A Mallorcan Winter Break - Day 6

Goodbye to Pollenca.

Breakfast was a little more relaxed this morning and we sat at two separate tables in the dining room. We spotted the three men from the restaurant last night and they looked a bit bleary! No jokes this morning!

Both Sophie and I wanted to go shopping, and more places were open today, thank goodness. Keith, Sophie and I headed for a beautiful shop selling ceramics and housewares, and I bought a bowl and a mug. Both were made in Mallorca, which was very important! I could have spent a fortune on all the plates, bowls and dishes in there, and if we'd been driving, I probably would have!

From there we found a delightful shop selling Mallorcan produce right next to La Font del Gall restaurant. It was a kind of grocer shop/wine store and I bought another bottle of wine and some chocolates. The owner popped some little chocolates into the bag for us as a small gift. What a lovely touch!

On one of the streets near the Calvari steps, we spotted a shop called Panaderia selling knives and little knick-knacks. I spotted a herb cutter that was absolutely beautiful in its design and I asked how much... I must have good taste as it was over 400 euros. I was severely tempted to throw caution to the wind and buy it, but I was persuaded not to by Keith and Sophie!

We decided to have a coffee in Ca'n Butxaca again and I imagined what it would be like to live in Pollenca and be able to visit every morning, while you catch up with the newspapers. Heaven!

After our coffee, we went back up to the shop on the Calvari steps and Sophie had another look around. Keith and I stayed outside and I took some last photographs of the town.

Keith posing...

We made one last stop to a little shop selling mainly Nepalese artefacts where Sophie had bought a ring the last time we were here, but nothing caught her eye, so it was back to the hotel and check-out. Sophie and I went to get the car and I managed to park just around the corner. 

Homeward Bound.

We had a lot of time to kill - our flight wasn't until 9.30pm - and I suggested stopping off at Binissalem on the way to the airport to see if there was anything open there, and maybe have lunch. We set off at 12pm and it only took us about half an hour to get to Binissalem, which is known for its vineyards. We parked in a small and extremely scruffy car park and strolled towards the centre of the town but there was hardly anything worth seeing. We came across a large square but no bars were open so we reluctantly retraced our steps and went back to the car. On the outskirts, we spotted Jose Ferrer's vineyard but we already had as much wine as we could carry back, and I didn't fancy doing a wine-tasting and then driving to Palma!

Therefore, we found ourselves at the Hiper rental offices three hours earlier than planned, and very soon we were on our way to the airport and a long wait. Maybe it would have been better to do what we've done in the past and take a drive to the Costa de Los Pinos, but we were so disheartened with everything being closed, we decided to just accept defeat and go to the airport.

We had thought about going into one of the lounges, but we had to check our bags before that, and the EasyJet bag drop wasn't open and didn't open until about 7pm. It had been a long wait, reading, playing cards and watching James May in Japan on Amazon Prime. His programme got me through it!

We checked our luggage without any problems and made our way through to Departures to have something to eat. As per the rest of our holiday, hardly anything was open so we chose a McDonald's meal, and even this restaurant closed shortly afterwards!

The flight home was extremely quiet - I would say the plane was a third full - and I was able to stretch out on three seats and watch another couple of episodes of James May in Japan. We arrived at 11pm to a wet and cold Luton, and not one of our documents was checked by anyone. The check-in man at Palma had given the digital forms a cursory glance and that was it... all that trouble we'd had for nothing!

We bid goodbye to Zain and set off for home. The M1 was quiet but roadworks were being carried out as per usual for the time of night. Back home everything was fine, and Monty was very pleased to see us. We dumped everything in the living room, checked the wine in the cases and had one last drink to relax before bed!