I sleep ok-ish other than hearing Lisa shuffling around in her sleep, her bed makes a lot of noise. We’ve got 2 single beds for some reason – but suits us. Also on the early hours the bedside lamp switches on and I think that it’s due to the switch being sandwiched between Lisa’s bed and the bedside cabinet. There’s been a storm going on outside most of the night. Morning is calm again.
In the morning, half asleep, I think I see an apparition darting across the room, a bright white figure moving swiftly from right to left. Oh it’s just Lisa in her robe rushing to see the others next door.
A bit about the rooms – they are all very clean and homely. At the balcony end we have a settee and armchair. In the middle, beds. At other end, separate WC and bath/shower room. The WC is a tight fit – door just clears the 🚽, and the light switch is behind the door, so it’s a bit of a faff. The balcony overlooks the sea and is a lovely sight. Lisa says the room reminds her of our cabin on the cruise, to which I agree – same set up.
Breakfast – Tea/Coffee is served instantly the minute we sit. I head to the cooked breakfast bit where Antonio (one of our waiters from last night) serves up eggs / omelettes to order. I go standard Full English with a fried egg: huevo frito (he teaches me a little Spanish here and there). Stu is jealous of our friendship, and calls him “egg man”.
After brekky we decide to explore the rest of the hotel, then swim. While I check out the “beach” – more of a small cove, I’d say; the others are talking to a guy, who looks a bit like Keith Barron, and are asking him/his wife all sorts of questions about the hotel because they know it so well and have stayed here loads. We have more of a wander.
We go for swim for a couple of hours in the heated pool, and meet a nice lady Isabelle. She’s an 83 year old Geordie that has been coming here since 1990. Travels here by herself, bless.
Lunch is 13:00-15:00. So at 14:00 we go to the restaurant – nothing happening. We’re told to go to beach restaurant, so back thru the tunnels etc. Then tuck into buffet food. I get back to table with my food and a shitty little bug instantly jumps on my chicken. I have to bin that now. Lisa is freaking because the dauphinoise potatoes have a really strong cheese – “get it off my plate” she exclaims several times over. Classic Lisa freakout. Calm resumes and after lunch we go and chill with some birds.
Our trip to Palma seems to take ages to get going. We leave at 16:00 eventually. Waiting at the bus stop, a bus arrives going the opposite direction and the driver indicates that we need to get on that. A bunch of people run across the road to get on, as do we. Driver confirms that it is going to Palma, €2pp.
The bus drives to the next stop and it literally does stop for 15 minutes the driver shouts something to us passengers, gets out, and is walking around the street. Everyone is confused. After another bus in front of our bus leaves, the driver gets back on then gets back off again, walks around some more, and then we set off down a road that is not part of the route, but we can see this is due to roadworks. En route the pause happens again at one other stop. The bus gets really busy but we’re seated (seats not that comfy though, Sue gets back ache). Deffo getting cab back. We later find out that there is a bus strike today so this was the bus drivers little protest that we are caught up in.
Finally get to Palma and mooch through the streets.
A nice little stop at a cafe for refreshments. My brilliant Spanish language skillz (yeah, right) enable me to make friends with the waiter who is Argentinian and because if his love of The Beatles he went to Liverpool to learn English. The Scouse factor naturally made this difficult. I get a fist bump from the guy and we plod on.
We go for dinner in a nice little place, keen to keep our spending under our around €19pp to be on par with our hotel deal. Burgers, fried rice, bruschetta are consumed.
When I am in toilet, washing hands, a guy walks in and gives me a mini cheer and starts talking to me in slurred English. He sounds/looks Dutch. Asks me what football team I support. “Chelsea? Me too!” he exclaims whilst simultaneously pissing in the urinal and twisting round. “Oh, I think I may have pissed on the floor” was his next statement. He’s friendly enough.
As he passes me in the restaurant I get a semi fist bump; a kind of back of the wrist bump really, with a little grin. He had pretty hairy arms so it tickled.
Then a cab ride back to Bon Sol, cabbie liked his rock music: Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix. Some BB King too. Doesn’t say a word while trip. €17 in tip and back in a fraction of the time compared to the bastard bus.
The night finished with gin rummy in the bar (finally, Lisa had been gagging to play), while a guitar man plays along to a backing track. The tiny audience and solo performance reminds me of Electric Russell, although it’s not electric and he’s probably not called Russell. Basically a guy on acoustic guitar, scatting away on the fretboard. When he goes from jazz to blues to funk, Stu cannot handle the funk and messes up his gin rummy flow, sweeeeet. I win tonight.
And so to bed. Adiós!
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