Christmas in Palma de Mallorca

Having spent last Christmas in London, and remembering how incredibly quiet and seemingly deserted the city was, we decided to go someplace a bit warmer and spend a few days enjoying new sights. Chuck had been to Palma a number of times while serving aboard destroyers which made port calls there, and he remembered thinking it was very nice. So that became our Christmas destination.

We left London on Christmas Eve morning, making the 2 hour flight from London's Heathrow airport. One of our first surprises at Palma (actually Palma de Mallorca -- the city of Palma on the Island of Mallorca -- one of the Baleric Islands in the Mediterannean off the coast of Spain) was the enormous size (and modernity) of the airport. We later understood that, while Palma is a city of only about 300,000 permanent residents, the islands are a major tourist attraction during the summer season, hosting several million visitors. The airport has been built to handle that seasonal horde.

We rented a car at the airport and drove to the very beautiful Nixe Palace hotel on the Western end of the Palma waterfront. The pictures referred to below show some of the views from the balcony of our room. We enjoyed several very good meals in the hotel's restaurant during our stay.

Palma has an unusual cathedral -- very large (very high and much wider than many we've been to, though not as long). But most of the cathedrals we've seen combine large scale with a beautiful sense of lightness in their amazing stonework. Palma's, though, just seems massive; and, frankly, less beautiful than most others. We visited the cathedral on Christmas Day while non-stop Masses were in progress and, of course, did not take any pictures inside. We spent most of the rest of Christmas wandering the downtown historic area of the city.

On the 26th we ventured out into the countryside to be surprised by how large the island of Mallorca seems and what wild scenery it has. There are many beautiful valleys between surprisingly rugged mountains; and an array of towns on beautiful coves all along the seacoast. Again, you can see some of our photos at the web site referred to below. We spent the morning and early afternoon of a rainy 27th on the Palma waterfront and again in the historic area, where we spent some time out of the rain in a very attractive coffee shop. Then, that afternoon, back to the airport and back home, where we arrived early that evening.

Palma and Mallorca are very attractive and we would certainly recommend them if you were looking for such a site to visit. To see some of our pictures of this visit, go to:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1075148