Royal Residence and by 1343 was finally completed when the island was brought under the rule of the Kingdom of Aragon.  Truly stunning place – we walked upstairs in this staircase that has the weirdest ceiling, painted in black and white geometric shapes.  Bizarre for this time period of architecture!

Then into the Hall of Fireplaces, part of the Great Hall that was split up into 4 different sections.  And another room that had these bizarre helmets that looked like angry dragons (but then again, when are dragons not angry?) and then through the Council Hall, the largest room left after the Great Hall was divided up – can’t imagine how big the Great Hall would be in its original form!

Its immense!  And other rooms are huge with great paintings and a beautiful courtyard with views of the cathedral.  Then the tapestry room (ok, maybe that wasn’t the name, but that was what was on the walls – and we just loved how they rolled up the good carpets so the tourists wouldn’t step on them!), and into another huge room that might have been the throne room, but maybe not.  Don’t know, but it was huge too with arched walls separating areas.

The courtyard is what I remember with the lion fountain – although last time here, it was more crowded than now, so we get a lot of much better photos today!  Our last stop is the chapel which is lovely in its austerity.  Then we are back out into the outside courtyard….and Wi-Fi!!!  LOL.  Our lives today – we can’t exist without Google maps!

At any rate, map downloaded, we just end up wandering off – looking for a lunch spot off the beaten path – ha ha, here in Palma?  Well, how about just off the main streets? We had decided we would go to the Contemporary Art Museum, even though we’ve been there before, and just headed in that direction.  Passed by the little restaurant, El Tunel, where we ate the last time we were here. They weren’t open yet, but we didn’t want to eat there again anyhow, we wanted something new.  And we found the perfect spot in a little plaza on the way to the museum – Bar Coto.  It was the menu art that pulled us in – and so glad it did!

It is a hopping place, with an excellent outdoor seating area, great décor, great atmosphere and equally great selection of food.  We ended up ordering the set of 7 tapas for each of us, probably too much, but, what the heck.  The tapas are fabulous – pan de tomat, jamon, albondigo, hummus (ok, well, that’s a pass for me), gamberas (which is what we ordered the 7 set for, the 5 set didn’t include the shrimp!), goat cheese and jam and patatas.  Overall, all excellent! 

Now onto the Esbaluard Museu D’art Contemporani de Palma. On the way we pass the stone “ball” that I did remember from our last visit.  Inside, well, it’s contemporary art.  It’s weird, but not bat shit crazy weird!  And of course it has been long enough that none of the exhibits are the same.  There is a strange, but touching ceramic display about being yourself, other odd displays not worth mentioning and the excellent rooftop where we can take lots of great photos of the city around us. And Ed manning the guard station!

Oh, and also a picture of the Castel Bellver to where I had originally thought we could walk.  Um, yeah, not.  It is straight up! Good thing we nixed that as well as the car!

Back inside we visit the Emboidment of the Grotesque exhibit.  Grotesque, yes, weird, yes, explanation?  Don’t really get it, but it is fun to look at – and a lot of the drawings actually look like Miro.  There is also this jacket with blue lights all around it, and wires draped to the floor called the Wandering Jew.  ???

Done with museums, we head back out into the street with the overhead flyers hanging everywhere:  Silencio, Respeto, Civismo.  Yeah, there are problems here.  But we knew that – and hey, maybe the TDA could put these signs up in Asheville.  Yeah, right, sure, LOL.

We caught the next shuttle back to the ship and spent the rest of the afternoon on the balcony, hanging out, enjoying the sunshine and the scenery.  And watching the idiots returning late – not even running! – to get to the ship.  Because they were so late, we end up missing our slot to leave.  Sigh. Not that it is a big deal, we have no where to go but Ibiza which is like 75 miles away.  We’ll be doing circles in the sea all night – but still.  People.  What can you do?

Another lovely night aboard, buffet – yes, we have given up the dining room forever – excellent production show – and off to bed.  Tomorrow our adventures in Ibiza.