Day 3 Tuesday 22 October 2002

I had a brilliant time in proper Palma, the capital city. I had a 1E ride on a bendy bus. An Irish couple at the bus stop were very helpful with their suggestions about places to see. An attempt was made to pick-pocket me by a so-called flower seller and her accomplice but they ran off. Another friendly couple warned me to check that nothing had been stolen. Nothing was taken because they didn’t have the chance as I kept on returning to her the “Festival Flower” that she tried to give me. Palma Cathedral was a sight to behold. I took photographs of two mime artists outside the cathedral. I think one was a Queen, a Cuban who really knew her stuff and the other one was an all-over, gold-painted Viking in front of a wooden cross. After a most enjoyable time in the Park including sculptures and fountains by the seafront, I was lucky enough to hop aboard the touristy electric tram-train from Palma to Solero in the Tramuntana, mountains in the north west of the island.
The tram’s tracks were embedded in Palma’s streets to begin with before we left the city. The tram itself was magnificent, reminiscent of a largely bygone age of transport back in the UK at least. Inside the coach was polished red mahogany panelling with bright chrome fittings; brown, plastic-backed seats with chrome holding rails and interior lights protected by a mesh covering. All in all, an extremely authentic, if not actually original electric tram. It was a fantastic ride up into the high mountains that rise to 1445metres above sea level, passing olive, orange, lemon and almond groves. There was an incredible amount of terraced stone walls enclosing fields that maximized the amount of land available for farming. Rural Majorca is very beautiful notwithstanding the bric and brac that is probably also found along so many other railway lines around the world. There were many windmills scattered all over the landscape and it was quite exhilarating rattling and clattering through red, sandstone deep cuttings and tunnels. One tunnel was in fact quite long at about 10 miles at our speed of about 30 m.p.h. I didn't spend much time in Solero, nestled there in the mountains because it was doubtful there was another train returning after ours. I sat in the most elegant Town square outside a church where I enjoyed lunch of a meat and vegetable pie and two cups of tea. I found out that Michael Douglas apparently lives at Valldemossa with his wife, Catherine Zeta Jones from Swansea I think in Wales. On the return trip I had close-up views of ripening-ripened oranges and lemons on their small trees. Almond nuts looked solitary on their branches. It was a good glimpse of the real Mallorca.

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