Day 5 Thursday 24 October 2002

My return flight departs Palma at 0210 hrs and is due to arrive in Luton at 0345 hrs tomorrow morning. This short break holiday has worked out at £47.00 per day all in. By 0900 a.m. I left the hotel on a Number 15 Playa da auto bus. Beforehand I had a good chat with Fabien, the hotel’s front line desk operator explaining that Easy jet had made a mistake in advertising the hotel’s rate at £81.00 per night. He was very grateful and kindly knocked off one night from my bill! I spent this morning walking downhill through the centre of Old Palma, through its historic old squares and passing many mime artists on the way (Roman Guard; Viking Warrior; Monk; Charlie Chaplin and a silver coated Matador with a hypodermic syringe stuck in his life-sized, tin foil coated bull’s neck and head. As you might expect, there were expensive looking clothes shops and all the other shopping paraphernalia. I went inside the Church St. Eulain which had about 14 altars with dark, red candles that was extremely peaceful for all the hustle and bustle outside. I enjoyed the area outside the Cathedral de Palma most of all. The views out over the Mediterranean and over the harbour were wonderful. The Cathedral building is undergoing loads of restoration work. New cobbled stone paths were being laid and it was interesting studying the stone masons with their drill bits and electric-driven cold chisels going about their craft. Within a matter of a few yards there was a huge change in air temperature from hot to cool in amongst the shade of the trees and feeling the coolness of the water fountains and ponds. I particularly enjoyed listening to a Spanish guitarist and an accordionist on the back up towards the city centre. Armed foot police were quite in evidence around the streets. Local people were casually dressed in the relaxed Majorcan style. I caught a direct auto bus to Palma Airport and landed in Luton at 0210 a.m. I had a breakfast at Reading Motorway Service Station on my drive back home after re-charging my batteries. An excellent short break.

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