Bienvenidos, Willkommen, and Benvinguda a Mallorca!

We got the chance to spend a few weeks on the island of Mallorca, Spain! Well, actually we originally got the chance to spend three *months* on the island, and at the last minute employment got in the way. 😪😢 Good old corporate America, always answering to The Man. But, you know, #firstworldproblems. We are here in Mallorca for three beautiful weeks, we really cannot complain about that amazing opportunity.

We are home exchanging with a wonderful family from Mallorca who were dying to go to south Florida. They have two homes in Mallorca, a house on the beach on the east end of the island, and an apartment in the city of Palma. Today was our first full day in Mallorca, and we are in love!

Our trip here actually went astoundingly well. Miami to JFK, JFK to Barcelona, Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca. The kids both slept the majority of the flight to Barcelona, and Quintana also slept the leg to Palma. I even managed to sleep about 4 hours of the flight to Barcelona! I really don't think it could have been better.

We had a 5 hour layover in Barcelona and I insisted we leave the airport and go into the city. Well, even though we had slept on the plane we were still exhausted (4-5 hours of sleep for a night still isn't much, and big Levi only got about two). Plus we had our carryon bags to lug with us. AND we forgot to bring the stroller! So, basically, we took the bus downtown, walked down one street, then walked back to the bus and left for the airport again, ha.

This is about all we saw of Barcelona.

And then we made it to Palma! The airport is small (yay) and a friend of our home exchangers came to pick us up (double yay), so it was the easiest arrival ever. 

Most signs here are in four different languages! Catalan (or a dialect thereof), English, German, and Spanish.

She drove us through town, and then we got to settle in to this lovely view.

Just beyond the buildings you actually get a peek of the sea!

We all got a nice, loooong sleep last night, and woke up to a lovely day in Palma!

My favorite thing to do in foreign countries is always to shop at the grocery store. It never fails to be an adventure! Here we found the mega supermarket right away, thanks to a quick trip last night to buy a pack and play for Quintana (there is a whole other story about the night before our flight, no pack and play in the hotel, and very very little shut eye).

The night before our flight with a makeshift bed/cage for Quintana Roo.

So last night Levi ran over to get a pack and play, but today we went in for some proper shopping. We stocked up on groceries, bought some fun suede shoes (made in Mallorca!) in bright colors and cheap stroller (doh!), and of course got our first Kinder Egg of the trip.

Some kind of animal leg complete with hoof. Blurry because the store was packed I was a tiny bit embarrassed to be taking a pic. ;)

After a leisurely morning shopping, eating, and a nap for Quintana Roo, we went out to see the castle here in Palma, called Castel de Bellver.

 

 The architecture of the castle is really beautiful. It is round, with a courtyard in the center open to the sky. The building itself is virtually untouched since when it was first built in the 1400s.

Can you see the ocean just beyond the top of the castle? Amazing.

The castle is also set up on a hill (I believe where a mosque existed during Moorish control), so the views are spectacular.

The castle doesn't date back to Roman times, but the settlement of Mallorca does, and there are some Roman artifacts still around.

Julius Cesar

Some cool old keys and coins.

It is off-season currently in Mallorca, so I hope that means we have the tourist sites to ourselves! The castle was almost completely empty today, which was fun. We were free to be totally dorky.

Playing war

We got to watch the sun set as we were leaving, a beautiful ending to our first day in Spain.