|
|
Sightseeing and culture in Mallorca
Contrary to
many people’s opinion, there is tons
of culture in Mallorca and loads of interesting
places to visit. Here are a few suggestions
for some great days out.
Palma
If you’re
not staying in Palma, take a day off from
the beach and have a look around the capital
city. It’s got a great deal to offer,
in all sorts of ways.
Parking can
be tricky so it’s probably best to
head straight for a car park, rather than
trying to find a place on the street. Alternatively,
come in on the train from Sóller.
While obviously
much smaller, Palma has a lot in common
with Barcelona, and just wandering around
it is a feast for the eyes. Although it
was originally a Roman city, the Gothic
influence is prevalent, as manifested particularly
by La Seu, the cathedral. Check out also
the Castell de Bellver and a couple of museums/art
galleries: Es
Baluard and the Fundació
Pilar i Joan Miró.
There is a
wide range of interesting shops in Palma.
You’ll find stylish clothes and shoe
shops, department stores, gift shops, delicatessens,
artisan studios and factory outlet shops.
For a rest between sights and shops, there
are lots of nice cafés and, for lunch
or dinner, some excellent restaurants. The
night life is plentiful and cool, so, if
you’re able to stay for the evening,
pace yourself!
La Granja de Esporles
In a village
called Esporles, about ten miles from Palma,
there is a stately home called La
Granja, which has been made into a museum
of traditional Mallorcan life. Beyond the
static exhibits, you can see various craftspeople
at work – blacksmith, potter, weaver,
cobbler, candlemaker, olivepresser –
and they put on regular folkdancing shows.
The grounds are beautiful and, because it’s
actually a private farm as well as being
a museum, you can see lots of animals too.
Oh, and there’s a marvellous restaurant
that serves all sorts of traditional Mallorcan
food.
Sa Dragonera
Off the south-west
corner of Mallorca is the Dragonera
island nature reserve. Particularly if you’re
interested in bird-watching, this trip is
a must.
|
| |
Valldemossa
|
In
the mountains between Palma and Sóller,
you will find Valldemossa, made famous by
the Polish composer Frédéric
Chopin and his lover, the French authoress
George Sand (real name Armandine Dupin-Dudevant),
who spent the winter here in 1838/39. It’s
a picturesque and quite sophisticated town,
with upmarket shops and many nice cafés.
You’ll need to park in a public car
park and pay a few euros for the privilege.
|
|
 The
former monastery where Chopin and Sand stayed
is called La Real Cartuja
and it’s well worth a visit. It’s
a beautiful place with marvellous views
(of course!) and, even if you’re into
neither classical music nor French literature,
it’s interesting to see the cells
that Chopin and Sand rented. There is a
lot of information about them both, as well
as some of their effects and manuscripts.
You can even see the piano Chopin used,
since his own piano took such a long time
to arrive from France by donkey. The composer
and the writer had a sadly difficult time
here, partly because he was increasingly
ill and partly because they didn’t
really fit in, it seems. |
| |
 |
Winter
in Majorca
by George Sand
Sand
wrote a book about the experience
of spending a winter in Mallorca and
was pretty scathing about the local
people – although she had high
praise for the island’s natural
beauty.
Click
here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
| |
|
Castell d’Alaró
In the triangle
between Palma, Sóller and Inca, there
are masses of fantastic things to see and
do. If you like walking, you will enjoy
the climb to the Castell d’Alaró
(though you will not be the only one doing
it; it’s a well known and popular
walk). You can start from the village of
Alaró or from another village called
Orient and, either way, it takes about two
hours. The view from the top is truly spectacular.
The castle itself is ruined but there is
a little chapel there – and a restaurant.
Binissalem
If you like
wine, you might be interested in visiting
one of Mallorca’s vineyards. The area
around Binissalem
is renowned for producing very good wine.
Most of the wineries have shops where you
can buy their wines. |
| |
Deià |
 Not
far from Valldemossa is the lovely village
of Deià, where the English poet and
novelist Robert
Graves (1895-1985) lived for many years.
The village is popular with artists, musicians
and writers and it’s easy to see why
they find it so inspiring. It’s very
beautiful in itself and is perfectly situated
between the mountains and the sea.
While you’re there, do visit Ca
n’Alluny, the house that Robert
Graves built and in which he lived for
two long periods, first with the American
writer Laura Riding and later with his
second wife, Beryl. I had heard of Robert
Graves before I went but I knew very little
about him and just thought it might be
interesting to see how an Englishman had
settled in Mallorca. The house is just
a little house (turned into a museum),
there’s a nice garden and another
building where you can find out a lot
more about Graves and his life. It doesn’t
sound that exciting but for some reason
I found it spellbinding. I spent the whole
afternoon there and loved it.
At the top of the hill opposite the
house is the cemetery where Graves and
Beryl are buried. It’s a beautiful,
peaceful little place, with wonderful
views of the village, the mountains and
the sea.
Robert Graves
is probably most famous for his novel bringing
to life the Roman Emperor Claudius. He had
eight children, four with his first wife
and four with Beryl. Several of them went
on to write books and Mallorca is a strong
influence in their writing. |
| |
 |
I,
Claudius
by Robert Graves
A fantastic
book, written as the autobiography
of the fourth emperor of Rome. Graves
was a master story-teller and this
novel is as gripping as any modern
thriller.
Click
here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
| |
 |
Goodbye
to All That
by Robert Graves
Another
of Graves’s most famous books
is this (truly) autobiographical one,
chronicling his upbringing and his
experiences in the trenches of the
First World War.
Click
here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
| |
 |
Wild
Olives: Life in Majorca with Robert
Graves
by William Graves
The
oldest son of Robert’s second
family, with Beryl, tells us about
life in Mallorca and what it was like
to be Robert Graves’s son. If
you’re English and you want
to understand Mallorca, this is a
good book to read.
Click
here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
| |
 |
A
Woman Unknown
by Lucia Graves
This
is William’s younger sister’s
memoir. It gives us a lot of Spanish
history and culture, written in an
unassuming, accessible style. Lucia
is primarily a translator and made
a marvellous job, in my opinion, of
Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The
Shadow of the Wind.
Click
here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
| |
 |
Tuning
Up at Dawn: A Memoir of Music and
Majorca
by Tomás Graves
And
this is the youngest son’s view.
He now plays bass in the Pa amb Oli
(Bread and Oil) Band and is a staunch
supporter of Mallorcan culture.
Click
here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
|
| |
Sóller
Wherever you’re
staying in Mallorca, do try and take a ride
on the Sóller-Palma railway so that
you can enjoy the incredible views. Sóller
itself is a prosperous little town, surrounded
by orange, lemon, olive and almond groves.
After exploring and drinking some freshly
squeezed orange juice (a local speciality),
you can take the Orange Express tram to
Puerto Sóller and have a look at
the harbour. This tram is so called because
it passes through so many orange orchards.
While you’re
in the area, you might also like to take
a quick spin around Fornalutx and Biniaraix,
which vie for the position of most beautiful
village in Spain.
Pollensa
 Pollensa
is an ancient town that has conceded remarkably
little to the onslaught of tourism. If you
feel like getting away from the madding
crowds of the coastal areas, spend half
a day in Pollensa. It offers some nice cafés,
some good restaurants and a few interesting
little shops.
Its most famous
features are the Roman bridge and the Via
Crucis (Way of the Cross), a climb of 365
steps up El Calvari hill to a tiny chapel
commemorating the crucifixion of Christ.
Just outside Pollensa to the south is the
Puig de Maria, a bigger hill than El Calvari
but perhaps even more worth the climb, particularly
if you enjoy the peace and spiritual refreshment
of a Christian place. It takes forty minutes
to an hour to walk up this puig and –
be warned – there seem to be an unusual
number of mosquitos along the way. At the
top you’ll find a santuari, with an
open, friendly atmosphere. You are free
to wander about inside but there are also
grounds where you can eat your picnic and/or
admire the view.
Puerto Pollensa
 About
four miles away is Pollensa’s port,
which has a different feeling from the old
town. The beach is very long (artificially
extended) and sandy, a perfect place for
children to play and older people to enjoy
the sun and sea in the calm of a civilised
resort. There are a lot of Brits here but
they tend to be quiet and well behaved,
not here for the sort of rowdy good time
for which people go, for example to Magaluf.
The Bay of
Pollensa provides safe and happy swimming,
as well as the chance to try a few water
sports, and there are usually a lot
of smart boats moored at the marina.
Three miles or so out of town towards Formentor,
up a steep and winding mountain road, you’ll
come to the Mirador des Colomer, a popular
‘looking point’. The landscape
up here is rocky, primeval and spectacular.
If you can get away from the tourists (not
always easy!), it has a sense of being the
land that time forgot. This is one of the
fascinating characteristics of Mallorca,
it’s such a mixture of the modern
and commercialised and the almost prehistoric.
Alcúdia
 Like
Pollensa, Alcúdia is an ancient town
getting on with its life. Within its walls
are narrow, tranquil streets and smallish,
well kept plazas. There are some excellent,
authentic restaurants and, on Tuesday and
Sunday mornings, a good market. The Roman
amphitheatre is also worth a visit.
During Roman
times, Alcúdia was the capital of
Mallorca – or Balearis
Major - and even today Alcúdia,
with its port, is second only to Palma in
terms of economic activity. Confusingly,
the Romans called Alcúdia Pollentia
(meaning power) and you’ll see signs
to the archaeological site of Pollentia
just outside the city walls of Alcúdia.
Gradually, the Romans migrated inland and
founded the town that is now called Pollensa,
transferring the name to the new place.
The original Pollentia was destroyed by
the Vandals in the fifth century; Alcúdia,
in more or less its present form, was built
by the Moors five hundred or so years later.
Artà
Artà
is a traditionally Mallorcan, residential
town, where not that many tourists tend
to go. However, the walk up from the church
of the Transfiguració del Senyor
to the Santuari de Sant Salvador, the peace
and the views from the hilltop make the
journey worthwhile in themselves.
Amazing caves
Close by Artà
is Capodepera, where you can find not only
an ancient castle but also the cuevas
de arta, some very special caves that
are said to have inspired Jules Verne’s
Journey to the Centre of the Earth. You
can take a guided tour and experience a
son-et-lumière show.
Further down
the coast, near Portocristo, are the cuevas
del drach, a phenomenal suite of caves
containing an enormous underground lake.
You can take a tour of these caves, which
includes a classical concert and a boat
trip on the lake.
Not far away
are the cuevas
dels hams, another set of caves lit
up to extraordinary effect, also with a
lake and also offering a concert.
Shopping and factory tours
in Inca and Manacor
If you’re
in Inca, look out for locally made leather
goods. If you’re in Manacor, you’ll
find pearls, made artificially but beautifully
in one of the factories there, and also
things crafted out of olive wood in another
local factory. The factories offer tours
for those who are interested, usually free
of charge.
Markets
There are
weekly (or more frequent) markets in most
towns, where you can buy excellent comestibles
and some nice crafts and souvenirs as well.
These usually start around 8 am and finish
at lunchtime but it’s worthwhile getting
there early to find the best bargains. Remember
that you’ll be expected to haggle,
so don’t just pay whatever the stallholder
asks of you the first time. If you can speak
a bit of Spanish, you’re more
likely to be taken seriously and to secure
a better deal.
Activities
and sports in Mallorca
|
|
|
|
|
