Palma de Majorca

Palma de Majorca

We arrived on the 5 Dec at approx 2100, after snugging the boat, we settled down for a beer or two and some late night snacks.. The next day, we did laundry, washed the boat and then went off to explore... We were informed that the next few days would be a series of public holidays. So we decided to hang around till Tuesday, as that was the first "work" day... On about Sunday, Evelyn got in contact with a friend of hers, Phillip see if he was interested in joining us.. The answer was a yes, now we have an Austrian delegation on the boat...

First impressions of Palma, were extremely favourable and they have remained so. The first day we walked along the old city wall as they were having a fair, with local foods etc... We had some lunch then walked around to the Catherderal and the Royal Palace.. The Cathederal was closed and the Royal Palace fo Almudaina was closing... So we just strolled around some more..

Next day we took the hop-on-hop-off tour of Palma and one of the stops was the Castle Belver.. A unique round castle, built by the first kings of Palma, and then later used to imprison them and any other undesirables through the times...  Quite a nice place, we only had 45 mins to explore as we got there just before lunch...

Once of the Castle's most famous "Guests" - Jovelanos, he advocated for agrarian land reform - surprisingly enough, he made quite a few enemies, which landed him at the castle, still he was more fortunate than others as he got to leave standing up and under his own steam...

There is a spiral staircase, leading down to the lower levels, the exit is just in front of the fireplace, suppose, from the owner's perspective it was a magic fireplace as the fuel kept getting replenished...

One of the Castle owner's son's was a patron of the arts and had a number of art pieces, copied, these pieces are on display in the castle.

A mock-up of the castle on the hill overlooking the city of Palma de Majorca.

Old cannon, breech separate from the main unit..

Genealogy of the kings of Majorca, James the first was the one who liberated the island from the Moors.

The castle as viewed from the harbour.

A better view of the castle for a few, this would be their last. During the Napoleonic wars prisoners were sent here. During the Spanish civil war, this also was the home of any undesirables..

The courtyard of the castle, with the keep in the background.

We went back to the boat after this for an afternoon siesta..

The next day, we wanted to visit the Cathedral as was closed the previous day, and this seemed to be the trend...

Palma de Majorca Cathedral - not a lot to be said about this building, other than rather impressive, it is also the only Cathedral built close to the sea.

Royal Palace La Almundaina

Instead we visited the Royal Palace La Almundaina. This is still an official residence of the Spanish Royalty, they host a banquet every summer in the great hall..

 The entrance to the tour..

 The ceiling of the great hall collapsed at some point in time, the ceiling was originally 12m in height, as part of the restoration, they lowered the ceiling and built a number of smaller halls, in it's stead. On the upper level, they relocated the great hall to the first floor instead..

 The hall of fireplaces, these three bad boys, were originally used to keep the great hall warm.. This then led into the second hall, with portraits of the kings and of Majorca and various important persons.. All the furniture in the castle is original..

 The helmet of James I, liberator of Majorca...  The halls and rooms of the castle are decorated with numerous tapestries..

 In this hall the King of Spain held court in recent times..

 This below is the Officer's mess, the ceiling is original

 Various Masterpieces adorn the walls of this hall..

 This is in the adjoining room..

 Glassware found on the castle site, during excavations, these date back to the occupation of the Moors..

 Yet another Tapestry... This then leads into the Arab baths, consisting of 3 rooms a-la Roman, the Colarium, figidarium and the washing room.. This was just for the King and Queens usage..

 A view of the courtyard..

 Up these stairs are the Queen's Office/Library, the great banquet Hall and the old Kings Bedroom and dressing room.. No photography was allowed, so not much to speak about..

 And yet another view of the elusive cathedral...

 The Chapel of the Palace, it houses a reliquary of the Patron saint of the City and some of the "humble" servants of God's attire.. The iron works guarding the reliquary were commissioned in the 1400's (I think).

 The chapel, housing the reliquary, with the impressive wrought Iron works.

 The altar of the curch..

 Dudds of the the Lord's "Humble" servants (Gold and silk, of course).

 The reliquary housing the bones - a huge crowd attraction, in times of olde...

 And another two views of the courtyard...  The rest of the day was spend wondering through he streets of Majorca, which are impeccably clean and pretty nice to walk through... The old part consists of old residences which only hint at the wealth of the former owners and one can only imagine the tales they could tell and the lives they have witnessed..

 This building was adorned with random faces on the wall, yet another impressive building to see.. We next went to the Arab baths, consensus has it that these were built sometime during the 1000's. they now seem to be in courtyard of some residences..

 On to another nice church...

 A statue of St Jorge slaying the dragon, seems this dude got around...

 The ceiling of this church was quite impressive (I haven't gotten into the AFC mode, I'm sure after another two or three it will come ;-))..

 St Jorge, doing his dragon thing..

 While we were there, some dude started busting some choons on the organ, which was nice... After leaving still some more wondering, most of the houses seemed to be of this type, with a courtyard - quite nice, if one could afford it..

 Some of the houses had raris and porches, this guy outdid them all, by keeping it olde school and real..

That concluded a really nice stay in Palma de Majorca, a really nice place that I would visit again, prices were pretty reasonable and the city itself really nice... We then waited one more day and were joined by Phillip, who will be joining us till either Gibraltar or the Canaries.. We will set off on Thursday on to Alicante....