Maó i gin molt bó :-)

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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 and needed to buy cookies. Wait - backtrack. I bought a sobressada filled napolitana and Alex a chicken-filled empanada on our walk to said plaza. Anyway, we needed to try another brand of amargos, those delicious chewy almond cookies and also these flower-shaped jam-filled confections. The city itself felt much bigger than Maó and certainly had way more hustle and bustle, which was a nice change.

Next we entered into the central market, formerly the cloister of the Esglèsia del Carme, where we perused some local products before heading into the St. Carme church, itself. There was a clever little sign on the door in Catalan saying that cell phones were not needed to converse with God, so please shut them off. Cute. The church itself was nice enough - like in the other churches we’ve visited there were frightening near life-size figures of Jesus with the cross, various Apostles, etc. As it seemed like there was soon to be a funeral or something, we soon had to make our exit.

Since the fish market was closed for the day already (lame) we made our way through the city, passing under the Portal de San Roc, a 14th Century gate that is the only remaining vestige of the old city. Eventually we hit the Església de San Francesc and museum of the city. The women inside the museum were reluctant to let us in since it was closing for siesta in 40 minutes (this we knew since they started babbling in Spanish as if we weren’t there until I opened my mouth in Catalan and left them horrified) and we decided it wasn’t worth it anyway. We did, however, enter St. Francis’ Church, a gorgeous gothic structure with a really eerily beautiful interior. The inside was dark and somewhat damp, and the murals looked almost as if they were decaying. Sadly we couldn’t’ spend too much time inside as the church-keeper needed his 4-hour Spanish lunch break.

With lunchtime upon us we headed down to the port to begin our search for an adequate lunch location. Alex had luckily written down some names of places recommended by the New York Times, so that was our basic plan. As luck would have it we managed to stumble upon the Xoriguer Gin Distillery on our way! Though not much other than a large alcohol shop with Xoriguer products, plus some glass windows through which you can see the giant vats of gin being prepared, the most important part of the place is the FREE UNLIMITED SAMPLES. It was only us and a group of old French ladies in there, and we certainly made the most of it. Anis liqueur, Cream of Rose and Rose Schnapps, Manzanilla Liqueur, gin, obviously, you name it! I restrained myself from buying a gin dispenser but I did end up with a visor (to match Alex, of course), a set of shot glasses with gin nip, a couple postcards, and a nip of pomada. Success!

Continuing along the port, which isn’t overly pretty by the way - definitely more a functional port, we eventually settled on La Minerva for lunch. Oh, it’s Michelin-rated, perfect! Right on the dock and seated legit 3 feet from the water it could not have been a more ideal, albeit treacherous location. We started with a bottle of cava, as is tradition, and then enjoyed an amuse-bouche of an almost ceviche-like spoon of vegetables and some kind of fish. Molt bé. Next we enjoyed perfectly grilled vegetables as well as a plate of berberechos (cockle) with lemon. For our main course we had a calderosa (a rice dish not unlike paella but with moister rice served in a pot as opposed to on a giant pan) with cuttlefish, little prawns, and clams. Another fabulous lunch overlooking the sea…we could certainly get used to this.

Done with lunch we explored the city a bit more, tried to unsuccessfully find legitimate ceramics (the only one we liked was a giant painted tile conglomeration with adorable pictures of different meats and fish and a sausage grinder for 300-some Euro), and eventually just headed back to the bus station.

An hour later we were back in Los Delfines, bought a few groceries (read: bread and gin), and had a beer at a local bar before returning to the room for the evening. I took care of some e-mails, uploaded pictures, etc. before calling it an early night.

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