Onboard the Andrea Cay: Eating, Drinking and Shopping in Mallorca

Thanks to a good friend, Elliot Jacobson, who grew up here in Mallorca, we have had a wonderful few days on this island. Elliot gave us advice on where to anchor, the best towns to visit and where to eat, which included the most well-known bars to the “local’s” favorite restaurant. He even told us what we should eat: the local snails which were delicious, and small, green peppers seasoned and grilled (we dubbed them "Russian Roulette peppers", as most were mild but every now and then, you'd get a really hot one, which led to excessive wine drinking...)

Palma is a lovely, old historic town with very narrow streets and beautiful old buildings, including a cathedral that was even larger than the one we visited in Malaga. Our frustration was that the day we went into the city was a religious holiday, so it was packed with tourists and many of the restaurants and shops were closed. Of course that was not a concern for Peter and John, but Carol and I were disappointed that all the really nice stores were closed. (The junky souvenir shops were all open, naturally.)

We braved the crowds one afternoon and tendered to a beach where we were quite lucky to find about 6 sq. ft. to park ourselves under the umbrella we brought. Carol got in a good run around the town and the rest of us did some swimming.

Before leaving Mallorca, we managed to find a supermarket that rivaled US grocery stores. Good place for our first major re-stocking since we left Florida a month ago. Prices were less than in the US, which we could hardly believe. John had a great time with a local guy helping him pick out Spanish wines (couldn’t find one more than 10 EU – most were 4-5 EU). John, who usually refuses to even go to a grocery store, was extremely proud of his 4 cases for 300 EU. It was good we were able to stock up – the “crossing crew” decimated the on board supply! According to Lori, they also consumed 14 lbs of butter!!