Mallorca Day 17 - Palma by train

Overnight I had managed to pull a muscle in my thigh, in my sleep (weird, never done anything like that before). So, when Eve and I set out for Palma, on the 10:30 tram to Soller, I had Ibuprofen pills and cream and one of my hiking poles, with me. The relevance of this info will be revealed later.
We took the tram up to the train station.

We had had breakfast at home but this was "second breakfast", to quote the hobbits, just outside the train station.

Eve, waiting for the train, soaking up the sun.

Here comes the train. Electric, completed in 1912 between Palma and Soller. Some of the carriages are ex-San Fransisco rolling stock.

We chose the front carriage which

turned out to have been the first class section at some point in time. All the rest of the carriages had wooden seats.

It was an hour long trip with fabulous views back to Soller,

then through the mountains in a number of tunnels and down into the plains around Palma.

The train station is in Placa de Espagna and we found where to catch a bus to get to the Cathedral (#15) but got tired of waiting for it, so walked there.

This is Placa Major, about half way there.

Much of the walk was on a pedestrian street and it was very difficult not to get sucked into all the little shops that were so appealing.

We did, however, get sucked into having a gelato. Eve had the strawberry shortcake and I had the orange chocolate.

There were some lovely buildings.

Cosy little squares, always with a cafe or two.

It took us about an hour to walk down to the cathedral.

It was nice out so we decided just to continue walking rather than go inside. This is the Royal Palace of L'Almudiana, next to the Cathedral.

A guy was making big bubbles for the kids to play with. Of course I play with them too, with my camera.

Just after taking this picture, Eve tripped on an uneven stair and twisted her ankle. Here's where we needed, and used, the Ibuprofen and hiking stick. She soldiered on but her ankle looks like a golf ball now.

We continued on, down to the marina, and ogled the huge yachts.

Amazing amount of money tied up here.

With these ancient stones looking down.

We walked along the waterfront

and then went looking for a bus to take us back to the train station.

We knew we weren't walking back!

Trying to get water fountain effects with

my little point and shoot camera. Still looks pretty.

We caught the bus with just enough time to catch the train back. If we had missed the 3:10pm we would have had to wait until 6pm for the next one.

We sat in "1st class" again with Eve elevating her increasingly swollen ankle.

By the time we got back to Soller it was 4:15 and we hadn't had lunch.

So we stopped in the square in Soller for lunch/dinner of a couple of glasses of wine and Eve had Paella

and I had a selection of tapas.

During the day the square is full of tourists but in the late afternoon it fills with playing children.

An advertisement for an orange ice cream sundae.

The lights were starting to come on when we got back to Port de Soller at about 6:30.