We have school holidays and we planned already last year to make a trip to Mallorca (Baleares Island in the Mediterranean sea). A cheap flight with Ryanair was also booked. The airport was not around the corner. Called Barcelona-Reus. About 1 hour west of Barcelona itself. Small, modern, free parking. Since we wanted to visit Barcelona anyway, we booked it. A little bit more than 4 hours driving time from Baillargues. Relaxed and smooth. Only a small control at the french/spanish border. Our Clio only consumed 5.4L / 100km. The lowest consumption ever. So we took of from Reus in the Ryanair Jet, 25 minutes flight. With only one little problem. I forgot my drivers license. Without a license no Rental car. Luckily we have great neighbours. They took my License and made a copy at the Sixt Car rental in Montpellier and sent it to Sixt in Mallorca. So after one day we got our rental car. We were so happy. Now we could drive around and see the beautiful island. The lady at the rental said, it is not a good idea to drive around without a license because I can go to jail. But after a call at the german embassy they said this won’t happen.
Our Hotel was great. We had a Villa with two bedrooms and kitchen, Jacuzzi, garden… perfect.
Jonathan was not so fit. After one week already in bed he was still not well again. So we only drove around and watched the beautiful scenery, almond blossom and other flowers. This is a very nice time of the year. Temperatures around 16C.
We of course visited the Hard Rock Cafe in Palma. Brandnew. Only 2 months old. Nice location at the harbour. But the food was not so great. Oily Caesars salad and oily Chicken tenders. We told it to the staff and they said, they will forward the feedback. As HRC fans and with currently 17 HRCs visited in Europe/USA this was the worst food. If they want to survive the next summer they must improve.
We saw a little bit of the southern part of Mallorca this time. Since Jonathan had a bad time we could not do that much. We relaxed. Before we left Mallorca we went to a doctor and got some medicine for Jonathan.
Barcelona was our last part of the voyage after about 1 hour drive from Reus. Nice Hotel in the Northwest of Barcelona. The Novotel Barcelona Sant Joan Despi. Only 30-40 minutes with Tram/Subway to the center (La Rambla, Placa de Catalunya, port…). Lots of fun for the Kids. So we visited the port, Aquarium of Barcelona. The Aquarium is a nice place to go. We enjoyed the sharks, Seahorses, Nemo 🙂
The spanish way of living is very relaxing like the one in the south of france even more relaxed. We walked down the Rambla (main shopping street), Rambla del Mar, Placa de Catalunya.
There were lots of artists, markets and so on. Very nice. At the Placa de Catalunya was also the Hard Rock Cafe of Barcelona. A very nice place. Very crowded and very good food. We had a good lunch and so we walked with a full stomach a little more through the wonderful city of Barcelona.
Today we left spain and came back to Baillargues. What a nice week and definitely not our last trip to Barcelona and spain itself. The spanish people are very nice.
So we had a border control, forgotten drivers license and last but not least a defective HD digital Video Camera but a wonderful trip.
Panorama Rambla del mar:
Panorama Placa de Catalunya:
Pictures from my Digital Camera are here: Mallorca Barcelona 2009.
A bientot the 4 1/2 Engelkahles