February 24, 2024 to February 25, 2024
Are we having fun yet?
Well, no. Not quite yet, even though we’re in beautiful Mallorca. We’re still waiting for the magic to happen.
First though, a few more words about the flight that didn’t make it into the previous post. First, there was the scare at the departure gate in Los Angeles when the agent was going to deny us boarding if we couldn’t show proof that we’d be leaving the Schengen Zone within 90 days. It took us awhile to look up the booking for our ferry from Santander to England, and about as long for the agent to do the higher math and convince herself that there’s only 90 days between 2/23 and 5/20.
It’s a good thing we arrived at the gate early enough, but it’s also a good thing that we had the booking. Looking ahead, we don’t have bookings yet for when we leave England or for our flight back from Nice. We probably should do that before we find ourselves in the same situation at another border crossing down the road. Has anyone had this happen to them before?
And then there’s this shot I took of us on the endless walk from our arrival gate in LA to the international terminal. Endless - it felt like at least a mile. This would be a good spot for some moving sidewalks, whatever they’re called. And there was one - for a whole 500’.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 4 | Link |
So we made it to Barcelona on time and intact except for health, all set for the ferry to Alcúdia. It’s not an ideal ferry schedule though - it departs at 10 PM and arrives at 5 AM, awkward times at both ends of the voyage. In Barcelona, there’s the matter of what to do with ourselves until check-in at 9 PM, on a grey, chilly and windy day. We’d thought we would do some sort of bicycle-based sight seeing and stop in a restaurant for a late lunch, but under the circumstances there’s no interest in that. It’s too cold, I’m too sick, and a restaurant meal is out of the question.
So we fill in the hours as best we can. We stay in our room until the noon checkout, and then move downstairs to the lobby and hang out there for about three hours. Finally we decide it’s time to bike the ten miles to the ferry terminal. It’s cold already, and if we wait any longer it will get chillier and windier with the chance of rain. Really, it feels just as cold as back in Portland.
The ride is fine, on safe, well marked bike routes the whole way - but it’s good that it was no more than this because it takes pretty much all my energy as it is. Barcelona has made great strides with its bike infrastructure since we first biked here over 25 years ago.
We arrive at the departure terminal by the World Trade Center at about four, hoping we’ll be able to find someplace to hang out and keep warm for the next five hours. The Belaeria terminal won’t open for a couple of hours, but fortunately there’s an espresso bar right next door that’s fine with us tying up a table for the next three hours for the price of a coffee, tea, and a croissant.
I still feel rotten though. As a measure of how poorly I’m doing, I can see clouds of gulls swirling around outside the window, but can’t summon the energy or enthusiasm to step out for a look.
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8 months ago
8 months ago
At seven we moved on to the now-open terminal, collected our boarding passes, and waited for another two hours. It’s not warm or particularly comfortable in the terminal, but this has all gone better than we imagined it might.
| Heart | 5 | Comment | 5 | Link |
8 months ago
8 months ago
It’s an odd boarding arrangement I haven’t seen before: foot and bicycle passengers check in at this terminal, but the ship is actually some distance away at a different one, being loaded with cars and trucks. At 9 two buses arrive to collect us foot travelers and drive us all together to the ship. We all pile in, with folks fitting their luggage, bikes, surfboards and a well behaved dog wherever they can. There’s a German couple with their tiny folded Bromptons down for some fun in the sun that we chat with, and an especially attractive younger couple returning home from their surfing break in the Bahamas (too hot, too expensive) that we enjoy an extended conversation with all the way to the ship.
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The seven hour voyage felt nearly as difficult as that terrible flight from LA to Barcelona, but I think that’s just because we’re so worn down by it all now - and the fact that Rachael is sick now too, coughing and complaining of a sore throat. Objectively though it was pretty reasonable, with us on comfortable recliners. Unfortunately though, it was chilly again; and lying around getting chilled for seven hours is a pretty poor prescription for getting our health back. Finally around 3 AM Rachael went to the cafeteria to get some hot tea to soothe her throat and warm herself up, and learned that they had lap blankets available for a deposit. We each got one, and the last two hours were at least marginally better.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 2 | Link |
8 months ago
We’ve done well in finding lodging in Alcudia. It’s an apartment we found on Airbnb, and for just 50€ more the host agreed to leave the unit unbooked the day before our arrival - so we could show up in the middle of the night and let ourselves in. It’s quite cold when we disembark, but with sunrise still almost two hours away we of course aren’t waiting for it. It’s a flat mile and a half to our apartment, and after the cold ride on the ship it’s almost better to be on the bike for a short ways.
Checking ourselves in goes reasonably well, though it’s a little awkward getting our gear and bikes up to our fifth floor apartment in elevators so small we have to stand up the bikes. And when we arrive neither of the HVAC’s works so it’s a chilly first night until we hear back from the host in the morning to check the circuit breakers.
Once the sun comes up and we can look out the window at our fantastic view, it’s obvious we’ve come to a special place. Now if our health will just return so we can feel like doing something. Not today though. We’re here for five more nights, so there’s still time.
| Heart | 7 | Comment | 3 | Link |
8 months ago
Today's ride: 12 miles (19 km)
Total: 12 miles (19 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 15 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 13 |
Enjoy Mallorca! I really liked the Sunday morning market in Pollensa. Well, I thought most of Mallorca was great, save for the few areas we saw that were full of lager louts.
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Good luck. REST and RECOVER.
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LAX has always been a hole but it is soooooo much better than it used to be. Tom Bradley's makeover makes the departures level okay these days. And now that you can walk between all the terminals behind security, you can escape the horrible food choices in some of the terminals by walking to another.
Hope you are both feeling better soon and back on the bike. You are a good example of why I still wear a mask on flights and public transport (even on the 15 hour flights)!
8 months ago