When Maggi and I arrived for breakfast all the others had started. They had received their tray with all the breakfast food, 2 slices of cheese, 2 slices of smoke salmon, 2 cold hard boiled eggs, 4 slices of bread, 2 croissants, jam, yogurt and chopped fruit. Plenty for me and all in our party.
Today centred around our walk. We set off shortly after our breakfast. The latest batch of tourists just appearing over the horizon as we walked down the high street.
Matt guided us to beginning of a joint trail up the mountain. He had spent quite a bit of time choosing and mapping out a route and he likes to take full control over the whole process. When Mark, particularly, and Maggi and I started to chip in with suggestions he really didn’t like it.
We climbed and climbed and then the trail separated. Mark had his phone out saying we should go this way. The rest of us had no real idea but we did offer some thoughts. At which point Matt abdicated all guiding responsibility and went into a huff.
We climbed on under Mark’s leadership occasionally stopping for a water break, a look at the panoramic views around or a photo or two. The sun shone but fortunately the trees sheltered us from the worst of the heat.
Eventually we arrived at the summit again a choice of ways presented itself. Mark pointed to his phone and we turned left downwards. The path took us close to the edge of the mountain with a steep drop just centimetres from where we had to walk. Mark suffers from Vertigo and kept close to me so he could focus on me rather than the cliff edge.
We all reached the bottom without mishap and then the route seemed to turn left. A wire fence seemed to block our path but in the middle a stile made it easy to cross. We continued downwards.
Eventually we arrived at a point where we couldn’t go any further downwards because the fence blocked our way and clearly indicated that we should take the rising path.
As good citizens we followed the rising path which after zigzagging back up the mountain we arrived at the very top. That is the place where we had descended from 1 hour earlier.
The rest of the journey was just downhill, in and out of the trees, making sure we didn’t slip on the scree underfoot. While it had been no problem climbing up the mountainside it became slightly more difficult descending and choosing where to place your foot.
We arrived back in Valldemossa and Maggi and I both had a large beer and an ice-cream. We then returned to our room where I had my usual siesta.
We reconvened at 18:30 over two bottles of wine on the balcony of the hotel. Helen had bought crisps and peanuts to go with the wine. As a group we then walked over to our evening restaurant, Es Taller.
We ordered our food, basically 3 tapas dishes and a main course each. The restaurant based in an old car service station, was already busy when we arrived and became busier as the evening continued. The tapas dishes arrived one after another rather that as one. They all tasted very good and I was pleased with the place
I guess the staggered arrival of the tapas should have forewarned us that our main courses would not be on time. Eventually hthey arrived. I had ordered pork loin which tasted fine although a bit too salty. However, by this time my appetite had gone. I ate a little and then gave up. The boys finished the meat part of the meal but I was full.
Everyone had eaten enough and we paid and left slowly walking back to the hotel.