Mallorca Day 7

Monday, May 7 - I need to mention dinner last night. It was much better than the night before. I started with chicken crepes. The filling was like a sweet chicken salad and the crepe was thin and tasty. My main course was fish cooked in Mallorcan style. It was nice and moist and had a spinach wrap. Dessert was Mallorcan custard which turned out to be creme broulle (sp?). Bed was at 10:00 or so.

This morning we had the standard breakfast buffet at around 8:00. The van was leaving at 9:00 so we packed up and hit the road at 9:00 or so.

The first 1/3 of the ride was back tracking the end of Day 5. We rode a fairly flat 6 miles through olive groves and then did a moderate climb for another 6 miles through the forest up to the gas station/cafe where I had lunch on Day 5. This time I picked up a Snicker's Bar to take with me. We then left the Day 5 route and climbed some more through the forest and alongside craggy cliffs. I stopped about halfway up the climb to visit with Peter, another rider in our group, and to eat my candy bar for extra energy. Climbing again, we passed a couple of lakes and many tourists starting our on their hikes in the high country. Traffic was picking up as we got closer to 11:00 with a lot of buses and rental cars. It was a little tense at times on the narrow roads.

Once we reached the summit, we started downhill and rode through two tunnels. They were not as bad as the Day 4 tunnels probably because they seemed to have more light. We then stopped at a viewpoint to take pictures of the Harbor of Port Soller - our destination- and of the surrounding hillsides. The picture at the top of this page was taken there. That's me on the left and Rod on the right. Peter, Rod and I were leapfrogging down the hill on our Bike Fridays.

We got to our hotel at about 12:30. Alison arrived with our luggage soon after. I took a shower and then ate lunch with Alison and George and Dorlene Root in an outdoor cafe next to the beach. I had raviolis Bologna-style along with a cerveza grande. While eating we couldn't help but admire the view of the harbor - beautiful blue water with lots of sailboats surrounded on shore by little cafes and small hotels. It really looks like post-card Mediterranean.

Daily statistics:
Max speed - 35.5
Time - 3:03
Average speed - 11.2
Miles - 34
Elevation - 3400