Trip to Mallorca - Day 3

On the Monday of our holiday we went into Palma, which we probably would have done anyway, but it turned out my friend Clay was in Mallorca the same time we were! She lives in Germany and we've been friends online for a long time but have never met before, so we arranged to meet up. So Lee and I got up early and went down to breakfast in the hotel. Then we walked down to the bus stop out of the bottom entrance of the hotel. We actually miscalculated and went to the second stop along, meaning the bus was quite busy by the time we got on it, and we had to stand up the whole way. Not ideal for me! I think if we had got on the first stop, we would have got seats. Oh well! 

It took about thirty-five minutes to get into Palma, via the motorway. We have actually been to Palma before - we stopped there on the last day of our cruise back in 2018. We were only there for the day though. But our bus stopped at the same place we had been then, by the beach, so we were somewhat familiar with it. We walked round the cathedral and through the little streets and into some shops. Lee made me pose with this huge panda which was very weird! But I did it. I also didn't know that Mallorca is famous for pearls, so we went in one shop and bought me a pair of swirly pearls, which I really liked. They were eighteen euros I think. The shop had tons of stuff which was really expensive and other people in it were spending a lot of cash! 

We found somewhere to sit for a bit in the shade as it was really warm in the city and we were getting tired. We met up with Clay at about 12.45 in a really cute little cafe. They did food but Lee and I weren't hungry as we had had a big breakfast so we didn't bother getting anything to eat. I did have a lovely glass of cava, though, which was lush! We sat there until about 2pm before saying goodbye to Clay - it was so lovely to meet her! 

We walked back past the other side of the cathedral with Clay and then she went a different way to do some shopping. Lee and I went for ice creams and it turned out the place had zero sugar zero caffeine coke too, which is perfect for us! We fortunately could sit in the shade while we waited for the bus. This time I managed to get a seat which was good as I was in a lot of pain by this point. Once we got off the bus we then had to walk back up the very steep hill to our hotel - it was actually fine but we had to psyche ourself up each time! 

We got changed into our swimming stuff and went down by the pool for the last couple of hours or so. The black and white cat was in the plants this time, bless her. We had a lie down for a bit which was blissful because we had the balcony door open so the warm breeze could come it. We got showered and went down to the restaurant for food. I think that was the night Lee was happy because they had roast chicken. In the bar afterwards I had a lovely cold beer - I don't often drink beer at all but when the weather is hot and the beer is cold it's ideal! We also saw a black cat who was drinking from  the bottom pool! So cute. 

During the day I was wearing this mustard coloured cotton dress that came from Simply Be a few years ago. It's so thin and floaty and I just love the style of it - it's perfect for a hot holiday! I was wearing Snag shorts underneath to stop my thighs chafing. In the evening I put on this dotted green dress that was from Yours earlier this year. It's really nice for a holiday too! 

Some of these photos are Lee's. 

Gorgeous mustard dress for the day. My headband came off Amazon earlier this year; I got loads in a packet although I don't wear them often

My photo of Palma cathedral from where we got off the bus

And Lee's photo of the same

Lee took this photo of these pretty fountains

This was the lake where we met Lee's dad and stepmum back in 2018. There were tons of people selling counterfeit goods around the cathedral, and a market

Lee made me pose for this photo - the panda was mildly terrifying!

A pretty street on our way up past the cathedral. The steps were steep but we took it slowly

Close up of the cathedral - we didn't go in but I've heard it's beautiful

Lee's photo of the same

These streets were all so narrow! And cute!

This was the entrance to a garden where we sat for a little bit. The gardens were in need of water

These streets were really close to where we met Clay

So narrow and yet some did have cars going up and down them!

We sat in this courtyard for a while too - this was the entrance to a convent! But people were also hiring bikes and segways here too

Clay and me! Her hair is so long and beautiful!

My lovely glass of cava

These are the earrings that I got - you can't see the swirl very much but they're really pretty

A different viewpoint of the cathedral

Looking out over the harbour from the plaza in front of the cathedral. We could see a few cruise ships in the terminal!

Coffee ice cream for me

This is the steep hill we had to walk up every day to get back to the hotel! It doesn't look that steep in the photos but believe me it was! 

Little cat sitting in the plant

My view of the pool that day

Little black cat by the bottom pool as we were on our way to the restaurant

Beer! I don't even think it was branded, but it might have been San Miguel. It was pretty tasty whatever it was

A photo from our balcony when we got back to the room

And my green polka dotted dress that evening!

Trip to Mallorca - Day 2

On the Sunday of our holiday we slept in late as we had had such a long day the day before. That meant that we missed breakfast as it closed at ten am. So instead we got dressed in our swim stuff and headed to the snack bar for brunch/lunch. Again there wasn't a huge veggie choice but there was cheese, so I had cheese and chips and some salad. It was perfectly fine for what we needed!

We met this very cute black and white cat on our way to the pool! She was very friendly and let us pet her, and we saw her later in the week too. 

So what we did was just sit around the pool all day! We didn't just sit in the sun as we didn't want to get burnt, so we kept moving around in the shade. We at one point went to get ice creams, and later some drinks. I had a cocktail because why not. We kept going in the water to cool down and swim, obviously. We didn't move until 6pm when the pool closed. I took the selfie of myself enjoying the sun because I really needed some time to relax. The last few weeks had been extremely stressful and it was honestly just blissful to have nowhere to be and nothing to do except read my book and soak up some sun. 

We got showered and went down to the restaurant for food. Afterwards we went to the bar for a drink again. This time there was a guy making cocktails especially, as opposed to the others which came out of cartons/a machine. I had a strawberry caiprinha which was really delicious and nice! I'm glad I got it! We saw the black and white cat again on our way back to the room! 

I was wearing this sleeveless dress from Yours which I absolutely love and which I love to wear on holiday because it's so floaty and light. Over the top I had my New Look crocheted top which I've had forever and which just adds a little bit of warmth. 

This cat was really little compared to our two, who are huge!

She was so cute, her markings were like Poppy's and she had the cutest little white blob on the tip of her tail

This was my view from the shade for most of the day

I then took the same picture but better, showing off the trees and that beautiful blue sky. Nearly every day we had a least a LITTLE bit of cloud, but it soon passed over 

Magnum

Here's me trying to show my mum the clouds behind me but I didn't manage it!

My legs NEVER tan, ever, but I have to say that this time they did! They're an entirely different colour to my stomach!

Pool cocktail

This was my view of Lee when he was playing on his steam deck games thingy, it's so funny

Here's my selfie. I love these glasses - Lolly gave them to me last year and they're perfect for holidays when I wear my contact lenses most of the time. I really needed this holiday

This was one of the bottom pools, taken as we walked to the restaurant. We tried this one later in the week, it was quite nice 

I liked this plant too, just next to the shop

My strawberry cocktail in the bar

Little cat again on the way back to our room!

And there's my gorgeous floral dress and New Look top

Trip to Mallorca - Day 1

Lee and I went to holiday to Mallorca at the beginning of October. We booked it about the middle of August. We had the week earmarked for a holiday but weren't sure exactly where we wanted to go. We did want some sun, but were pretty easy on where exactly to go. I looked around but wobbled a lot on what I wanted, so Lee had a better look and we settled on Palma Bay Resort hotel in El Arenal, just south of Palma airport. We booked a whole package, all in. This is something we rarely do - we usually book things separately. We went to Benidorm ten years ago on a package, and we went on the cruise in 2018 which was obviously all in. So it was about time, really!

We flew out of Manchester on the 7th of October. We had to get up at 4.15am and left the house at 4.45! We made it good time across the moors and parked about 6am. We got through security and didn't have long to wait before we boarded the plane. We set off about 8.15 and landed in Palma just before 1pm. We had a bus take us and others to our hotels - we were about an hour before we got there but it was fine! We checked in to the hotel and then had time to get some lunch before it closed at 3pm. We went down to one of the pools after lunch and enjoyed some sunshine before the pool closed at six pm. Then we had showers and got changed for tea in the hotel too. 

It was a really early start but that meant we got there early so had time to enjoy some of the day rather than it just all being lost to travel. This was really good! We had booked all inclusive, too, but it turns out that the Balearic government have banned that in El Arenal and other parts of Mallorca to try to cut down on antisocial behaviour. Instead you can get three alcoholic drinks with lunch and three with tea, and that's it. In our hotel, there was just wine and beer available. Before we went I was a bit disappointed by this because I wouldn't have booked this if I had known this rule, but there was nothing I could do. As it turned out, I had some alcohol with my tea each night, and then a drink afterwards in the bar that we paid for. It wasn't too expensive - less than 6 euros each time, which doesn't equate to a lot! But it's something to bear in mind if you go to Mallorca and want to go all inclusive as it just doesn't mean that now (all soft drinks were included though, which was good for us as Lee doesn't drink and I obviously need soft drinks too!) It did mean we spent a little bit more than we would have done otherwise, but all inclusive hadn't cost us that much more than half board, so we decided not to worry about it. Quite a lot of people were properly kicking off at hotel staff, though, which is just disgusting as it's not their fault! 

I will also say that the hotel complex was a bit tired. We think it must have originally been two if not three separate hotels that had been made into one complex. It had four pools, all of which were available to us. We were in the top building, which must have been separate at one point. On the website we were told that there were three restaurants, one of which was in our building, but this had closed earlier in October which meant there was only one restaurant, down in the bottom building, available. It's not a big deal, but it is a bit of a shame. The whole place was a bit run down, too. I can't overly explain it, but it all needed some maintenance and some TLC. Like the paths, and the areas round the pools, and the lifts inside the buildings all could have used some work. 

But! This didn't spoil our holiday at all really, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. 

The other thing was the food. As you know, I'm vegetarian, but vegetarian offerings were really thin on the ground in the restaurant. So I took the decision to just eat some fish for the week because I needed to eat SOME protein at least. I do eat fish very occasionally at home and think it's fine to - I eat vegetarian 99.9% of the time and find this is what works best for me. So on that first night I had some fresh, cold tuna, and it was really delicious! 

After tea we sat in the bar for a while, which was outside near the bottom pool. We went to bed quite early though as we had been up so early (although we had both napped on the plane). Lee had taken my Chromebook too and we managed to get Netflix working on it so we had something to watch. 

It was a good first day! 

Just boarding the plane at Manchester

Here we are just before we took off. I don't like flying but it's always fine when we do it

The airport at Palma just as we got on the bus

Just outside our hotel, at the top of the steep hill we walked down and up a ton - you'll see that photo later

We had a really nice room - it was big, and had a nice bathroom with a gorgeous shower, and it had a huge balcony which was on the corner of the building. This was the view from the balcony! We had air conditioning too which is really good because Lee overheats quickly so we had it turned on most of the time when we were in there. The building on the left was where you checked in, and the restaurant and bar were further down the path, round past a useful shop 

This top pool was where we spent most of our time - we did try the other pools but this was the best one. I'll show you more later!

So by 3.30pm we were on sunbes by this pool. It had a shallow bit and then a red cord across before a deeper bit which was just about shallow enough for me to stand up in. It was lush! The weather was about 28 degrees which was just perfect for us!

The top of the pool, which was shallow and really warm

Here I am on that first day, wearing a halterneck swimming costume that I had last year in France too. I also always wear a scarf on my head while I'm sunbathing because I tend to burn my head badly if I don't and I hate it!

This is later - the sun was setting over the sea (which we could sea from the balcony) but the trees were in the way!

Tequila sunrise cocktail

The pool at night as we were walking back to our room

The top part of it

And most of the whole of it! That building on the left is where the restaurant was, and the bar just in front of it

I was wearing this Yours dress which is perfect for a holiday - really light and floaty for when it's warm!

And these sandals were from Evans about 8 years ago, I really only ever wear them on holiday! You can see my Hello Kitty tattoo really clearly, too, isn't she cute?!