I slept fantastic and woke up before 6 am. Met Sister T. at our designated spot and had a cup of coffee in the garden cafe before heading to the Taste dining room when it opened.
First Epic Breakfast
After being seated we were served beverages and given a basket of pastries. I ordered the fruit salad to start and Sister T. had the yogurt parfait.
The next course was biscuit benedict for me and open faced salmon bagel with a side of back for Sister T.
We went back to the cabin afterwards and got ready to go. It had already rained this morning and more was forecase so we bundled up.
Spain Day Tours Full Day
We left for the dock about 8:45 and found our tour with Spain Day Tours. Since I was the first to book and publicized the tour on the cruise critic board, our tour was free (if 18 or more book). We had 18 exactly in a full size bus so plenty of room to spread out.
Sara was our tour guide and Oscar was our bus driver; both were great! Everyone was there by 9:15 so we left early.
Our first stop was Bellver Castle which had a beautiful overlook of Palma.
We also had a good view of our home for the next couple of weeks.
Bellver Castle was built in the 14th century and is rather plain.
We didn’t have enough time to go up and see more; especially if one wanted to visit the free public washroom.
Valdemossa
We then headed to Valdamossa which was about a 30 minute drive.
Once there, Sara took us on a 25-30 minute walking tour of the town before giving us free time.
We first walked to the gardens of the Charterhouse.
The Charterhouse was a royal palace built in the 14th century converted to a monastery. The present day church there (see tower) was built in the 18th century. After the government took over monasteries, Frederic Chopin and his partner, George Sand, stayed one winter.
There’s a bust of Chopin but I didn’t see anything for George Sand.
Other sculptures in the garden include this one for Archduke Ludwig Luis Salvador of Austria who lived a number of years all over the island of Mallorca.
There was an entrance fee of one euro t see the inside of the church. It was a tiny church but had an impressive chandelier.
The back of the church was much simpler but still interesting.
We continued to walk together up towards an overlook. This doorway caught my eye.
Our guide pointed out the tiles embedded on walls throughout the town depicting scenes from the life of Santa Catalina Thomas.
She is the only saint from Mallorca and was born and raised in Valdemossa in the 1500s. Then we got to the overlook where we all enjoyed the incredible view. I can only imagine what it looks like on a beautiful day.
The guide then walked us down to the main street where she told us about the hot chocolate and potato rolls (specialty of the town) and we were off on our own. Sister T and I took a break from the rain and wind for the local treat at Cafeteria Bar Meriendas.
It didn’t take long to get our order and we found a table in the crowded establishment.
The roll wasn’t anything special to me but the hot chocolate was WOWEE! It is the best drinking chocolate I’ve ever had and Sister T agreed with me. Refreshed, we went back out in the cold for some more exploring.
We also saw the old historic public laundry area.
I thought this idea of putting pots on the walls of the house was cool.
The village was charming.
I just wished we could visit on a warmer day. We did pop into a few shops and especially enjoyed looking at the products made from cork but left empty-handed.
Palma
We were pretty miserable from the cold and rain by the time we left the town at 12:30 for the Palma portion of the tour. I took the photo below looking at Valdemossa from the road.
When we got to Palma Sara said we’d have 3 hours free before meeting up to return to the ship. We decided to join another couple in a taxi back to the ship (7 euros total for the two of us including tip).
I did get photos of the side of the cathedral before leaving.
We also saw a rainbow!
For those walking, it is a LONG walk from the port terminal door to the ship’s gangway. Also, the ship looks close from the cathedral but I’d say it is a 3 mile walk.
We were quite hungry by this time so went straight to the madhouse in the Garden Cafe. The food is very good here but the lines were crazy and not relaxing at all!
Evening Onboard
After napping and getting ready for the evening we met at Shakers for pre-dinner drinks. I had a couple of cocktails (citrus gem and basil cucumber) and Sister T. had an apple blossom.
We then headed to dinner at Shanghai’s.
Our timing was great because shortly after we were seated, the hostess was telling others it would be 45 minute wait although seats were available at the noodle bar for quite a while.
I started with fried pork potstickers and Sister T had egg roll.
We both had the very good hot and sour soup.
For entree, I had the Peking style chicken.
Below is a picture of Sister T.’s char sui with rice noodles.
We had dessert at the garden cafe where we both enjoyed the crepes (strawberry for me and lemon for her).
I was done in and headed to the room to catch up on journaling, find out what’s going on with the distilled water I preordered (had to call guest services and still nothing….). My water purchase I made this morning (6 litter package ) was delivered and without asking Joseph left two Freestyle Dailys so we can each have our own.
I walked 3.9 miles today with 11,850 steps.
Below is today’s Freestyle Daily. (click to open/download full PDF).
Don’t miss previous trip posts.
Next Cruise: Norwegian Epic Translatlantic
Excursion Plans
Traveling to Barcelona
Barcelona Arrival
Barcelona Day 2 – Part 1
Barcelona Day 2 – Part 2
Barcelona Day 3
Norwegian Epic Transatlantic Embarkation
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