Touring around and exploring Menorca

A taste of Menorcan rural areas.  Very flat in most parts and dry but attractive in a barren sort of way, not dissimilar to much of  the Australian countryside.

Mannequins in a window.

A very handsome parrot, we think probably from South America, in a shop.

He or she was very interested in listening to us, coming down from his high perch.  But he was also very ready to peck if we leaned in too close.

Rafalet Gorge.

Some handsome cliffs around the corner from our hotel.

The two Sues from Guernsey in a Mahon street where we went shopping on market day.

Andrew and Nigel went walking at Sant Tomas and found some caves.

They met a German couple who on retirement bought a house in Menorca and have for the past 25 years been lovingly restoring a house.  The garden is very impressive over a huge acreage.

The couple invited the guys to have a look around the garden of which they were rightly proud.

Here is a not very good photo of the Guernsey Girls, minus Mary who has gone to bed and Sue Robillard who went home last week.  Jo Garcia is standing in for Mary in this photo.  We spent almost all evenings with the Guernsey mob as we knew them from previous Diamond Bridge holidays.  Plus, they are all good fun, full of life and a sense of adventure although a couple of them are in their eighties but you wouldn't know it.  They travel widely and are all keen bridge players.  One of these days we may even make it to their Guernsey Bridge Congress held in September.

This brings another wonderful European bridge holiday to an end. This was a first of First for Bridge for us but I suspect it may not be the last.  Those pre-dealt hands and accompanying hand records have a lot going for it.  But, like with real estate, the most important thing for us is location, location, location.

A stroll to Alcafar - and what a delight

Andrew has of course walked to the next village from our hotel but today was the first time I ventured there with him.  To my surprise, it was a very easy walk across some rocky beach terrain and the reward was a wonderful sheltered bay where the water was balmy.

Our beach is quite exposed and often the waves can be a little rough.  But at Alcafar the water is always very calm as the bay is long and sheltered.

There is a sandy beach at the end of the bay but people seem to prefer the ladder into the water at the rocky end.

The locals obviously greatly favour this sheltered little haven to have their swim.  Now that I have discovered its proximity to us we will go there most days that we have left of this lovely holiday.  The hotel pool is very nice but the water is pretty cold.  The sea is much warmer.

One of our very nice waiters at the hotel is, in my opinion, a spitting image of former US President Barack Obama.  When I told him this, he said many people have commented with the same view.  I wonder if others agree?

Our hotel with a tiny me on the balcony.

A closer shot.  Our current room is lovely and sunny.  We changed rooms, as the first one was at the back of the hotel, and it was dark and musty.  This one is a delight.  We are enjoying it twice as much as we would have if we had not had the experience of the dark side first where we had trouble getting anything dry on the balcony.

Rafelet Gorge walk

Andrew led a group of walking enthusiasts on a gorge walk to Rafelet Gorge about 2 km from the hotel.  This is the group at the small beach area at the mouth of the gorge.

Denise, Nigel, Philip and Jackie.  Nigel is our esteemed bridge director when he is not hiking.







People seemed to enjoy a bit of exercise.  Adds a little extra to a bridge holiday.

Exploring Menorca by car

We hired a car and explored the island at more leisure.  Mary Thompson, one of the Guernsey girls,  joined us and we had a very pleasant day where Andrew drove us around the island from one end to the other.  The island is approximately 100km wide from east to west and about 35 km from north to south by direct route.

Fornells fishing village.

We stopped at a lovely spot on the Fornells waterfront for a coffee.  We could have gone in for a dip, the water was practically by our feet, but it was a little too early in the day for a swim.  Metal ladders took you to the water although there was a very tiny tiny beach as well.

We then drove to a headland a little west of Fornells to overlook a lovely beach that was recommended.  It was quite a steep climb down so we did not go there although by then we were more ready for a dip.  We decided we wanted easier and faster access to the water as we had limited time.  A dip had to fit into a busy driving itinerary.

The view from Cap de Cavalleria which is a 3km-long headland with a lighthouse on it.  The lighthouse is perched on the island's most spectacular cliffs, providing a view right across to the sea.  The cape is the most northerly point in Menorca.

The lighthouse.

Our  patience was richly rewarded when on the south coast, we reached one of the loveliest spots on the island, at Cala Galdana.  Here we had easy beach access and we were very lucky to get a parking spot.

We had a wonderful dip in the lovely warm water at this lovely beach.

A paddle boat, the like of which I have never seen, with a slide.

A panoramic view of the sheltered beach.  It was a very lovely spot to visit.  Probably packed with tourists in the summer months but in October it was just right.

We then drove on to the western side of the island, to Ciutadella, the previous capital of Menorca.  It is full of gracious old buildings dating back hundreds of years.  I think the above building is the City Hall.

Government office buildings.

An atmospheric cafe at the town square.

Beautiful colonnades.

An interesting gargoyle on one of the churches.

An eye painted on a street light.

The old fortress.

Our last port of call was to see the Torralba d'en Salort which is one of the largest prehistoric villages on the island. This megalithic village was inhabited between the year 1000 BC and the arrival of the Romans although remains indicate that it was also occupied during the Middle Ages.

This photo of the port of Mahon was taken the next day when we caught the local bus to go to market day.  Not up to the standard of the lovely Norwegian harbour scenes but pretty nevertheless.

Three of us from bridge went to the Sunday flea market in Mahon.  The market was more trash than treasure but each of us bought a little something we were happy with.

Our bridge successes with First for Bridge in Menorca

The first week of this bridge holiday has reaped some bridge successes.

We came first equal in the Championship Pairs with Ken Bawdon and Betty Smithson.  Here we are with our director Nigel Durie.

Andrew and Alan Foan won the Men's Pairs.








The presentation photo. with the trophies, was taken on a subsequent day by the pool.  We are all a little more tanned by now.

The Bob Baker Memorial trophy for wining this competition.  The joint winners would normally take one of the trophies home to keep for the year but we will not be taking it home to Australia.  They are handsome but they also weigh a ton.  So, I took this photo to remember.





We actually won more of the sessions than these photos show.  We won both sets of Welcome Pairs (there is one held at the beginning of each week as new people arrive who only come for the second week, while others leave after the first week) but these are apparently not worthy of a photo shot.  Andrew and Alan also won the Butler session but that too is not a photo op session.  Overall, we consider we had a fairly successful two weeks of bridge.  And of course we thoroughly enjoyed it all.  It has, once again, been a wonderful bridge holiday.  Those lucky Brits have many European bridge holidays in wonderful locations to choose from.  Many go on several during the year to escape the cold UK winter.  We can only manage one a year.  But we are not complaining, we have many bridge opportunities back home.  But combining visiting Europe and two wonderful weeks of bridge in a great place is always memorable for us.

Exploring the island

Andrew went exploring in the afternoon.  This island is not as conducive to walks for him as many other places have been.  The public transport does not take him as easily within vicinity of walking areas.  Around the hotel is rocky and fairly barren.  But he manages to ferret out places.

Above is the view of our resort seen from Alcafar, the next village to the hotel, about 20 minutes walk.  Alcafar has very pretty beach and harbour.

A tower dating back to the late seventeen hundreds. These are dotted around the island.  They lit fires in them as a warning when the enemy was sighted.  Menorca was a strategically important Mediterranean port.  One of the Balearic islands, it was temporarily a British possession but reclaimed by Spain in 1782.

Moving around Menorca

Now that we have settled into our new and warmer environment, we are venturing out during the day.  Today we caught the local bus to go to Mahon, the capital.

The city gates which date back to the fifteenth century.

Church with the city market place at the side.  In addition there are the market stalls in a public square on Tuesdays and Saturdays and we are going to attend on one of those.

The trios cavallos - the three horses statue.

An attractive building.

The harbour.

The municipal library.

After six weeks on the road, I was in dire need of a haircut.  I found myself a good barber.

 The Gomilas brothers who run the barber shop which had been owned by their father. He bought the shop in 1950 but it had been a barber shop since 1905.  The eldest one next to me on my right is the one who cut my hair.  I may add, that, as is often the case, they were initially reluctant to cut a woman's hair but my powers of persuasion overcame their objections.  We parted good friends and they happily agreed to their photograph being taken.  I had never been to a shop run by three brothers.  The atmosphere was a very good one with barbers and customers all happily chatting as locks were being shorn.

The mouth-watering tapas, one of Spain's very best features.  Sadly, they do not serve tapas at our hotel.  The food is excellent and of great variety but tapas bars are something else.

Sardines on bread and tomatoes.

The hanging sausages.