Day 2: Northern Menorca

We've got breakfast included at the hotel we're staying in, so when we woke up this morning our first aim was to make the most of that. It turned out to be a really extensive breakfast buffet, including pancakes, churros and lots of pastries. The weather was warm enough for us to eat outside on the hotel terrace, which was exciting

The second aim for the day was to make the most of having a rental car and do a bit of a road trip around the northern part of Menorca. I'd thought initially when I booked the flights that we might be able to do a road trip all the way around Menorca, which isn't a terribly big island. But when I invested in a guidebook, I found out that there isn't a road that goes all the way around the coast (like Iceland's ring road!); instead, the main road goes across the island from east to west and there are numerous small roads leading off it towards coastal places.

Our first stop for this morning was a place called Parc Natural de s'Albufera des Grau, a nature park located a few kilometres north of the island's capital, Maó. I'd read that there were some easy, signposted walks here, so we drove to the visitor centre and parked. From there, we strolled down a small road towards the water.

We found the first of the marked trails, which was so well signposted that it would have been hard to miss it.

All we had to do to start was climb over this rather unusual stile!

The park is centred around a freshwater lagoon.

For parts of the walk we would just get glimpses of it through vegetation...

...and then we'd emerge at a viewpoint with more extensive views  

The lagoon is a popular place for bird-watching.

We could sometimes see birds on the surface of the water, but we weren't close enough to make out what they were.

At various intervals along the path there were birdwatching shelters though - along with signs telling people to be quiet - so it felt like a place that people would come with binoculars.

We were just enjoying the walk, the sunshine and the views  

We've only come away in trainers this weekend and the path was just about at the limit of what's doable without walking boots.

In places it was a bit steeper and rockier than we would have liked.

Mostly it was fine though and definitely worth it for the views.

At one point we even passed a tortoise by the side of the path!

We finished the green signposted walk, which was about 2km, and then moved onto a route with red signposts. This one was a bit shorter and it didn't take us long to reach the final viewpoint.

It was still quite rocky though!

Once we'd finished that we jumped back in the car and drove a few miles down the road towards the Favàritx lighthouse. 

The road to get there was a little bit narrower, with a couple of places where it was difficult for two cars to pass each other. The road is closed during high season, meaning you have to park in a carpark about 2km away and walk. But because it's still officially winter here, we were able to drive up close today and park by the sea.

Once we'd parked we just had a short stroll towards the lighthouse.

As you can probably tell, it was rather windy here!

We had some good views of the lighthouse though...

...plus some good views of the waves on the rocks below.

Once we'd finished admiring the lighthouse, we drove another few miles up the road to a village called Fornells.

It was a pretty little place with a nice promenade by the sea...

...and a very scenic harbour.

The plan was to get a late lunch here, but it turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated.

There were plenty of restaurants along the seafront, but they all seemed to focus almost exclusively on serving fish.

Eventually we found a fish restaurant that had spaghetti bolognese on the menu! Luckily it didn't smell particularly fishy and we were able to sit outside and enjoy our meal with a view of the sea. Pudding was good too; I went for a cake called "Death by Chocolate"...

...while Tim tried a local cake made with egg yolks.

Both were delicious! Suitably full, we set off back across the island to the hotel to enjoy the sunloungers a bit more