One day we went to the Palma Aquarium, where we spent about 4 hours looking at all the fish. Finn and Lily especially liked the sea horses, mantas and sharks.
It was a hot day so we didn't spend too much time looking at the outdoor exhibits ...
... partly because I was afraid Lily and Finn would jump right in with the fish! And I wasn't really a fan of them putting their arms in either, yuck!
We also visited two bodegas Toni, our landlord, had recommended to us. We tasted and bought some good wines! And to Ulli's embarassment I also sampled the grapes from the grapevines. I'm shameless like that, and they were good! :)
A parent's nightmare: "Daddy, can I pull out this bottle?" (She didn't though. Now THAT would have been a cool picture!)
Since we could see the Tramuntana mountains from our finca we decided to explore them by car one day. The narrow, curvy roads were not for the faint of heart. We passed quite a few bikers climbing up the mountains, impressive! I felt like passing the poor fellas a water bottle from my car window.
We visited a monastery in the mountains ...
... but Finn and Lily were most impressed with the mountain goats they spotted. They promptly started climbing "like mountain goats" - and up was easier than down.
Then it was on to Cap Formentor, the northernmost point of the island.
The view was breathtaking, but again, the goats were WAY more interesting if you asked the kids.
This is Alcudia. The old city center was a 10min walk from our house.
Ulli wanted to go see the archeological site in Alcudia, where they are digging out remains of the Roman settlement that was there 2000 years ago. We somehow managed to miss the entrance, which we realized when we came to the end of the big fence surrounding the property. Well, the iron slats were far enough apart for the kids to easily go through and the way back was long, so Neil and I squeezed through as well. Ulli, however, chose to walk back (under the false pretense of not being able to fit through), only to discover you actually had to pay to get in.
Before you call the authorities on us - we paid on our way out, of course. :)
This picture is not spectacular in any way, but please note the bulging pockets in the kids' shorts. They were very busy picking up little white empty snail shells - they were all over the place. Back at the finca they put the snail shells on the nightstand in their bedroom - and for the next few days they were: ALL OVER THE PLACE. Disoriented little snails climbing up the wall, on the lamp, their toys, the table - guess they weren't so empty after all, even if they looked empty! And they were so small they were hard to see, being stuck on and under all kinds of things.
The little path in the picture above led us to the site of a complete Roman theater they dug out. It was carved out of the rocks and seated 2000 people. Cool! The kids had fun climbing all over the place, and were especially fascinated by the cave you can see in the background. It had troughs for animals inside.
Of course if you wanted to find Ulli you needn't look further than the nearest fig tree. :)
Ulli ate figs by the pound there - bought at the market or fresh from the tree. They were delicious!
Our last night we spent at a nice open air restaurant at Cap Pinar, watching the sun setting over mountains and sea (the adults), pushing other kids off the teeter-totter on the restaurant playground (Finn), and sitting around dazedly after a head-first fall resulting in a major goose-egg (Lily). Thankfully the ice and lollipop provided by friendly staff helped a lot in reducing swelling and tear flow.
So - all in all a great vacation! We came home with a bit of a tan (well, some of us did) and tanked up on sunshine. It was great to escape the rainy fall weather for a bit. We're thankful that no major accidents happened, except for Lily's fall. Well, and mine. I managed to slip on the very narrow wooden staircase in the big house, so I went down a bit faster than I had planned. My fall ended when my (bare) right foot got caught in the banister, which resulted in major bruising of the same but thankfully no broken bones. A few glasses of vino may or may not have been involved, I couldn't rightly say. :)
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