6 May 2009
Another travel day. We slowly made our way westward, from Port de Sóller to Banyalbufar. This is the rugged coast of Mallorca. Nothing is level! But the good news is that nothing was terribly steep either. In total, we climbed 4300 feet over the course of the 50 km ride, but most of the grades were a not-too-taxing 5-7%. (Aside: Why do we still use English units for elevation gains, even when we are comfortable using metric units for distances?! It must be because 4300 feet sounds more impressive than 1300 meters and 50 km likewise sounds more impressive than 31 miles!) Our journey included a serious descent and climb on a side trip out to Port de Valldemossa. The view of the tiny port from the top of the descent is shown in the picture below.
After visiting the port, we made a lengthy stop for lunch and had a look around in the nearby inland town of Valldemossa. Apparently, Chopin hung out here with his mistress, the (female) author known as George Sand, for a few months in 1838. He was suffering from tuberculosis, which didn't improve. Sand wrote "A Winter in Mallorca" about their not-so-happy time here. For us, for a few hours in the spring of 2009, the town was a delight. We had a great lunch of "tombet," a baked potato dish in tomato sauce with red peppers, eggplant, zucchini, onions, and garlic.
We saw many interesting buildings along the ride today, and I've scattered pictures of them throughout this blog entry.
The photo at the top shows a piece of Banyalbufar, a village perched on the side of a mountain overlooking the Mediterranean. We're here for two nights before returning to Palma and the end of our time in Mallorca.
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