Port Soller - On The Way
After a mediocre breakfast at Hotel Marina - the usual selection of rolls, jams, yoghurt,, orange "Tang"-type juice (with 1,000's of orange groves around, some freshly squeezed would have been nice), etc. And, the worst coffee of the entire trip.
Hint #3 - Throw an old washcloth in your suitcase and toss it at the end of the trip. It is extremely rare to find a washcloth in a hotel....towels...but never a washcloth in sight.
Port Soller
It was time to actually start hiking. The group took a public bus to Deia, another charming small town. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day and masses of tourist were visiting Deia as well as hiking parts of the GR 221. "Barefoot" Mark and I both have GPS's (we're both rather anal) by Garmin - his an E-trex, mine a Fore-trex. We synchronized and ready to go. The trail ran along the coast at the beginning, and as I've mentioned before, the English are notoriously fit and fast hikers (ramblers). Believe me, nothing even resembles a "ramble" with them. Ex-Marine and I were always at the back of the pack.
People were coming from all directions, but there was always a GR sign to show the way.
At one point along the trail, a picturesque restaurant made apple and lemon meringue pies - a "tea" break toward the end. After walking along the coast, we headed through olive groves (all terraced), farms of more lemon and orange trees. The fragrance was delicious. The hike ended back in Soller and the group took the tram back down to Port Soller, after 7.2 miles of walking. Mark's and my Garmins agreed to the mile. Ex-Marine did something to one knee a month ago, but gutted it out in true Corps fashion! What a guy.
Food time: We selected the restaurant Es Passeig, on Paseo de la Plaza, next to our hotel for dinner. Nobody serves before 7:00pm the earliest and we were always starving by that time. Es Passeig had a very gourmet-type menu, extremely ambitious. A German couple own it, the woman runs the front while her husband cooks. According to her, he trained all over Europe and the dinner reflected it.
Bread, olives and a creamy mayonnaise/garlic/yoghurt (primarily yoghurt here) is always put on the table first. Ate a selection of Tapas as a starter (appetizer) which included: a cheese (similar to Feta), potato salad, bacon wrapped around dates, chorizo (Spanish Sausage) and two croquettes (one filled with chicken, the other filled with spinach).
The entree was Calamari stuffed with herbs, garlic, spinach, and tomatoes on a bed of some au gratin potatoes.
Dessert? Yummy...chocolate souffle with blood orange ice cream and orange compote. When you cut into the souffle, deep bitter chocolate oozed all over the plate, so good, we could have taken one "to go."
The Wine was a red from Navarra. To date, we haven't tasted a bad red yet, and their costs per bottle equal two glasses of wine in the United States! And, as if we hadn't eaten enough, the owner brought two little shot glasses filled with a foamy fruit mixture.
It was so good! Nothing like great food to take your mind off foot blisters and shin splints!
taking a load off...
Another part of the GR tomorrrow!....
