What I REALLY want is Bacon Jam!

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Friday, April 1, 2022

Palma de Majorca, Spain

Said Christopher this morning when the Avocado Toast arrived with two perfectly poached eggs sitting atop the lovely avocado. On our 2019 cruise(s) Oceania offered bacon jam with the avocado toast. So taken was Christopher – I found a recipe and have made it a few times…he’s missing his bacon jam. So there you have it YES…we got up early enough to have breakfast in the GDR.

Now…we’ve been warned by the Captain and Cruise Director that it’s gonna be windy today. It was. They failed to indicate how bloody cold it was as well. Someone, who shall remain nameless, wished for their shearling coat!! It was chilly.

The port on the island of Majorca is quite large. We took a shuttle from the port to the center of town – about a 20 minute drive. There were two busses, so they ran every half hour – any moron could understand….you might say. Well….you’d be WRONG! Guess who showed up this morning in front of us in line? Miss Valencia Oranges – I doubt VERY STRONGLY she ever won a competition – she was the lady from dinner the previous night who can’t think for herself. Or, just can’t think. It’s cold. It’s VERY WINDY (the orange traffic cones were blown around so often, they gave up using them). Cold and wind. SO….we queued up in the terminal where it was nice and comfortable. She HAD to find out about the busses…so she kept going outside (the doors had sensors to open when the detected someone close enough to the door). SO she’s pacing…every time she paces the doors open. We get blown around. We tell her kindly (the first time) to move away from the doors…she looked at us and asked why. BECAUSE whenever you move, the doors open. Oh….that’s me? I warned you – IDIOT. After the 5^th time people were SCREAMING at her to stop. Finally, her husband asked her to sit by him. That lasted all of five minutes. She had to go out to “take off her mask so she could breathe”…she took her mask off outside and wandered again…guess what? THE DOORS OPENED everyone just groaned. I think they were on purpose to be perfectly honest. On the bus, she sat in front of me. You have NO IDEA how restrained I was. I SO wanted to kick her chair the entire ride, but I refrained from any retaliatory actions. I did, however, whisper what I wanted to do with her and to her to my loving husband who calmly said…”I have no idea how Spanish prisons are, and I don’t know you”.

FINALLY…the bus arrived at our destination. Guess who asks “WHERE DO WE MEET” – to the poor Port gentleman who must stand out in the cold dealing with morons ALL day long? You got it! Not noticing the HUGE RIVIERA Shuttle Here sign. What if I just push her into oncoming traffic? Would anyone notice?

We spent the day wandering Palma. It’s just beautiful and PACKED with tourists. I commented that there are as many people here as in Florence…. evidently, I must have read that in CURRENTS (the Oceania daily newsletter). It really is a lovely city with a yacht harbor 10 times the size of Monte Carlo – which was SUPPOSED to be our next stop, but the winds and seas are too rough (30 foot waves). I’ll pass. So will Oceania.

Naturally we found the Mercado Centrale quite by accident. It too is HUGE. We wandered a bit, used the facilities, and left. I’d say we spent about three hours on shore. We came upon this beautiful bakery and found ourselves a Pork meat pie each (delicious) for lunch. So good. We purchased some truly special natural salt as well as an orange chili, and Picante salt SO unique. Can’t wait to use them. We ended up walking about 4 miles today.

Back on board, we played rummykub for a few hours before dinner. Dinner was at Red Ginger. Almost an entirely new service team this time in Red Ginger. Same menu, thank goodness. I had the fried calamari, Duck & watermelon salad – because I’m not stupid, and the Beef Penang and finished with the sunrise assorted fruit (perfectly chopped – each piece the same size)! Christopher had the crispy potato roll, duck salad and Beef Penang as well. He had the Yuzu sorbet for dessert.

I have to stop now because the seas are REALLY, REALLY rough and I’m getting dizzy.

Tomorrow sea day, as opposed to Monte Carlo.

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Comments

[susan crespi]

What kind of jam!!!!!!
Good morning! So I'm riff-ing with Christopher....what kind of jam do you use with the bacon? Do you put it on half way through pan cooking and finish in the oven? Inquiring minds want to know!!!!

[WyneauxTraveller]

Bacon Jam
It's rather misleading but the end result does have a jam texture. Start with chopped bacon, remove then add onions and cook them to death (in the bacon fat). Add brown sugar, espresso (not powder - or STRONG coffee) water - cook for another 20 minutes or so. done. It's really quite good.