Day 04 - Mallorca

The evening navigation took us southeast to the island of Mallorca. It was a windy night so the boat rocked a little, but it was still fairly mild. Around 1:30am Rob woke and said the deck chairs were hitting the window. I (Michele) opened the sliding door, which was hard to do since the wind was sucking it shut. The chairs were fine. We discovered it was just the room walls creaking as the boat rocked. Despite the gigantic size of this boat, the largest cruise ship in the world (for now), it still shook when it hit a wave. Usually about when I was just falling back to sleep! 

We docked at 9am and had to be back on board today at 3:30pm. We did not sign up for an excursion since the town was near the port. Rob thought we could walk 30 minutes to town. We soon discovered the boat docked on the other side of the port making the walk to town much further away. What we thought to be a 30 minute walk was an hour and a half! We wanted to see the cathedral, which looked so far away as we walked. The weather was sunny and picturesque along the marina area. We got to the Cathedral de Mallorca around 1pm. Rob said we would have to turn around and walk back to make it. I wasn’t walking any more, we could take a taxi when done. 

The cathedral was started in 1306 and would take 300 years to build. Gaudi was asked to work on the altarpieces by the then bishop, back in early 1900s. 

It is a gothic style and has 61 stained glass windows. The interior is vastly darker, albeit smaller, than Sagrada Familia. There were little chapel scenes all around the perimeter. One of them had a very sea-like feel to it, very different from the rest of the church. The organ was impressive. 

We walked around outside a bit.

 

 In the distance we could see the cruise ship.
We took a quick walk around some of the narrow streets near the cathedral.

It was getting time for us to get back so we got a cab and within 10 minutes were back at the ship. 

As the ship made its way out of the port, we had a nice view of the cathedral.

The winds were up so there were quite a few sail boats out.

 

And this fishing boat was making its way back into port with seagulls in tow.

Tonight was our first of two formal nights. We got a family photo on a staircase, but missed Melvin since he had a shaving incident with his lip. Or so he says, as he likely was watching World Cup instead! He joined us later at dinner. 

Our meals in the dining room have been very good. We have about 6-7 options for starters (soup, salad, appetizers), main dishes (salmon, fish, steak, chicken, pasta) and desserts each night. Tonight I think they had duck l ‘orange and Katlyn’s eyes got big when I told her it is really a duck. 

After dinner, Rob, Melvin, Marcia and I went to the adult comedy show. Two comedians took turns and were both funny in their individual styles. Most of the audience was American and enjoyed the Trump impersonations. 

I was really wiped from the walking today so off to bed. Tomorrow we are in France!