Ciutadella 2

Breakfast included ensaïmadas, among other pastries. Incidentally they come in larger sizes. Ones the size of pizzas are sold for about 10€ and come in octagonal cardboard boxes, presumably to be used as visiting presents.

Charming as Ciutadella is, I wasn't spending all my time in it. I planned to visit a couple of nearby beaches using public buses. The guide book recommended Cala Santandria, an easy 20 minute ride to the south. Fortunately I mentioned to the driver where I wanted to go because it was not obvious sitting on the bus where to get off and walk the 200m towards the beach. This is how the cala (cove) appears looking out to sea.

And this is looking back at the beach from a point on a nearby path. I didn't swim as I had nowhere to keep my belongings.

There was a raft of ducks in the water. I wondered where they fed. Maybe they didn't live around there and were tourists too, in the middle of a migration. Speaking of migration, the bus spiel on Sunday had mentioned that during summer, the population of the islands swells with seasonal workers for the tourism industry.

I passed some time reading, alternating on my e-reader between Sherlock Holmes stories and a very amusing memoir of working as an English language teacher in Japan, by Nicholas Klar. I moved whenever my limbs got stiff or the shade moved.

The nearby paths were easily exhausted, so after a lunch of Cuban fried rice (nothing special) and draft beer at a beachside bar, I returned to Ciutadella.

I tried a gelato made with local zarzamora (blackberry). At first I thought the label read zanahoria. Carrot ice-cream, what a concept. But it was too dark to be carrot.

This is one of the several gelaterias I patronised. As you can see, they have used a mug shot of me for their shop banner, hahaha.

I think the Mediterranean tradition of a siesta is very sensible for hot afternoons so who was I to argue with something that works.

That evening I found El Horno, another recommended restaurant and had the fish soup, which was very good.

This was followed by calamares a la plancha (grilled squid) which was also very good. The restaurant was quiet, there was only a Japanese couple there when I started. But evidently the customers who started filling the restaurant understood Spanish dining hours. This included a well dressed older British couple, possibly staying in a nearby resort and in town for dinner. He spoke some Spanish so probably a well-educated person.

After dinner I walked down steps to the harbour. The building overlooking the harbour is the ajuntament (government office).

Restaurants there were still serving diners. I gathered from a poster in town that  in summer dance parties are staged on the opposite side of the cove to the one in the picture. This jazz club offers more sedate entertainment which I didn't look into. It's here that the access road makes a hairpin bend and ascends to the level of the city.

To close the night out, I tried another local flavour of gelato, higos (figs).

I made a 6 minute movie using that feature on my camera, walking through the heart of the city, from Plaça des Borns to Plaça de ses Palmeres (apparently called Plaça D' Alfons III Conqueridor now). You can view it on YouTube (link if preview not showing).