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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 water.
We found a great little place in a quiet alley with outside seating and a three course meal (including bread and beer) for 12 Euros. Minorcan cuisine uses a lot of eggplant so we started with stuffed eggplant (stuffed with deliciousness of some kind) and a pot of mussels (D loves them). Our main course was a mixed seafood fideua (a Valencian paella
made with chopped spaghetti noodles instead of rice) and a cauldron of molten broth with mixed seafood and rice. Pat immediately claimed the fideua as the best meal so far (though I think he forgot about Quimet y Quimet briefly). Then they brought creme caramel and an ice cream sundae for dessert. We immediately wanted to die, but somehow managed to get back to the car.
The next day we headed to Ciutadella, the former capital of Menorca. It has a lovely all stone downtown and had many authentic bakeries (I tried to avoid the chains that were marketing in all the tourist maps). We found a local shop selling the traditional Menorcan pastry, ensaimada. It was a little bit of heaven. An ensaimada is like the softest croissant you've ever had, shaped like a cinnamon roll, filled with sweet cream, and dusted with powdered sugar. Pure decadence.
We checked out the port and fish markets before sitting down for lunch. We met a lovely British couple with their 2 year old son Francis. He was super sweet to D and shared his well-loved monkey, toy cars, and toy airplane. Too cute.
On our way back home
we stopped to see the Naveta des Tudons, a bronze age burial monument, one of the oldest archeological finds in Europe. Unfortunately it started raining soon after we walked out to the monument, but it was interesting to see none the less.
Menorca is the perfect island for those with children. I'd say 90% of the tourists here have small children in tow. The resorts are quiet at night, but have great amenities for kids (playgrounds, giant chess, inflatables, etc.) and the staff all seem to love kids. It's like Ibiza for families.
Our resort has a great little restaurant that we've been getting take out food from for dinner on some nights. We discovered an amazing dish called Hake in Champagne sauce. It's a giant piece of white fish covered in mussels, shrimp, clams, sauteed vegetables, and a plate lickingly good sauce.
A couple of more days on the island and then we're off to Brussels (hopefully with far less excitement than our last trip to the airport). Hope all is well (and that all in Fargo survived the storm unscathed).
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Janet
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D the connoisseur
I love it that D loves things like mussels at one year old!!