Day Two: Pollença

After finishing the blog last night, we had fun sitting on our balcony and watching the cruise ships pull out of the harbour.

Palma looked particularly pretty once it got dark and we could see all the lights from the buildings.

We woke up to another baking hot day this morning. We had decided not to book breakfast in the hotel (€28 per person per day!!) so Tim planned to head out and find a supermarket first thing in the morning, so that we could have breakfast on our balcony and then make an early start to the day. When we made this plan we hadn't quite taken into account how laid back everything is in this part of the world; none of the supermarkets opened until 9am Never mind, we did eventually manage to get some provisions for breakfast and then get out on the road.

The plan for today was to drive across Mallorca to its northern coast, which is quieter and less developed than the southern coast (which includes resorts like Magaluf). To make the journey more interesting, we were driving via the Santuari de Lluc, a monastery located in the Serra de Tramuntana, a mountain range which runs across Mallorca. The drive there was really spectacular, on some seriously steep and winding roads which our small hire car found a bit taxing at times. Unfortunately no pictures, as there wasn't really anywhere to pull over.

After 45 minutes or so we reached the monastery in Lluc.

There was a large carpark there so we parked without any problems, though the parking charge of €6 felt a bit steep.

The guidebook had recommended this as a good place to visit, but once we were there it wasn't immediately clear why

We followed signs to a botanical gardens, but as we walked around it we were a bit underwhelmed.

It was nice and shady though, which was a bonus on a day like this. And afterwards we found a cafe to get ice cream

Our next stop on today's road trip was the small town of Pollença, about half an hour's drive away from Lluc.

We managed to find free parking on the outskirts of the town, which was a definite bonus. We parked the car and followed signs towards Pont Romà, the Roman bridge. It maybe would have looked a bit more impressive if there was water in the river

We strolled into the centre of the town, which was full of pretty little streets.

After a while we came to what looked like an enormous set of steps.

There are 365 steps in total, one for every day of the year, leading up to a tiny chapel which you might just be able to make out at the top of the picture below.

It was so hot that we decided to give it a miss and continue with a lazy stroll around the town instead.

A few miles away from Pollença is the small seaside town of Port de Pollença and that was our next stop.

We found some parking down by the harbour, which was absolutely full of boats. There were some gorgeous flowers too.

One of the best things about being down by the sea was that we now had a view back towards the mountains we'd driven through on the way here.

They really were quite rocky.

There was a nice promenade in Port de Pollença where we were able to walk along by the sea.

It's a popular beach resort and the beaches looked like proper sandy ones

The water was a beautiful shade of blue today.

It almost felt a bit like Montenegro, with the mountains coming down to the sea.

In the distance we could see the Formentor peninsula, which is the northernmost part of Mallorca.

As we walked a bit further along the promenade it got a bit quieter and the views continued to be fantastic.

We were getting hungry by this point though, so eventually we turned around and walked back towards the centre of town for a late lunch.

They seem quite flexible about meal times in Mallorca, so were able to find food without any problems, even though it was around 3pm. And the prices seem incredible compared to Liechtenstein a few weeks ago; I think we both had a main meal today for the same price as one schnitzel and chips in Switzerland

After Port de Pollença we just had one more stop on today's itinerary. We drove on another winding mountain road, part of the way along the Formentor peninsula. It didn't take long for us to be high about the town.