To end 2024 on a high note and take advantage of some holiday PTO, we decided to head to Europe for two weeks. As per our usual, we had a pretty flexible idea of where we wanted to go (and honestly, the main consideration for the first part of the trip was choosing a destination that has Christmas markets!).

Ultimately, Mallorca filled all our criteria. Located in Spain’s Balearic Islands (the most famous of which is probably Ibiza, the notorious party destination), Mallorca (also spelled “Majorca”) has a wonderful combination of local history, food culture and natural beauty. It’s capital city, Palma de Mallorca, also has Christmas markets, which sealed the deal!

Unfortunately, getting to Mallorca was more of a challenge in reality than it should have been on paper. Weather on the west coast of the United States was not pleasant and our massive 787 bumped through moderate turbulence for the first ~2.5 hours of the flight after being delayed. Then, our connecting flight in Frankfurt got delayed while taxiing for departure as a flight ahead of us experienced a bird strike upon takeoff, requiring time-consuming runway inspections (thankfully it seemed like everything was ok!). Finally, about 19 hours into our 15 hour itinerary, we arrived in beautiful Palma.

Crushed with jetlag, we ended up doing a very simple dinner at the hotel before turning in early. Our meal was a great reintroduction to the simple, but incredibly vibrant flavors of Spanish cuisine. We had the fried calamari, which was crispy and light. Of course, I also had to try the patatas bravas, which vary regionally (and, frankly, by restaurant) wherever you go in Spain. These were accompanied with a slightly sweeter tomato-based sauce, with just a hint of acid and less smoky flavor than some of the ones I’ve experienced elsewhere in Spain. Sorry for the poor photo quality!

This morning, we decided to do a walking tour of Palma. To fuel up, we started with a Mallorcan breakfast at the hotel. We tried: a pork pie; traditional Mallorcan sausage (less spicy and dense than chorizo); pan omb oli or “pamboli” (very similar to pan con tomate you might try in mainland Spain, but with a traditional Mallorcan bread called “pan moreno” aka “brown bread” which uses a wholemeal flour similar to rye and therefore has a denser texture); salt cod; queso Manchego (a staple of mainland Spain) and queso Mahón (typical of Menorca, Mallorca’s sister island). I also tried a piparra pepper (grown in Basque country of mainland Spain), which is similar to a banana pepper but with quite a bit more heat.

As those who can speak Spanish will note from the food names, Mallorca actually uses Catalan (the same language widely spoken in Barcelona and the country of Andorra) in equal measure – in fact, the local dialect (“Mallorquí”) combines both in a language that is relatively incomprehensible to me, despite my proficiency in Spanish. There are also nuances to the Spanish spoken in Mallorca – for example, the word for “toilets” is “lavabos” rather than “aseos” and “juice” is “zumo” instead of “jugo”. I remember learning these *way* back when in high school Spanish classes, but haven’t heard them with any regularity in my travels throughout Spain or Latin America since. Fortunately, our looks of confusion when confronted with Mallorquí has led most locals to default back to Spanish!

Then, we headed to downtown through the winding, tree-lined streets that separate our hotel in “Son Vida” from Palma itself. We began our journey on the Passeig del Born, a high end shopping district decorated for the holidays.

From there, we meandered our way through the relatively small “Centro” area (roughly a 15-minute walk from end-to-end if you take the most direct route). As we walked, we took in the beautiful street fronts and incredible street art – including one piece called “Monument a la dona” (“Statue of a Woman”) by Juan Miro. The famed Spanish artist apparently lived on Mallorca from 1956 to 1983 – I had no idea!

Then, we found ourselves in the complex that contains Mallorca’s Cathedral, Palace, and assorted museums overlooking the Passeig Dalt Murada. The views were stunning!

We decided to visit the Museu Diocesà first to learn more about Mallorca’s religious traditions before going to the Cathedral itself. There were several interesting items in the museum:

• A sarcophagus designed by Gaudí, the famed architect known for Park Güell, Sagrada Familia and other works in Barcelona
• A reliquary boasting the faces of both Jesus and Mary
• An entire wing dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who is an incredibly important figure in Mallorca’s conception of Catholicism – the paintings were unique in their coloring and composition; I also found the “urn” that houses an image of the sleeping Virgin Mary quite fascinating
• A pulpit from the period during which Mallorca was under Arab rule; interestingly, it featured paint similar to the cathedral in Córdoba (red and yellow stripes)

My absolute favorite part of the museum – and, frankly, the highlight of the whole day – was a special artifact housed in its own wing on the second floor. Behold, the dreaded “dragon” of Mallorca – or “Le Drac” as he is called in Mallorquí! We affectionately started calling him “Le Croc”.

This little guy was a stowaway on a merchant ship that arrived in Mallorca at some point in the seventeenth century. As the story goes, he made his way into the sewer system created by the Arab rulers during the medieval period, “grew large”, and began terrorizing the terrified locals after dark, with witnesses describing a “dragon” with green scales that would attack people. Of course, this presented an amazing opportunity for a local man to use his military training to slay the beast – and, on one fateful evening, Bartomeu Coch did just that. He proceeded to then stuff his prize and display it in his lover’s home (and at some point it got donated to the Diocese Museum).

The exterior of the museum was also beautiful, with a modern sculpture depicting the various important saints of Mallorca.

Up next was the cathedral, Catedral-Basílica de Santa María de Mallorca. To say it was stunning is an understatement. With an altarpiece crafted by Gaudí during the period in which he led the cathedral’s restoration from ~1903-1914 and ornate decor (including some Christmas decorations), it was legitimately among the most incredible cathedrals I’ve seen.

Other unique features included a chapel designed to look like the ocean (which felt eerie immersive, as human movement around the altar created shadows that looked like ‘waves’ moving along the walls) and Gaudí-designed stained glass windows behind the altarpiece of the Capella de Sant Bernat.

The cathedral also had a small museum. A couple things stood out:

• After the conquests in 1229, King James I (James I of Aragon, not the King James IV and I who commissioned the famous Bible in the 1600s) wanted to build a church to the Virgin Mary after his conquest of Mallorca; one of the remaining items from this period is a “silver book” which appears to hold silver in pouches
• Jewelry and other riches dedicated to the “feasts” celebrating the Virgin Mary on Mallorca; most impressive was the “Crown of the Reclining Virgin”
• Fascinating stained glass window design, very unlike anything I’ve seen

From there, we wandered through Mallorca’s winding medieval streets to our next destination, the Banys Àrabs. Set back among a residential area, the “Arab Baths” represent the intersection of Mallorca’s various cultural influences, beginning with the Romans and enduring through Arab rule in the medieval period. The baths themselves are somewhat small – one main chamber with a lovely garden – but worth a visit nonetheless.

Apparently, there were at least five bathhouses in Palma (known as “Madina Mayurqa” during the period of Arab rule from 902-1229), but this is the only one remaining. It dates to the eleventh century and likely re-utilizes construction dating back to the Roman period. As with the Romans, the Arab caliphates that ruled Mallorca had complex hydraulic systems that allowed them to create aqueducts and supply water to the city, including to this specific bathhouse.

From there, we decided to make our way to Plaza Mayor, continuing our way through the narrow streets. On the way, we passed a couple additional sights, including the Convent de Santa Clara and the Arco Medieval de la Almudaina (now decorated with a nativity scene for Christmas).

The streets are beautiful and full of surprises, including Arab-inspired architecture and facades such as the “Can Forteza Rey” (center), designed by famed architect Forteza Rey and “Can Corbella” (right), which mixes neo-Mudejar and post-modern architectural styles.

Plaza Mayor itself was a bit of a letdown – the Christmas Markets were honestly just tchotchke booths with very little festive fanfare – but we continued to wander into the various sights, including a number of churches (the Basílica de Sant Miquel de Palma, Iglesia de San Felipe Neri) and the Mercat de l’Oliva, which sells a variety of Balearic specialty items, including the famous salt cod and dried sausages.

From there, we started the food oriented portion of the afternoon, stopping first at a local bakery known for its commitment to preserving Mallorca’s traditional food culture. The bakery – Fornet de la Soca – specializes in ensaïmada, which is a type of pastry known for the inclusion of reduced pork lard, called saïm in Catalan. Interestingly, they seem to derive from a Jewish treat that replaced olive oil with lard as a way of deterring suspicions from authorities during the Inquisition. The bakery offers many of the local varieties, including both sweeter versions filled with cream and more savory versions topped with sobrassada and pumpkin.

For lunch, we decided (in classic form) to try a couple local restaurants. First, we visited the trendy La Rosa Vermuteria & Colmado. We tried the house vermouth (delicious!) and the patatas bravas, which improved upon last night’s by including chopped pippara peppers and chunks of a Spanish cheese similar to feta.

After that, we rounded out the meal by walking a couple blocks to Gustar Restaurant. Despite being a much more low-key environment and a simple menu of ~15 dishes, Gustar had overwhelming charm. We ordered the calamari special, which included grilled calamari over a fresh herb sauce and rich aioli. Paired with sangria, it was an amazing meal that highlighted how impactful well seasoned, simple preparations can be.

After lunch, we found ourselves increasingly fighting jet-lag and decided to retire to the hotel for siesta and dinner. Overall, a great start to our festivities in Mallorca!