The next morning, it was a quick taxi ride to the airport and we were through security in no time. Since we were slumming it, sitting at the gate was the pasttime.
We were at the very far end of the concourse, and the gates were a floor above the rest...interesting setup
Skipping the pictures of regional economy, cause nobody cares, right? That's ok if you disagree, since this is the only picture I took of the flight
We landed in Mallorca where I picked up my rental from Sixt. It was a facelifted A3 wagon, diesel with 6MT so I could row my own gears as I prefer. First stop before driving across the island was Bellver Castle
A view towards Palma Cathedral
A door to nowhere
Continuing into the heart of the fortification
At least the view isn't too bad if you were trapped in here
The view from the top
Oh, I WAS planning to go to Rome this summer, but that all changed recently. Looking like back to Tokyo, then a separate trip to Maldives and London instead.
Afterwards, the next stop was Palma Cathedral, which took us longer than we would have liked. Using navigation, it routed us through some narrow streets with lots of foot traffic. It's a bit unnerving in an unfamiliar area. It took us around a few times before I spotted the underground parking meant for people like us
It was about 2PM by now, so we immediately sat down to get ripped off at Guiness House for a sandwich. But, at least this was our view for the time we spent there...
A forgettable sandwich
Heading towards the cathedral
Again, just simply stunning architecture
A cannon on display
Looking back towards the Med
More cathedral
Not sure why I took this...it ended up looking a lot worse than I was thinking. Maybe I just wanted to capture the bird?
Anyhow, we hopped in the car and drove for roughly an hour to Park Hyatt Mallorca. Now, it's not THAT far away, but the endless roundabouts that span every few miles of road meant lots of slowing down, speeding up, and repeating that made the trip much less fluid than I wanted. All those thoughts disappeared as soon as we arrived at this beautiful property.
We were checked in immediately. We were low on cash, so we exchanged some USD for Euros. However, they screwed up the exchange, significantly in my favor (they did an inverse). When I tried to tell them, the agent brought someone else over who confirmed that I was getting the right amount and thanked me for my honesty. I wasn't going to push it to make the situation uncomfortable, but I knew I shouldn't have received 110 Euro for my single Benjamin.
On to the room...we were driven by buggy and shown the amenities.
Front entrance is on the far left
2nd bathroom in the distance, where the entrance is
The far end of the room, with a dining table and exit to a patio
Bedroom with a rise up TV
Bathroom with heated floor
Outside on the patio
And looking towards some of the other rooms
A sign
Me snapping some pictures
Looking over the pool and dining areas
Down in the pool area where it was too cold for any kind of water activity
Dinner was at Tapas Bar, one of the restaurants on site
Cheese plate. I think we tried the blue bufala (not a cheese person but the guy said it wasn't kill you strong so we said ok), Manchego cured dehesa de los llano which was world's best cheese in 2012, and the last one was the cured organic cheese washed in beer. Pretty good all in all. Just need to taste more and develop my palate going forward
Then a ham tasting plate...lighter one is aged 14 months whereas the darker, leaner one is aged 48 months
Starter was the grilled scallop with smoked butter
Main was the ribeye with padron peppers and some potatoes. Unfortunately, the steak was a let down. It looks delicious, but it was rather tough. I've had plenty of USDA choice steaks that were juicier and more tender. Even worse was that I was really looking forward to a big slab of meat after a few days of small tapas dishes too
Full menu here for those interested:
https://mallorca.park.hyatt.com/cont...nu-English.pdf
A bonus walk around video of the room