We took a trip with a Cruise Critic group today. Our guide was
wonderful. He formed a company with just him and his wife. His name is
Miguel Corral at mallorcatourguides@gmail.com. He
asked us to promote his business and I am happy to do it.
Miguel asked us where we wanted to spend most of our time.
We had a couple of choices. None of us knew enough to make a choice so we
accepted his suggestion that we travel to Valldemossa, a wealthy community in
the mountains. Its claim to fame is that Chopin and George Sand made their home
there for a short time.
It’s a truly beautiful village. All of Mallorca is
beautiful. There is a big yacht and boat harbor. Tourism is their number one
industry but number two is boat repair. He said that Bill Gates sent his yacht
to be painted there.
We saw some gorgeous buildings including a castle. There is
a La Rambla just like in Barcelona. I found out that rambla doesn’t mean river
but it means “river bed”. This particular river bed was the scene of a flood
that killed many people. So, the city moved the river outside of the town. It
has since moved back in as the city has grown. There are 850,000 people who
live there and they have 11 million visitors a year.
While we were in Valldemossa, we toured an old church and
listened to a 20 minute performance of one of Chopin’s works. On the way there
we passed many orchards of almond trees with sheep grazing under the trees.
This was art in the window of an apartment.
In town, we saw a 1000 year old olive tree that seems to
have the outline of a face if it is viewed correctly. There is a legend about a
spirit being trapped in the tree but I didn’t hear much of what the guide said about it.
We had a tour of this place.
These are representations of George Sand and Chopin. She was a free-living writer whose real name was Aurore Dudevant. They lived together for three months in this place. She smoked cigars and wore trousers. At first sight he thought she was a man but somehow they formed a romantic relationship, anyway, that lasted for nine years.
We had a comedian tonight –a Brit named Kevin Devane. He
started off slowly but really picked up by the end. He said he was once on a
cruise ship with really old people. Every time he set down his water glass,
someone put their teeth in it. He also said he is independently wealthy. But,
currently, his money is tied up in his parent’s house.
To a man in the front row he said, “Tell me your surname and
I will tell you what it means.” The man said, “My last name is Klineherst.” He
said, “That’s a German name meaning handsome. What’s your first name?” The man said, “Hans.” The comedian said, “Oh,
too bad. That means ‘not very’.”
He talked to a woman on the first row also. He said that you
are never supposed to ask a woman her age. So, he said, “How much do you
weigh?”
The captain came over the loudspeaker before the comedian’s
show and said that we are sailing into bad weather tonight and tomorrow. We
will be rocking and rolling. He said to eat a good dinner because we may not
feel like eating tomorrow. He said to hold on when we walk the hallways and
just generally be careful. The comedian
said, “Well the captain was a ray of sunshine tonight. I think I lash myself to
a mast. Save my parrot!”
