Friday, April 11, 2014

Hola Mallorca!

So, last month I told Brandon we need to get away, just the two of us, for the weekend. He started naming places we could go, and I said I don't really care, just pick it. So I found the sitters and he booked the trip!  I had no idea where we were going, but he let it slip there was a beach, haha! And then I found out for sure when we arrived at the airport. Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain!!!  We stayed in Palma de Playa at the HM Gran Fiesta.

Our room was on the third floor, front right. Great ocean view!


We flew out Friday morning, and since it was drizzling when we landed we took a taxi straight to the Palma Aquarium. They have the largest shark tank in Europe, about 25 feet deep, and at least 5 sharks swimming about. By the time we made it through all of the fish, it leads to the garden outside and the sun was out! We ate lunch there and then finished the rest of the aquarium.










This guy kept trying to jump out







By this time, it was late enough to check in and we walked along the beach to the hotel. Changed into our shorts and walked along the beach to check out the area. There are tons of bike rental places and souvenir shops, so we figured we would rent a bike the next day and ride around. This is definitely an active island, they have what they call Active Vacations, you can rent road bikes, city bikes, four wheelers; there are tons of people running and wind surfing and sailing. It was crazy. Brandon and some friends are planning a trip back so they can ride their bikes around. I couldn't even count the number of cyclists. It's also a popular city for Germans, so our hotel staff spoke Spanish and German and very little English. EVERYONE else in the hotel was German, so people assumed we were too. Walking the beach takes forever because I like to pick up shells, so we had to move to the boardwalk.


THEN, I convinced Brandon to get a fish pedicure!!  I had no idea how hard it would be for him. It was pretty funny....




Obligatory Beach Selfie
 




The ship out there is an aircraft carrier. The USS Truman

Day 2:
When we woke up I asked Brandon if there was Hard Rock Cafe, so we could add to our glass collection. He looked it up, and since there was one 11 KM away we ate breakfast and rented bikes to go over there. 5 euro for an all day rental! And they were nice bikes, comfortable and sturdy. We found some Spanish windmills and took pictures to add to our windmill photo collection (Holland and Greece) to kill some time; ate lunch, and then rode back to the hotel. I think we got in an hour of sunbathing, we both got some sun, found some souvenirs for the kids, ate dinner, relaxed, and then went out to the beach during sunset. We had to get up at 5 am the next day to go home.
It was a quick trip but it was so much fun and so relaxing, just what we needed!

It was super windy and cold at night. The ocean was so loud but it was nice to fall asleep to!
 
 


This is a massive church. We didn't go up to it because it was on a hill and we were on bicycles.




For Sandy :)



Palma

 
Now there are only four more days until the next vacation......can't wait!!