Mallorca--Easter 2017

APRIL 15, 2017

I'd never been to Mallorca until New Years this year, when I went for about a week.  I stayed in Palma and like it quite a bit, much more lively than Bellagio.  I tried to rent a bike then, but could only find mopeds.

This time I came back for Easter weekend and reserved a bike in advance, one of the Ducati Scramblers.  I would only be on Mallorca for a few days, so only rented the bike for one day, which I figured would be enough time to see a lot of the island.  I stayed in the same hotel as last time, right in the old town, which is right by lots of bars and restaurants.

Anyway, saw this cool statue thing on the way to pick up the bike:

Here's the bike, more on it later:

I set off across to the far side of the island, maybe about 45 minutes away to Port de Soller.  Had a quick coffee and look around there, but nothing especially interesting, typical beach resort.

After that I rode along the north coast to the west, to a place called Port de Valldemmosa.  Tricky little road getting down there, but not much once you reached it, a couple of cafes....  Here is a view from the top:

Here is a satellite picture of the road:

Here are a couple of pictures from the bottom:

Had another coffee than back up to the top, to the west along the coast.  Nice views:

I was in no real hurry, so stopped in another town a bit down the road, Estellencs, for lunch:

After lunch rode to another little town on the west coast, Port d'Andratx where I bought an ice cream--not a low calorie day!  Again, nothing super-interesting:

Then back to Palma in time to drop off the bike.  Nothing too exciting, but a nice day's ride.  

That night, I went to my favorite bar in Palma, where they have an awesome open mike night.  Most open mike nights I've been to have sucked, really an embarrassment.  But this one is amazing...there must be 15-20 great musicians and singers attending, joining one by one, dropping out, coming back.  Some old guy on a tamborine...a guy playing a ukelele...a hot chick singer with an awesome voice...some guy playing a--what is that?  Anyway, here are some pics:

That's it for now!

Cascais-St Tropez

Evening, August 29, 2010
I didn't leave the hotel in Cascais until about 20:00, but thought that maybe I could get to Spain before it got dark, or shortly thereafter. I wanted to get as far as I could, because the next night I wanted to stay in Zaragoza, which was a long way off, and plus I thought it would be cooler riding at night rather than the 100+ temps I expected riding through the center of Spain the next day.

In fact, I was at least 100 km from the Spanish border when it got dark, and I was plenty tired from the day's activities, so after riding in the dark for a while and not digging it at all, I decided to stop in a city called Evora. While it may sound like a planet from a Star Wars movie, Evora is in fact an ancient Roman city, and I would have liked to check it out, but unfortunately I didn't arrive until well after dark, and in the morning I had to get moving early, because I had a lot of ground to cover to get to Zaragoza.

August 30, 2010
I left pretty early in an effort to beat the heat--I was going to be riding more than 500 miles right through the steamy middle of Spain, and was afraid it would be above 100 degrees for most of that distance. As it turns out, the heat wasn't that bad, I think in the low nineties. The ride was long and tedious, with the worst part when I tried to go around Madrid but instead got sucked into the middle of town (thanks GPS!) and then seemingly rode around the city a couple of times on various freeways, it was horrible. I finally succeeded in breaking free of Madrid's orbit and headed off towards Zaragoza.

Frankly this day was pretty much a blur, zipping along the freeway, and certainly not memorable. After the long ride, however, I wanted to spoil myself with a nice hotel in Zaragoza, which I had picked out and selected on the GPS. Of course, once I got to the city, the GPS could not find the hotel (a fair number of one-way streets and pedestrian zones got in the way), so I drove around for half an hour trying to find a place to stay. Finally I found a rather shabby if centrally located hotel (Hotel Inca) and took a room. Finding a decent place to eat with tables outside was also a challenge, and in general, I have to say that I was not that impressed with Zaragoza, it was just not that lively and didn't really have any other major redeeming qualities.  Here’s a view from my hotel room:

 

Here are a few more pix of Zaragoza:

August 30, 2010

No breakfast in the lame hotel, so I had to scrounge around to find something to eat, and then left Zaragoza, destination:  Andorra.  The Pyrenees start pretty soon after Zaragoza, and the road was pretty nice after a short stretch of freeway.  I had heard that there were some good bike shops in Andorra, and thought I'd stop there for lunch and some shopping, although not like I really needed anything.  Of course I got there around 13:00 or so, and most of the shops were closed for lunch…I'll never figure out Europe.

The road after Andorra got even better, and was quite nice, through the mountains.  As usual, when riding through the mountains, it is hard to get pix of the stunning scenery because there is no where to stop.  After Andorra, I really didn't know where to go…hadn't done much research on this area.  I saw Carcasonne on the map, liked the name, and so decided to head there.  It turned out to be a pretty cool city, with a Foreign Legion base and a cool old castle:

And here a few of the city itself:

Carcassone is a nice enough town, but pretty sleepy.  The hotel I stayed in (Pont Vieux) had a great roof deck though, so I could have some wine, smoke a cigar, and watch the changing light on the fortress.  The old town, inside the walls, is super touristy, but pretty cool as it got later and the crowds thinned out (to zero).

 

September 1, 2010

Today I decided to head to St Tropez, just because it sounded glamourous and fun.  So off I went, with most of the way on the freeway, very boring.  But, once I got off the freeway I was on a rather remarkable road leading to St Tropez's back door.  Very narrow, twisty, uneven, off-camber, it was very interesting little road.  Pulled into St Tropez and found a hotel easy enough, with a courtyard to park the bike.  Walked around town quite a bit, it is a nice town, obviously very wealthy, with some seriously, seriously large yachts.  Here are some pix:

St Tropez was nice, but nothing super special, I didn't even see a beach in town, I guess they are somewhere nearby.  Oh well.  Anyway, after one night it was off to Italy!

Malaga-Cabo de Roca

27 August 2010
Well, I had been looking forward to the ride from Malaga to Milan for some time, but when the time came, I was a little concerned that the ride would be a bit too leisurely for my tastes, and eventually decided that I would tack on an excursion to Portugal to visit Cabo de Roca, the westernmost point in mainland Europe. Having already covered the eastern side of Europe (Ekaterinburg) and the southernmost point (Tarifa), all I have left is Nordkapp, which is on the list!

So I got up at o'dark thirty Moscow time (actually 04:45), flew into Malaga, went to Estepona to pack up the bike, went to a relative's house in Marbella for lunch and to say goodbye (no plans on returning to Marbella, ever), and hit the road for Cascais at about 16:00, for about a 465 mile ride. Despite the late start, it was about 95 degrees when I finally left Marbella, it looked to be a long, hot, ride.

And indeed it was. While it wasn't too bad (95 degrees) riding along the coast as far as Gibraltar, as soon as I turned away from the coast it got real hot, real quick--it was soon over 100, and kept climbing all the way to 111 degrees, and stayed north of 105 degrees for probably four or five hours. It was like riding in a freaking oven, very unpleasant, very tiring. I started pulling over every hour or so to drink water and pour a bunch of it all over my head. I was making really good time, pretty much keeping between 90 and 100 mph, because I wanted to get as close to Cabo de Roca as possible before dark.

I was still a long way from the coast when it got dark, but just kept riding because after this ride I was going to stay by the beach, dammit! I finally pulled up to the first hotel I found in a beach town called Cascais, outside of Lisbon, at about 22:30 (Spanish time, which is an hour ahead of Portugual). It was a nice hotel and much more expensive (240 euro/night!) than most other hotels I stay at, but I wasn't really up for bargain shopping at this point, so I took a room, took a shower, and headed out into the town for dinner (pizza and beer).

August 28, 2010
I had planned to ride to Cabo de Roca and Sintra today, but I was so knackered after the previous day's ride that I decided to just relax in Cascais. I strolled along the beach, explored the town more thoroughly, and even--gasp--lounged on the beach very briefly...the town is nice enough but for some reason I've always found Portugal a bit blah compared to other places, and Cascais was the same...had a nice enough dinner and then back to the hotel.

August 29, 2010
Today I got a late start and rode up to Cabo de Roca, only about twenty kilometers or so from Cascais. It was very windy, and the wind had blown large quantities of sand across the road in some places, so it was fairly slow going. Anyway, the cape is pretty cool looking, with the obligatory lighthouse, etc. Here are some pix:

After a little while at the cape, I entered Sintra into the GPS and headed off following "Jane's" directions. The GPS took me to Sintra via an excellent, narrow, tiny, twisty road through the hills--it was awesome, and a great reminder of why I love riding with a GPS after its lame performance in Morocco.

Anyway, made the mistake of hiking up to the top of the Moorish Castle in Sintra--actually it is very cool, and a good work out, but it since it was still about 95% it damn near killed me. I guess it was worth it though, here are some of the pix:

Sintra of course is a cool old town, this was my second day trip there, someday I should stay overnight. I could have really used a couple of cold beers after the hike, but since I was on the bike limited myself to a couple of cokes and large bottle of water with a rather mediocre lunch. After that, back on the bike and a quick boring ride back to Cascais (via a different route). I didn't feel like staying in the expensive hotel again, so packed up the bike once I got to the hotel and headed out of town, thinking maybe I could get to the Spanish border before it got dark.

Springtime in Andalusia

After a brutal month at work, I was able to take a couple days off to go back to Spain to meet my sister and niece. After wrapping up a business trip, I left from Baku to Moscow to Paris to Malaga. Finally got to my hotel in Benihavis about 1 am after a long long travel day. Got up kinda late the next morning and headed up to Granada. Got there in late afternoon, and found a hotel after a minor incident with a Spanish parking lot attendant (ooops!). Walked around town. Here are some sunset shots of the Alhambra:

I was staying at the Alhambra Palace, a cool old place with an Alhambra-esque interior. After the sun went down I walked back there, got a few more shots:
I walked around Granada until late in the evening, maybe midnight or so...there was some kind of religious holiday in Granada (the Friday before Good Friday??), so there were marching bands and religious processions all over town, even past midnight when I was heading home:
Got up early the next morning for a stroll through the Alhambra. I was a little underwhelmed, although didn't go inside. I took a large number of rather mediocre pictures, but thought best not to post them. Here is one to prove I was there...
OK, next day I left from Granada to go down to Marbella to meet my sister and Cathy for a while, and then back up to Ronda, which I had heard great things about. As usual I took the smallest roads I could find to Marbella, through some very nice countryside:

Got to Ronda by early evening and stayed in a great, and cheap, hotel right next to the bridge, with a great view (don't worry, you'll see plenty of pix of the bridge...). Ronda is a very pleasant town, just the right size. Walked around looking for some presents, had some beers, bought dinner, took some pix, and then back to the hotel for a cigar and some wine. A very nice evening! Anyway, here are some pix of the area from just before sunset:The views from town around sunset were very nice, but after dark the town was not as interesting as I expected. But I took a bunch of shots anyway, so bear with me...
This is Ronda's bullfighting arena (below). Ordinarily not particularly interesting, but apparently Ronda was where bullfighing was invented, and many of Spain's greatest bullfighters come from there. Apparently where was a fighting school for Spanish nobility in the town several hundred years ago where they taught them how to fight with lances by charging bulls. One hapless fellow fell off his horse, and when some unarmed standers-by jumped in to save him by distracting the bull, the sport was born. Sounds a little dubious, although there is probably no rational explanation for the genesis of such a sport. OK, I went to bed early so was able to get up really early to get more shots of the town around sunrise. By now the same old shots were getting a bit tedious, and I'm sure you'll be as glad as I was to move on...
Another self-portrait just before setting out...After leaving Ronda I got on some of the usual very nice Spanish roads, heading sort of westerly through some mountains, etc. I didn't need to be in Estepona until evening, so I basically just planned to ride around during the day. Here are some shots of the scenery:

Got this shot of a bunch of riders that were on the same road...all of them, maybe 75 people--stopped at a gas station in Cortez de la Frontera; not sure why people would find rides like that interesting...Photography is cool. Below, same tree, same time, same everything but exposure, very different moods!

Anyway, by mid afternoon headed back to the warehouse, rode along the coast. Stopped at some random beach in Manilva (?), these two lonely sunbathers must be Russian...

Sat here for an hour or so waiting for the appointed time, then headed back to the rather dreary warehouse (see below), where I had to wait for Hana for an hour.