Palma de Mallorca day 3 (day trip to Soller) 4 May 2023

Up nice and early to catch the antique train to the village of Soller. We had then booked the tram from Soller to Port de Soller but when we arrived at the ticket office we found out the tram was off sadly. 

Our day started with a walk to local coffee roastery, La Molienda, for breakfast. I had avocado toast and K had toast with butter and homemade apricot jam. The coffee was, as expected, banging too. 

After breakfast we loaded onto the (rammed) old train and it ambled through the countryside to Soller. The views were incredible, particularly down the Soller valley.

Once we got to Soller we had to try and find an alternative way to get to Port de Soller. Thankfully we live in the future so we were able to see where and when to get the bus. The bus was crazy busy but thankfully we got a seat or it would have been another half hour wait.

The bus to Port de Soller was only about 10 mins as opposed to 30 mins on the tram so that was a win at least. However, unlike the tram it didn't go right down to the front so we had to schlep a bit in the heat.

We sat outside a place called Lemon Pie for a quick coffee but it wasn't really to our taste, they were clearly aiming for the British crowd. 

After that we walked down to the water and it was beautiful. Water and mountains all around, cos the port is in a wee bay you couldn't actually see out to sea from the main bit. The town was very touristy, but it is easy to see why.

We walked along the front passing lots of bars before choosing the one with the best view (Mar y Sol) for a wee sit down and a cold drink. We both got smoothies, mine was piña colada and k's was some sort of melon affair. Both were delicious. We sat there under our wee parasol, drinking in the view for quite a while. You could even see fish swimming in the sea from where we were sitting - idyllic!

After our chill we just continued our walk round the bay, past the beaches, enjoying the chill atmosphere. We sat for a while at the other end of the bay, where you could see out to sea and just had a lovely time.

We decided to just get a taxi back to Soller but first we needed a wee snack. We sat a wee outside cafe and I just had some tortilla chips and dip and k had bread with tomato and jamon. It was nothing fancy but it was nice enough.

While we were waiting for a taxi an old Swedish couple asked if they could come in our taxi up the hill to the bus stop. We, of course, agreed. They then told us what had happened to the tram. Apparently the night before a drunk and drugged driver had crashed into the tram's electricity station bringing the whole network down!

Once we were back in Soller we had a wee wander about to get our bearings then went for lunch in a wee Mexican for something different. We ordered chicken flautas, 2 pork and 2 beef tacos to share. The food was fine but it wasn't great, it was a wee disappointing. What was fun was there was a Marc Anthony (ex Mr JLo) concert on a big screen, the staff were singing along having the best time.

After lunch we wandered about the shops for a while but our final Soller stop of Gelat Soller was on my mind the whole time. Finally, we headed to get our ice cream and I was not disappointed. We got the locally made orange ice cream and it was exceptional. Really cheap too, only 2 euros for a tub or cone with lovely courtyard seating. Oranges are a big deal in Soller, they were in the middle of a 2 week orange festival when we were there.

After our ice cream we headed back to the station for our train to Palma. When we arrived in Palma we had a wee cortado while we decided what to do with our evening. It was only 730 so we thought we might manage to get into Bar España for some tapas before the dinner time rush. It was rammed but after a 5 min wait they managed to squeeze us in.

Bar España is a lovely traditional old tapas bar and is *very* popular so we were delighted to get a wee table. We ordered tortilla, patatas bravas with sobrasada, padron peppers, a mini burger and 2 mallorcan vegetable croquetas. It was all delicious but we wished we had just ordered the jamon croquetas instead of trying something new. The tortilla was probably the best of the 3000 tortillas that we had on the trip.

After dinner we just headed up the road for an earlyish night.