Written by Kim
We had a wonderful day at Palma de Mallorca despite the cloudy somewhat rainy less than perfect weather. We got off to a bit of a rocky start when we couldn’t find one couple who was going with us and also our tour guide hit lots of traffic and was a bit late. When she arrived, Marga, informed us it was her birthday so we knew we needed to help make her day special. We took a short van ride of about 30 minutes to take the train to Soller.
Marga arranged for us to have first class train tickets as we journeyed to Soller. The train was built in 1912 and took passengers 28.5 km across the island to the sea at Port of Soller. Many rich people would go for the summer since it was cooler there.
The views were gorgeous as we rode through the mountains going in and out of 13 tunnels and reaching 200 meters above sea level at one point. There were citrus groves everywhere and lots of live animals. We even saw a foal who was probably born minutes before we passed but unfortunately didn’t have our cameras handy
Our train ride took nearly an hour before reaching Soller. We walked around the village and visited Sant Bartomeu church in the square
After enjoying some time in Soller we took the tram an additional 3 km to Port of Soller. The funding for the original train required that it was 30 km but the train only went 27.5 so the tram was added as an extension to get passengers out to the port. The port is a bowl shaped valley that was cooler in summer
We enjoyed some tapas, sangria and beer before walking around a bit at the port
Before heading back to the ship we stopped at a castle and got a nice view of the Palma marina which stretches 4 km and is one of the largest marinas on the Mediterranean
This was our last port. We get off the ship in Barcelona tomorrow and begin our land journey. We will spend 2 days in Barcelona then take the train to Madrid for a few days. Until then..,,
