To Port de Pollenca to Pollenca to Alcudia and back

April 12, 2013

First ride without weight on the bikes

Climbed 111 metres, 364 feet

Weather: sunny and warm, high 25 C

The sun streaming through a gap in the curtains woke us up around 7:00. It looked like a beautiful day outside, perfect for our first exploratory ride. We were in the dining room for breakfast right when it opened at 8:00, and it was way less crowded than last night at dinner. The buffet breakfast choices featured lots of fruit, scrambled eggs and bacon, omelettes and crepes made to order, cold cuts and cheese, breads, jams and excellent coffee. Wow! Other cyclists streamed in while we were eating and loaded up their plates.

The hotel dining room before the breakfast crowd arrived

We retrieved our bikes from the storage room and took off towards the outskirts of Port d'Alcudia. Without bicycles, we couldn't imagine staying in this intensively built-up resort area. However on bikes, less than 10 minutes riding time would take us out of town with many touring routes to choose from. We could cycle along the coast, or up into the Tramuntana mountains, or into the relatively flat interior agricultural area of the island, visiting small picturesque villages along the way. We could almost always avoid main roads, travelling on paved lanes with very little car traffic. Al had mapped out potential routes on our map of Mallorca, and today we planned a shortish loop ride through Pollença, one of the larger inland villages located in a bowl at the base of the mountains and over a low range of hills from the coast.

The ride was mostly on small lanes winding through agricultural areas, and many groups of cyclists were enjoying the setting and the weather

It was lovely to ride the bikes unloaded, and we skimmed along the stone-wall lined lanes past fields and farmhouses. At one point we missed a turn and found ourselves heading toward the coast to Port de Pollença instead of inland to Pollença itself. That was okay. We rode on a paved bike path along the shore to the outskirts of Port de Pollença, where we connected with the road going inland. Port de Pollença is the next village up the coast from Alcudia, and was founded in the 1400s to give advance warning of pirate attacks to the town of Pollença.

We reached Pollença just before lunchtime and by chance rode by a bakery on a tiny side street. Al was pleased to find good-looking apple pastries, which we hadn't seen anywhere else so far. The bakery was called Il Giardino and the owners told us it was associated with their restaurant of the same name just around the corner in the Plaça Major. If we wanted to have lunch there, we could take our pastries along and eat them for dessert. We checked out the posted menu del dia, parked our bikes and sat down at an outdoor table--as usual, the weather was perfect for eating outside. We shared a plate of bruschetta to begin; then Eva had canneloni with chicken, brie and asparagus, and Al enjoyed the spaghetti with seafood. Coffee and a shared pastry finished off a satisfying lunch.

The bikes leaning against the wall by our table in the shade where we stopped for lunch in the square in Pollenca

Eva's canneloni, Al's spaghetti with seafood not shown

Pollenca is quite picturesque and has several squares with restaurants and bars popular with cyclists

Despite the numbers of cyclists, the town didn't seem overly crowded

We walked our bikes past the church in the pedestrianized square and uphill on the cobbled streets of the town, then cycled back toward the coast by a different route than we had come. We detoured briefly to the picturesque walled village of Alcudia, adjacent to Port d'Alcudia, before returning to our hotel along the main thoroughfare. After cleaning up, we had tea out on the balcony before going downstairs for dinner. The fish dish tonight was hake in leek sauce—very good with grilled vegetables alongside. At this rate we would have to do a lot of cycling to make up for all the excellent food!

Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 241 km (150 miles)

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