The alarm goes off at the ungodly (but that's OK, we're atheists :-) hour of 4 am. Or at least, it was supposed to, in fact it seems to be 4:25, oops, we're a bit late. We stumbled through the last of our packing last night and its all in the car apart from a few last-minute things we sweep up, and off we go. I'm sure, once upon a time, when I was 10 (E) or 14 (D) I would have been wildly excited to be flying. But now, even though we don't do it much, it is but routine. Anyway: zoom down to Stanstead, making up some lost time, but then have to stand for ages in the queue to check in our hold suitcase, which is uncomfortably heavy. Also, because we couldn't work out how to online (we booked through lastminute, not easyjet direct, never do that again) we need to pay for the suitcase. But when it goes on the belt... it weights 31 kg, 11 kg over the limit. Oops. I thought it felt heavy as I struggled to get it downstairs. Part of this is, errm, me having brought the bathroom scales :-). Which was why I couldn't weight it :-)). A very rapid trawl through pulls out 2 kg of books into E's sac, but we're running late so take the rest of the £10/kg penalty (!). And so (after a bit more scare, in which D's carry-on luggage proves not to quite fit in the measuring device provided, but never mind, it fits in the lockers) off we go, about the last on the plane and no chance for a coffee. And the flight (prompt at 9 am) is as usual dull and packed, so I read.
And so we arrive, with a bit of faff getting off as they delay the steps, then we need a bus to stop us walking 100m, but then we're through and go along to the car park I remember from 2010, and pick up our Europcar. M had booked us the smallest, but for a mere 3 euro/day we can upgrade to a 4-door, which is useful, and it may have a boot just big enough to take our giant suitcase, so we succumb to their blandishments.
Its now 11:30 ish. We're not really supposed to arrive till 2 ish, and its about 1h off if we go straight, so where to go?
We end up heading south and east, because we didn't really see this bit before. Probably because it seems less interesting than the mountains to the north, but its worth a quick peek on our way. We end up in Campos - Rondo de Jaume II - at a very nice fruit shop, whose like we never saw again, but of course because we just found it once we assumed its like was everywhere. Highlight was raw undried dates, which I've never had before, and which had a not-quite-ripe-hazelnutty flavour. Although that makes them sound less appealing than I found them. Then, via various narrow streets that all looked alike (a foretaste of Pollenca) we got lost but eventually found a nice side cafe for, errm, cafe and a few rounds of Whist.
After than, straightish to the resort. We weren't exactly sure where it was - M had handled all the booking, it was on the coastal strip near Can Picafort / Ses Forges, but to spare you the tension it was here. Looking at that I'm amused to find that the next-door hotel is almost a mirror-image of ours: I'd barely realised it was there. We are (slightly disappointingly, but this turned out not to matter) a block back from the sea. The place is all gleaming marble, air-con reception, nicely turned out staff, palm trees inside, and is basically a set of blocks surrounding a set of swimming pools. We're in block 4, which is the one in the bottom right here (I know, you don't care, this is for my reference only) but be careful, the kids swimming pool with pirate ship, that was directly under our windows, hadn't been built in that pic.
I forget what we did next. Unpacked, flopped in the cool after the heat, looked at the beach, had dinner in the resto (we hadn't learnt to trust the buffet yet). Etc.
Pix: inside block 1 (where we were on Saturday night); dawn view out of the back away from the beach over the nature reserve that I didn't visit but M did; the appt blocks from the back, where we parked our faithful chevvy.
And so we arrive, with a bit of faff getting off as they delay the steps, then we need a bus to stop us walking 100m, but then we're through and go along to the car park I remember from 2010, and pick up our Europcar. M had booked us the smallest, but for a mere 3 euro/day we can upgrade to a 4-door, which is useful, and it may have a boot just big enough to take our giant suitcase, so we succumb to their blandishments.
Its now 11:30 ish. We're not really supposed to arrive till 2 ish, and its about 1h off if we go straight, so where to go?
We end up heading south and east, because we didn't really see this bit before. Probably because it seems less interesting than the mountains to the north, but its worth a quick peek on our way. We end up in Campos - Rondo de Jaume II - at a very nice fruit shop, whose like we never saw again, but of course because we just found it once we assumed its like was everywhere. Highlight was raw undried dates, which I've never had before, and which had a not-quite-ripe-hazelnutty flavour. Although that makes them sound less appealing than I found them. Then, via various narrow streets that all looked alike (a foretaste of Pollenca) we got lost but eventually found a nice side cafe for, errm, cafe and a few rounds of Whist.
After than, straightish to the resort. We weren't exactly sure where it was - M had handled all the booking, it was on the coastal strip near Can Picafort / Ses Forges, but to spare you the tension it was here. Looking at that I'm amused to find that the next-door hotel is almost a mirror-image of ours: I'd barely realised it was there. We are (slightly disappointingly, but this turned out not to matter) a block back from the sea. The place is all gleaming marble, air-con reception, nicely turned out staff, palm trees inside, and is basically a set of blocks surrounding a set of swimming pools. We're in block 4, which is the one in the bottom right here (I know, you don't care, this is for my reference only) but be careful, the kids swimming pool with pirate ship, that was directly under our windows, hadn't been built in that pic.
I forget what we did next. Unpacked, flopped in the cool after the heat, looked at the beach, had dinner in the resto (we hadn't learnt to trust the buffet yet). Etc.
Pix: inside block 1 (where we were on Saturday night); dawn view out of the back away from the beach over the nature reserve that I didn't visit but M did; the appt blocks from the back, where we parked our faithful chevvy.
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