Palma de Mallorca - Day 1 (2nd May 23)

Flight was delayed by 2.5 hours so we lost a good chunk of the day but I won't dwell on that.

We got through the airport and into a taxi pretty quickly and headed for our air bnb. It was quickly apparent that it was roasting so this ginger was going to have to take it easy.

Our air bnb is lovely, a tiny wee house 15 mins walk from the city centre with a very private terrace and wee pool. It is very hipstery, the only downside is the staircase of death to get to the bedroom. The bathroom is downstairs so a 3am pee is especially perilous.

We dumped our stuff, got changed and headed into town. It was 430 by this point and we hadn't had lunch yet so we were starving. We had a wander about the old town and when we got to Plaça Major we decided just to pick a spot with a view and sit down.

We just went for the busiest one, it was overpriced but cos of where it was we didn't mind. We ordered our fantas (K lemon, me orange) and a few tapas and just relaxed. We had patatas ali oli (the cold kind), mixed croquetas and a sobrasada and honey baguette. Everything was absolutely delicious - especially the chicken curry croquetas.

We decided to base our wander on a route on the book that passes all the modernist buildings in Palma and it didn't disappoint. There are a lot of beautiful buildings in this town. We took a wee detour to Parc de la Mar and got our first view of the imposing cathedral 'La Seu'. It is absolutely beautiful. We had a wee walk round then went for our next refresco at the place the Internet says has the best view of the Cathedral, Guiness House. We were aware that it would be extortionate but the view and the sit down were well worth it (5 euro each for a Fanta and a non-alcoholic beer).

We wandered up past the cathedral and the Palace and noticed they were filming something.  There was a large crowd of rubber neckers but we were too shy to ask them what was going on. K did some research later and found out it was The Mallorca Files, we're going to watch a wee ep when we get back.

We continued our walking tour, trying to get to grips with the geography of the place and taking lots of photos when we came to Plaça del Mercat. We spotted a very busy and retro looking kiosk and decided to join the locals for our next refresco. We just stood at the bar and saw that it was a burger/hot dog/ chips and beer place and everything looked great. We both had a caña (they came in frosty glasses, just what we needed) and shared some chips. It was one of those simple experiences that was somehow perfect. Hamburgueseria Alaska is now our favourite joint. Also, delightfully good value.

By then it was about 8ish so it was time to start our planned dinner tapas crawl. There is a thing on a Tuesday where bars near Plaça Major do a drink plus pintxo deal so we headed that way.

Our first stop was La Tortillería de Palma where we got 2 slices of tortilla to share. 1 was mojo and the other was sobrasada, honey and cheese. They came with some pieces of pan tomate and were both delicious- the sobrasada was the best though. It was a really cool place and I'll def go back if I'm in Palma again. Our next stop was Moltabarra which was really, really cool. With retro computer games on a projector and really interesting decor. The deal there was 2 pintxos from the bar and a drink for 5 euro - a bargain! We got 4 to share: a jamon croqueta; hash brown on pan tomate w cherry tomato; sausage w caramelised onion and pork escalope w ratatouille type thing. Everything was delicious!

Our next, and final, stop was Quina Creu. It was quite a fancy joint but because of the Tuesday thing you could get a wine or beer plus a pintxo from the bar for 2.70. We had a meatball one and a sobrasada, brie and honey one.the latter of which was particularly delicious. After that our tiredness caught up with us so we just walked back to our air bnb for an early, by Spanish standards, night.