Port de Soller, Mallorca, Spain - Urban hike and fishing boats.

Yesterday I went on what George used to call an urban hike; a walk but within the confines of a town or city. I had decided that I didn't want to deal with wet, slippery rock paths or mud.

So on the way up to the lighthouse there was a road I hadn't yet explored "Urban de Muleta", on the left of this picture.

It went behind this imposing development, on the south, beach, end of the bay.

This is from above that development.

It was an area of upscale homes - modern

and more classic

with fabulous views

and overflowing gardens. (That's the weirdest flower/seed pod I have ever seen)

In one of the gardens, this little sculpture (about 6" high) was on a 6' piece of smoothed drift wood. It was Valentines Day after all.

One of the tips that Liz had given me was to buy shrimp and fish off the fishing boats and she had told me how to go about it.

She said the boats came in at about 5

and sure enough, right at 5, here came the red one

with the attendant

"cats-in-waiting".

Shortly after

the blue one arrived. Both were followed by their own flocks of gulls.

The red oneshad bins of crabs and fish and started unloading its nets and spreading them out on the dock

to be repaired.

The blue one however still had its catch dumped, from the nets, on the deck.

Fascinating.

He couldn't wait any longer, had to go on board to check it out for himself.

After rolling up the nets the crew settled down to sort the catch, separating the various kinds of fish, sizes of shrimp and throwing the small stuff over the side.

With their cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.

A full bin of the Soller shrimp which are red before they are cooked.

It started to drizzle and I decided I wasn't actually in the market for fish or shrimp anyway.

That was yesterday and today was spent cleaning, making beds and reading in the sun on the terrace. It was actually warm enough to be in capris and a t-shirt. I went with Pierre, the taxi driver, to Palma, and we picked up Nicola and Dave. They missed one connection in Barcelona but made it onto the next flight in.