Inca & Palma Cathedral

October 20, 2023

At dinner last night, the host told me that Inca, in central Mallorca, is the center of leatherwork on the island. The train gets there in about 45 minutes, so I hopped on. The town was festooned with decorations for the Fira de la Terra (Fair of the Land) this weekend.

Google maps indicated there was a leather workshop northeast of the station. I walked to the address, walked past, doubled back, looked around; no shop could I see. Looking at the doorbell, there was a tiny label which had a similar name. I rang and a woman soon emerged from a small door within the garage door. There was some postal notice on the ground and she seemed to think I was delivering it. Not me.

"Habla Ingles?" I enquired hopefully. "No" came the quick reply. Reaching far back to my high school Spanish, I ventured: "Yo quiero comprar una ...???... para ma esposa." The woman supplied the missing noun "bolsa!" (purse). Cautioning me about the trailer hitch on the small van in the garage, she beckoned me into the garage. Narrowing the search from big purses "demasiado grande" to small purses "demasiado pequeño" to just right ("bueno"). She led me to the workshop in the back and introduced me to her husband, who was working on a strap. 

Leaving the garage, the woman again cautioned me about the trailer hitch, which I carefully avoided, hitting my head on the small door instead. She came and rubbed my head. I soon left, insisting I was "muy bien."

Back at Palma, the maze of streets in old Town eventually led to the Cathedral, construction of which began in 1229. The cathedral was built on the site of a former mosque, which itself had been constructed over the original cathedral. I opted for the combo ticket, which included entrance to the cathedral and access to the terrace high above. After a quick dip in the hotel pool, I took a late flight to Toulouse.

Inca decked out for the Fall fair

Leather workshop

Rare Spanish flag

At Inca Station

Hamburgers restaurants are ubiquitous in Spain

Back of Palma Cathedral

Cathedral aspe

Main altar

Up 137 claustrophobic stairs to the terrace

AED at top of stairs, just in case!

Cathedral terrace views

Flying buttresses

The Cathedral's stained glass is all relatively modern, as depicted on the terrace

Ancient wood in belfry

Memorial to general killed in 1811, during the Napoleonic era

The cathedral cloisters

Tren de Soller

October 18, 2023

The three-foot gauge Tren de Soller was established in 1912 to connect Palma with Soller on the far side of the mountains in the west of Mallorca, although the current train sets date from 1929. A pleasant walk through the city brought me to the Ferrocarril de Soller station at Plaça d'Espanya, adjacent to the main Mallorca transport hub.

Ensconced in a single wood-slat seat in the first/engine car, a family with 2 kids sat across from me. They said the train had sold out, and they had secured tickets, but their friend had not; they would meet their friends later. The couple was living in Denmark; she was Polish, he Cuban. They spoke English to each other.

The train rolled through the streets of Palma before joining its own right of way. The climb began after about 20 minutes,. A long tunnel signaled the line's summit (1). The train stopped for a few minutes at a station high above Soller to permit the Palma-bound train to pass, and we all got out to enjoy the view. Descending through multiple switchbacks, the train arrived on time at Soller.

The train connects to a tram proceeding about 4 miles further to the sea at Port de Soller. I was planning to hike either at Soller or at the port. The mobbed tram (2) seemed to suggest staying to hike in Soller, until another pulled right behind and left almost empty (except for me and a few others), passing through the town center and wandering on and off the streets on the way to the Port.

The entrance to the small harbor here has a lighthouse to both port (black striped, close to sea level) and starboard (white on a bluff above the channel). A hiking map bought in Palma (3) indicated a network of trails behind La Far (4) de Cap Gros. After strolling along the mole, a paved road left up the bluff to the Cap Gros lighthouse.

Behind the lighthouse sits the Refugi de Muleta, a mountain hut for long-distance hikers. The GR 221 trail rises further from here, climbing the seaside ridge. The uneven ground and rounded rocks of this well-used trail made me glad I had brought my hiking boots. The trail wandered up the ridge, past pine forests and olive groves, before descending back towards Soller. 

At a trail junction, left went toward the Port, while right led to Soller. The Port had a beach and a bar serving Sangria; I took a left. A quick dip in the sea was refreshing on this warm day. The hike was about 4.7 miles with 850 feet of elevation gain.

Having dinner back at Palma, the restaurant host noticed I did not use the spoon to twirl my spaghetti.

"You don't look Italian" he said.

"No, but I married one." I replied.

"Me too, my ex-wife was not just Italian, she was Sicilian," said the German owner of the Italian restaurant in Spain.

(1) As did the easing of the engine halfway through.

(2) The entire trainload (of about 10 cars) of people tried to jam their way onto the 3-car tram.

(3) While the guide was in German (Wanderparadis), the translation was clear and maps are universal. 

(4) In many European languages, the word for lighthouse is derived from Pharos, an island at the entrance to Alexandria where a tower was erected in which fires were lit to guide ships to the harbor.

The first train to Soller (10:10 a.m., we are in Spain)

Onto the streets of Palma

Trackside race course

Beginning the climb. The S stands for Solpar (blow) with the whistle picture next to it.

Climbing

View of Soller after summit tunnel

Arriving at Soller

Through Soller on the tram

Arrival at Port de Soller

View of the harbor entrance from the mole

Striped lighthouse at harbor mouth

Cap Gros lighthouse. From 1859 to 1944, the lense burned olive oil.

Refugi de Muleta

View from Refugi

On the GR 221 Trail

View north from trail

Fingerpost on trail

Sign in Catalan: "Always follow the marked trail.

 Respect property."

Views on the descent

Almost there

Hens of love (?)

Instead of cutting the old tree, the road becomes one lane

Balearic Islands flag

Waiting for the return tram

Back at Soller

Return to Palma

The Book of Kells

October 17, 2023

Trinity College in Dublin has the Book of Kells in its library. This illuminated manuscript containing the 4 gospels dates from c. 800. A long layover provided enough time to hop the bus through morning traffic to the city center and see the manuscript. I was lucky enough to be able to get an entrance ticket for 10:00 at about 9:45. They asked for my family name; "that's a good Irish name they replied."

There is a display on the history of the book. Inscribed on vellum, it is estimated to have used the skins of more than 150 sheep. The fragile book is kept in a temperature and humidity controlled glass chamber in a darkened room. The exit is through the upstairs "Long Room," where the library's most important works were housed (1). A stroll about the campus in the drizzle followed.

The afternoon flight to Mallorca flew directly over the islands western mountains before landing in Palma (2).

(1) The library is currently moving most of its volumes.

(2) Not to be confused with La Palma or Las Palmas, two different airports in Spain's Canary Islands.

Book of Kells display

The long room at Trunity College, Dublin

Exterior of library 

The college grounds

The approach to Palma de Mallorca

Catalan, English, German, then finally Spanish at Palma de Mallorca airport.