Tag Archives: Ciutadella

Cami de Cavalls day 17(2) – Molified

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Wednesday September 29 2021, evening – We’d just got to the point where we were on our way out for an evening meal at the Moli des Comte; this place.

On the way there, I took the opportunity for a few more photos of Ciutadella in the late afternoon light.

The Municipal Market was a nice source of cityscape-type shots.

We got to the Moli in time for a gin (OK, two) before we ate – in typical Spanish style, the earliest time that dinner was served was 8pm. The inside of the place is delightful

and I don’t feel I can explain its story any better than its menu does:

As we got towards 8pm, more and more people were congregating, obviously also expecting to get a table at 8pm. At about 19:59:30, all of a sudden there was a concerted rush for the restaurant area, and I have to confess that Jane and I were caught slightly on the back foot, to the extent that several people got there before we did. However, it did seem that they’d been expecting this rush and so they got everyone seated and menued very quickly.  In fact, the whole thing was very quick – too quick, actually.  We took our seats at 8pm, had starters, main course and coffee – and were back out on the street before 9pm.  The food was very good, but an extra few minutes to appreciate the experience would have improved it enormously.  It’s not as if they were packed out or anything; they just got on with it very swiftly.  This is a bit of a shame.

However, our mild discomfiture is to your advantage, because it meant we had to wander about the city whilst the meal settled.  So, guess what?  Yep, lots more photos, you lucky people, and actually the first set of night photos of Ciutadella I’ve taken.  It was very interesting, seeing it during the evening and picking up the various vibes.  Unsurprisingly, it looks good at night.

and there’s a lively vibe at just a few seconds after 9pm(!)  The central square was, as one would expect, very animated,

and the Municipal Market was a happening place

and it was here that we noticed that a lot of places had queues of people waiting for a table. Given the apparently almost limitless supply of places to eat – they put tables out everywhere –

it was a bit of a surprise to find some places with significant queues and busy tables

and others almost bereft of customers.

Our favourite fish place, S’Amarador, was, unsurprisingly, very busy.

So we completed our paseo and headed back to the hotel.  Tomorrow is the day for our journey home.  I will report on it, particularly if there’s any excitement about getting into the country or, indeed, getting home from the airport given difficulties finding fuel, etc.  So stay tuned and find out how it all ended up.

Cami de Cavalls day 17 (1) – The Rain In Spain

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Wednesday 19 September 2021 – Before I get on to any further details of What We Did On Our Holiday, I thought it was worth reporting that both Jane and I were declared free of the dreaded lurgy by the Spanish authorities, which means we are free to leave the country tomorrow. So, we had just one more full day in the delightful city of Ciutadella.

The weather has been lovely these past couple of days – sunshine and not too much humidity.  The Met Office forecast for today, though, suggested a 40% chance of a light shower.  So when this happened

 

 

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it was a bit of a surprise, not least for the hotel.  The restaurant is in an open courtyard, and has many umbrellas and suchlike devices for shade; but these were not equal to the task of withstanding this deluge.  After the rain stopped, we went to get breakfast and were confronted with scenes of mild chaos.  I have a suspicion that the restaurant is a little undermanned (like the hospitality industry everywhere, really), as the staff there always seem to be scurrying to keep up; so when half the tables and chairs were soaked (and, I might add, cornering at speed in the courtyard was a tad perilous), they were really struggling.  So we went back to our room for half an hour to let them catch up, and when we went back things were somewhat better, though not completely under control. The practical upshot is that we got our Earl Grey and I got my Marmite, so this, along with our clean bill of health, made for a reasonable start to the day.

Ciutadella is a lovely city;  we know this from a previous visit and time here during the Cami walks, and it is the reason we had decided to stay here for a couple of days’ relaxing after our exertions.  Actually, this was possibly a very slight tactical error.  Yes, it’s lovely, but it’s also quite small, and we’d by now explored most of the easily-accessible nooks and crannies.  It might have been a better idea to find somewhere new on the island for these relaxation days so that we had better scope for exploration and discovery. On the other hand, the Can Faustino is a delightfully luxurious hotel, which has been a pleasure to stay at.

We decided to walk around the city some more, and, to give us a sense of purpose, rather than simple aimless wandering, we conceived – and superbly executed – A Mission Of Importance:

but, in discharging this solemn duty we got some more pictures from around the city.  Buildings and harbour area are really striking

and there were also some lovely quirky little vignettes, starting with this unusual piece of garage flooring.

There were also some nice instances of street art of various sorts

(actually, I think the last of these is more likely to be an advert for the supermarket round the corner, but let’s give it the benefit of the doubt, eh?)  So it was a pleasant walk in sunshine and relative cool – about 25°C; looking at the weather forecast for Surrey, I think we’re in for a bit of a shock when we get home tomorrow.

Before we headed back to the hotel, we decided to revisit a scene of horror and gruesome memory from our previous visit to the island, two years ago.  Then, we were staying in Mahón, and took the bus to visit Ciutadella.  Very soon after leaving the bus station here to walk into the centre, we happened upon this scene, which I reconstruct for you today.

It was sufficiently photogenic that I thought it would benefit from being just a little above street level to take a photo, so I stepped onto the nearest of the planters you see in the foreground. Imagine my surprise! when instead of supporting my weight and giving me the elevation I had expected, the thing tipped over as I stepped on it with one foot, with the result that its cast iron edge arrived with some force on the big toe of my other foot. It bloody hurt – and I use the adjective advisedly, as we had to find a café fairly sharply so we could steal handfuls of their paper napkins to stuff into my shoe to stop the blood making even more of a mess of it than it already had. Amazingly, these deadly dangerous devices can still be found lurking all over Ciutadella, lying in wait for other passing unfortunates to victimise, with not a single health and safety warning sticker to be seen.  Disgraceful, I call it.

After this opportunity for closure (my toenail has by now just about grown back, thanks for asking), we decided it was time to head back to the hotel and gather ourselves for the evening’s delight – an evening meal in the lovely Moli des Comte building that I first mentioned about a week ago. That’s why I am writing this blog entry now, because I’m likely to be too pissed tired to finish it later.  I will report further; I’ll post an update when I can.

Cami de Cavalls day 16 – At leisure at last!

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Tuesday 28 September 2021 – No more long walks in Menorca, then, since we’d completed the Cami de Cavalls. That didn’t mean no more walking, and it didn’t, today, mean lazily getting up late, either, as we had A Mission Of The Utmost Importance.

It’s two days until we fly home, and so we have to prove that we haven’t picked up the dreaded lurgy while we’re here.  Similarly to Iceland, the procedure is very well organised, straightforward and swift. Having booked the test slots online before we left the UK, on the day you present the paperwork for your requested test slot; take a tube with a barcode on it; wait a few seconds to be called in to the test room; suffer the indignity of a swab being inserted into your nose so far it feels like it’s come out of the back of your head; say “thank you” (for that?); and leave.  We are promised an e-mail in 24 hours telling us the result.

Fingers crossed.

The walking bit we had to do today was to visit the Cami360 office here in Ciutadella, since the Spanish idea of what size L T shirt means and mine are somewhat at odds.  Both Jane and I wanted to swap, and the lass in their office was very helpful without actually being able to speak a word of English.  I came away with an XXL cycling shirt, which is actually pretty tight; and Jane also swapped her T-shirt for a different size, too (although she had to go back again later because of a misunderstanding about the difference between Women’s and Unisex sizing).  Suffice it to say that by the end of the day, we were both happy with our commemorative clothing to mark the successful completion of the Cami.

Since we had a day of leisure and I believe in draining the cup of life to its dregs, I did  a spreadsheet analysis of the various mileages and ascents entailed during the Cami.  I used my phone’s GPS to provide location information to three applications and we had the Official Cami360 Booklet, giving the Official Version of length and ascent, section by section.

Long story short: Garmin Connect over-reports mileage and altitude gained by an average of around 10%, if you accept that the Official Version is probably correct, so I’m using Relive figures, as they seem to agree with the official version better.  The official length of the Cami is 185km (115 miles), and we walked 210.9km (131 miles), according to Relive; the extra kilometrage(mileage) was due to diversions and/or having to walk to get to the start or from the end of a stage for a drop off or pick up.  We ascended 3,224m, slightly more than the 3072m specified in the booklet.

Peripherally, Garmin has recorded that we have walked 256km (159 miles) in total, which includes our searching out Nice Lunches, etc.

We spent more of the day’s leisure walking around reacquainting ourselves with Ciutadella, which is a very attractive city.  Here are some photos I took as we walked.

Above is the municipal market, quite busy today

Above are municipal offices, and below are photos taken around the ridiculously pretty harbour.

I also tried my hand at a couple of candid street scenes, with which I’m not unhappy.

(Hmmmm….this last picture has just given me an idea….)

We  took lunch at a fish-specialist restaurant we knew from our previous visit, a harbourside place called S’Amarador. It’s really very good, even though they had run out of the razor clams Jane was looking forward to.

And now we’re back at the hotel, where the birds have been twittering away like mad as they joust for roosting space in the trees in the hotel courtyard.

 

 

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Of such lovely laziness is a day of leisure on holiday best constituted, particularly when set against the hard, hard labour of the previous fortnight.  We have another lazy day tomorrow, for which our Plan A involves eating at the Moli des Comte that I mentioned a week or so ago. Come back tomorrow to find out what we really  got up to.