Blogs from Minorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, Europe
Rainy Day in Menorca, Giant Paella, El Torro, Es Mercadal, and The Bone Bandit
Published: June 5th 2011Europe » Spain » Balearic Islands » Minorca
June 5th 2011
Our beach vacation was interrupted by some gale force winds and intermittent rain. Sitting in our one bedroom apartment with a one year old all day was NOT an option so we decided to drive to see one of the island's five lighthouses, Favaritz. The winds were so intense we're pretty sure they would have knocked Delaney over if she was walking on her own, but it made for some awesome waves. What better conditions for lighthouse pictures. We were very glad our car is tiny because the roads to the lighthouse were barely large enough for two minis to pass each other while barely moving. We also discovered that D (and her stomach) is not a fan of curvy roads :( We made it back to the resort for the Paella demonstration. I took a ... read more
Rookie Mistake and Arriving in Menorca
Published: June 1st 2011Europe » Spain » Balearic Islands » Minorca
June 1st 2011
Lest you all think that this traveling with a baby gig is sooooo easy, I will share our biggest mistake thus far... Our flight was leaving for Menorca/Minorca at 10 am last Friday. We needed to check in at the airport no later than 45 minutes before the flight. We were a five minute walk to the subway, then a 25 minute train ride, then a brief bus ride to the correct terminal. We got up at 7 aiming for the 8:10 train. No problem, right? For some reason Delaney decided she really wanted to sleep in so we let her sleep while we finished up the packing and ate breakfast. We woke her up, changed her diaper, and got her dressed. We were running about five minutes late, but should still be fine. On a ... read more
Mao (Mahon) and the Island of Cheese, Wine, and Gin
Published: June 1st 2011Europe » Spain » Balearic Islands » Minorca
June 1st 2011
After sleeping off a terrible day of travel we decided to head to the capital of Menorca (Mao/Mahon....everything here has two names, one in Spanish, one in Catalan). Mao was hosting British Days which meant tastings of local products, traditional crafts, 18th century costumes, and gin tastings. Lucky for me, this island is known for its cheese, wine, and gin. We enjoyed tasting our way through a wide variety of Menorcan cheeses, wines, and gin while D enjoyed dancing on the stage and petting a goat. We had traveled to Mao mostly to take a boat tour of the harbor. We bought our ticket and then went in search of lunch. We found a fabulous crepe place on the water and enjoyed feeding D her first taste of heaven (mine was chicken, menorcan cheese, and bechamel ... read more
June 1st 2011
We decided to pile in to the car and check out the next town over. Fornells is a small fishing village with a defense tower from the 1600's. The winds were super strong so we decided to forgo more time on the beach. (plus we had accidentally left all of our toiletries in Barcelona and had no sunscreen besides D's 100 SPF. side note: bring sunscreen from the States. It is astronomically expensive here.) We enjoyed strolling along the waterway soaking in the whitewashed buildings. The town is well known for its seafood, particularly its lobster caldera (lobster stew which is heavily, heavily marketed towards tourists with the price to match). We decided that we would seek out a back street to get out of the wind and away from the overpriced tourist restaurants on the ... read more
October 12th 2010
We arrived at Minorca around 1pm. It was a beautiful day! We spent a majority of the morning sunbathing. We went to lunch with my 2 favorite new friends - Gloria (Northern Irish) and Jan (Scottish). The island is beautiful as it’s lush and very clean. The problem - it was Sunday. EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday! I would have loved to come to this island midweek as they had the cutest shops; however I am on a ship and have absolutely no say as to where we go. Either way, it was a chill day. Overall, I had a very nice time on the cruise. My mom and I were lucky to meet such great people to spend our time with. The only downside of being on a European cruise is that we were the ... read more
May 27th 2010
Waking up the next day we were presented with somewhat overcast skies - no fun. We lazed about in the morning for a few hours, hoping the weather would turn beach-appropriate, but finally it became apparent that it wasn’t happening. Plus, the prospect of visiting the gin distillery in Menorca was calling our names. By some miracle we got on our two buses without any delay and an hour later were in the east coast capital of Maó. With almost 30,000 people it is the largest city on the island and the main point of entry from both air and sea. It wasn’t the capital, however, until the British decided they didn’t like Ciutadella anymore sometime in the 18th Century. We started our day in the Plaça del Carme where we quickly saw a pastry shop ... read more
May 26th 2010
Our next full day in Menorca began with a nice cup of coffee on the terrace now that we had purchased caffeine from the supermarket. As we had been good little tourists the day prior we decided that this day we'd be a bit more low key (read: lazy) That being said we decided to head to the southwest tip of the island to Cala en Bosch, a popular resort area with some lovely beaches and restaurants. Either the weather was slightly cooler or the breeze was more pronounced this day, but it was very comfortable lying out in the sun and at times it almost felt like we weren't getting any color. Wrong. After a couple of hours I had had it with lying on my ass, so I got up and decided to do ... read more
May 26th 2010
Our fifth day began with our first taste of something nutritious on this vacation, bananas! Once freshened up it was time to get to business and visit two cities in the central region of the island, Es Mercadal. We would have to again depend on the bus system, 3 of them this time, which of course only led to failure after failure and countless hours of waiting. We caught our first bus outside the hotel with little difficulty and arrived in Ciutadella before 10. We then managed to miss our bus to Es Mercadal and so had to walk around a bit doing nothing. Once arriving in Es Mercadal (the name of both the region and city) we found out that the bus schedule was a lie and that we’d have about two hours to kill ... read more
May 25th 2010
Our third day of freedom began at a reasonable hour, leaving our hotel by 10 for Cala en Blanes, the cove only about a 20 minute walk from where our hotel is. We had to again walk past the British invasion but soon enough we arrived at an absolutely gorgeous inlet of turqouise-blue water and an non-overwhelming number of British people. There we remained for some three or so hours taking-in the sun and basking in Menorcan glory. Salt and Vinegar Lay’s kept us alive until finally returning to our hotel. Back at Los Lentiscos we showered and refreshed ourselves with some pomades (Traditional Xoriguer Menorcan gin with bitter lemon, in this case with lemon Kass soft drink) which certainly hit both our spots. Then it was time for Ciutadella, Menorca’s second largest city and west-coast ... read more
May 24th 2010
The departure from Barcelona was relatively painless despite having to tiptoe in the dark amidst our tedious Francophone roommates in the morning. We had to sit on our plane for quite a bit since clearly no airport can figure out how to organize its departures but once in the air the flight lasted an hour if even that. Before landing the views were pretty breathtaking, and it was strange to see how undeveloped the island really is. Later we would read that Franco punished the island for being the last place in Spain to fall to him and disallowed any development for tourism like in neighboring Mallorca and Ibiza. On the ground in Maó, the capital, we unfortunately had to wait some 3 hours for the next bus to Ciutadella, the island’s second largest city and ... read more
