Port de Soller, Mallorca, Spain - Ses Tres Creus, a not so gentle walk

I was rather stiff from my "gentle walk", it had been abut 4 hours long, so I took it easy yesterday. A stroll around the bay, some sketching, some reading.
Today I tried another walk that I had not done before. The springs of Soller and Ses Tres Creus. In my hiking book the degree of difficulty was listed as "low", time:1hr , type of walk: unmarked, stone paths.
First I walked into Soller.

The orange juice stand was open

so I had to have some.

I love fresh squeezed orange juice anyway but sitting on a bench, half way to Soller, looking at this view makes it even more delicious.

They use decorated stones as paperweights on the notes about their organic lemons for sale and to hold down the napkins that the glasses rest on.

In Soller I went up to the administration offices in the train station and renewed my tram card for another month. I am not here for a whole month but it will still work out cheaper than paying full price every time I use the tram.

I stopped in the square for a coffee (and a pee) and the decorations are going up for the Orange Festival that starts this week.

Attached to the top of the fountain

and blowing in the breeze

it just made me want to take pictures.

The instructions in the book started at the square in front of the train station, where there just happens to be a fabulous bakery. I picked the ensaimada with custard and apricots for 11 o'clock snack.

It was tough choosing - there was nougat, cookies,  eclairs, squares, cakes, ensaimadas, savory pies and candies.

The shot from outside has too much reflection, but I rather like it anyway.

The instructions had me walking out of town, up the valley towards the tunnel to Palma, across this torrente

and over the Soller-Palma railway tracks.

No idea what it is but it was growing along the fence like a weed.

The instructions said to take this road to the end and go through the gate between two houses. Well it had a lock on it and a video camera. Someone really didn't want anyone to go that way. So I gave up on going to the springs (they come out of a cave, would have been neat to see) and headed back to a sign post to Ses Tres Creus that I had seen on the way.

Up a stone path between houses and walled gardens.

I stopped to watch the chickens pecking at oranges

and the rooster came straight over to see me off, followed by his harem.

Shortly the path was blocked by a gate and some quite emphatic signage - no dogs, please close the gate - strange how capitals make it stronger.

This was a very old and rather overgrown olive grove. The path climbed from one terrace to another

and round and over the naturally occurring rocks.

I came across a "fixer upper",

4 walls standing but no doors, windows or roof.

Great view though.

I carried on up

and there was another one. You would have to transport everything for the renovations on donkeys.

I was getting flashbacks of Peru, having to stop and get my heart rate down and drink some water. I was wondering how much higher it could possibly go, was I on the right track or had I accidentally wandered onto one of the "over the mountain" paths? Should I turn round? This was supposed to be easy!

Then the path went by some more occupied little fincas and the path was blocked by ponies.

They moved away but remained curious. I thought perhaps they were the way goods were transported until I came, suddenly, out onto a paved road

that ended, at a lookout over the Soller valley. Suddenly it was all worthwhile.

There was the train station

and the church

and I have to find this house with the turret and the blue and white tile roof.

Looking up the valley towards Fornalutx and Biniaraitx

and towards the Port.

I walked down the stairs to the front of the monument

and then headed down the road

which I knew passed the cemetery on the way back into town.

Most of these old water channels now have PVC pipe in them, fewer leaks and less evaporation.

This one was still open and crossed a gorge in an aqueduct.

I stopped in the cemetery

and admired the statues

that identified family plots.

This was the first time I had seen people in hours. Gardeners were pruning and tidying.

There were pots holding flowers and shrubs on the graves and as some of the grave stones were in the paths, sometimes I had to walk around them and realized that you couldn't help but walk on graves.

It was a short walk through town and back to the square where I tried a different restaurant.

I ordered a medium size of variety of tapas and a glass of red wine. There were 7 different tapas and it made me try some I wouldn't have otherwise and it was reasonably priced.

These posters were up all over town and although I understood that it was the Orange Festival and would be on for 3 weeks

when I managed to find a brochure I discovered that restaurants in Soller and Port de Soller would have tasting menus for 20 Euro featuring oranges in the recipes. I haven't been eating out except the tapas for lunch and that's $30 but I will have to give it a try.

Port de Soller, Mallorca, Spain - gentle walk

An evening walk revealed an additional fishing boat in the harbour. Usually there is just one red one and one blue one.

When Eve was here she was taking pictures of laundry. Her sister-in-law wanted pictures to hang in her laundry room. So now I find myself looking for "picturesque laundry."

The German lady that I met on the free Soller walk had said that she knew of some good walks that were not too steep, so we arranged to meet and take one together. The rain cleared up just in time for us to meet Pierre and have him drive us up to Can Bleda.

Can Bleda is a hotel, at the top of the pass, on the road to Daia, top left of the map. The walk took us down to the bottom right of the map, where we joined the road coming in to Soller from Palma.

We stopped at Can Bleda,

another beautifully restored hotel,

and had a cafe con leche while looking down at the Soller valley

and up at our first stop.

A short walk and we were looking down at Can Bleda

and another valley view. This walk took us along the ridge on the South side of Soller and we had constantly changing views of that valley.

We stepped into this huge finca,

The fire in the authentically restored kitchen was making the rooms a bit smoky

so we resisted the array of tarts and cakes and stepped out into the fresh air.

A passing walker identified this as an orchid

while crushing the leaves and smelling them told us this was a member of the garlic family.

The fincas up here were large and had a lot of land around,

most of which was terraced olive groves.

Occasionally citrus.

Always with the view.

It was nice to be walking with a companion for a change. We had similar careers, enjoyed talking about cultures, politics, and travel. She had been coming to Mallorca for 20 years and it was interesting to hear about the changes. We wondered about this man made "cave". She thought perhaps an ice house.

Occasionally we saw evidence of water management.

We passed a large finca undergoing renovation.

A flower container on its entrance gate.

This shy lamb tried to hide behind an olive tree.

The path went mostly, gradually down, on narrow roads, mud and gravel tracks

and occasionally rocky trails through the woods.

Eventually we came to a switchback road that led steeply down

into the valley with the road that comes through the tunnel from Palma.

It crossed the Soller-Palma railway track.

There were a number of side branches to this walk but my companion called them all "donkey trails" (steep and rocky) and then we found the donkeys.

By now we were resting more frequently

using the different views as an excuse and exclaiming over the steep terraces and tiny fincas way up high on them (must use the donkeys to get there).

The video above was the first I have taken with the new camera. I took it to get the sound of the sheep bells but it is a bit shaky so you may want to close your eyes while you listen to it.


Eventually we made our way down into the main square of Soller to a cafe. Cafe con leche for her, vino tinto for me. There we found the English couple that we had met on the walk. They were excited as they now had 2 possibilities for their Bed and Breakfast buy. One was a totally gutted building that would allow them to design exactly what they wanted and another was already completed and running as a hotel. Obviously radically different prices and issues.
We took the tram back to Port and exchanged info in case we wanted to walk together again.

Soller, Mallorca, Spain - free walking tour.

I had seen on Sollerweb that  there was a free walking tour on Saturday at 10:30 so I actually set an alarm (no workmen on Saturday) and took the 9:30 tram into Soller. Some of the market stalls were just getting set up, its a pretty laid back market in Soller. The walk was supposed to start at the train station and gradually a group of us formed and were met by Anna. There was a couple from England and myself and the rest were from Germany. Anna spoke English and German and explained that it would sound as if she was telling the German contingent more but it is just because of the structure of German sentences, she could be more succinct in English.

She pointed out the date on the train station. That was the date it was renovated into a station

Prior to that it had been a finca, a farmhouse and she pointed out that a 3rd floor had been added to house the administrative offices and to the left had been the watch tower. Most large fincas had watchtowers due to the invasions and pirates. It was also a place for the family to retreat to if attacked.

Next we moved down to the side of the church. The original, small church can be seen in the dark stone outline and the section of wall to the right was a part of the defensive courtyard. The church had very small windows and some arrow slits as the village people would hide within the walls and in the church when under attack.

On the other side we could see the original small church in the lower section of the wall, above it and to the left, the gothic church was added on to it and top right was the later addition of the art nouveau facade.

The facade took 40 years to complete and was designed by a student of Gaudi's. Anna gave us all the dates but I can't remember any of them.

 Her best quote when asked whether the style was called Modernismo in Mallorca, "Yes, but it is Art Nouveau in English".

Beside the church, the bank was renovated by the same architect, also in an art nouveau style.

Anna told us that the plan was to then build the new city hall in the same style but there was so much corruption that they ran out of money and had to settle for a plainer building. I have heard this again and again, that corruption is rampant and that huge plans do not ever have the desired results because of this. The building of the new city hall did result in the doubling of the size of the main square.,

We then walked down the pedestrian shopping street and Anna pointed out this house as an example of a "town house". She said that wealthier families would have a finca in the country and a house in the town. The large doors on the ground floor were where the carriages would enter and the family would live on the first floor. There was also usually a pretty courtyard behind with a small garden.

The moon above the entrance to the next house she talked about.

It was an example of a smaller town house. It still had a carriage entrance, first floor accommodation and on the top floor it was roofed but open at the sides for drying vegetables (garlic, peppers etc) and sausages.

Down a narrow street to a little church.

Dedicated to "Mary of the Victory" in thanks from the people of Soller  for being able to repel the last invaders, in 1561. There is a great celebration, in the first week of May, every year, re-enacting that final battle.

 We crossed the Torrente Major and Anna explained that there are no actual rivers in Mallorca, they are all called Torrentes because they are dry most of the year, only running during the winter rains and with run off from the snow.
She went on to explain that although the town was never walled the narrow streets had large gates at the ends that were closed at night and when attack was imminent. She talked about the naming of the streets and the tiles used to display those names. As we walked she pointed out more examples of the old townhouses and how their old watchtowers had been renovated but you could clearly see their outlines. On one street she said there was documentation to indicate that there were Arab baths there but that there didn't seem to be any remains.

She pointed out dates on some of the buildings

On one street, that ended at the church, she pointed out the niches that held tiles depicting the stations of the cross. At one time the only lighting for the street would have been candles set in those niches, then there were gas lights and finally electric.

At this point she told us a very surprising thing; individual solar power is not encouraged in Mallorca. Why? She said that many politicians "retire" to sit on the electric company board. Because there is so much sun they are afraid that people would put in solar power and no longer need the company's electricity. I said that I had seen some solar panels, but not many, she said those people could generate their own power but would have to pay taxes to the power company!
Anna was excellent she was close to fluent, encouraged questions and seemed to enjoy doing the tour. It was free but donations were welcomed and we all contributed. I did some shopping in the market and then met one of the German women, who was traveling alone, for lunch. Soon we were joined by the English couple who were here shopping for a house they could turn into a Bed and Breakfast. They said that the choices were either very run down and the renovations needed were overwhelming or they had been renovated and therefor were expensive and would still need more renovations for their needs.
I took the tram home, carrying my purchases carefully - 6 lettuce plants and an oregano as Liz had told me I could plant them, and perhaps have fresh lettuce before I leave. It just feels nice to "garden".