Cathedral of Mallorca 2015

What can you do with 10 hours in Palma de Mallorca?

Day 401 – April 7th, 2015. Cruise Day 17 – MSC Magnifica in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

A slightly bumpy ride overnight which we love, the slight rocking is enjoyable however not everyone appreciates it.

Waking at around 9am we head out for a coffee & some Danish down in the Gocce bar or chocolate cafe bar. Lunch is earlier today from 11.30am to 1.30pm as we arrive at 1 o’clock in Palma de Mallorca.

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Today’s MSC daily program…

Daily program MSC April 7th 2015

We docked at the very end of the pier as two other ships were already in port, the Aida as well as the Costa Diadema.

Costa Diadema in Palma de Mallorca 2015

There were lots of passengers from both ships around the terminal area.

Costa Diadema profile

Lunch was nice today and Moni said it was the best meal she has had, this was the menu for today.

Lunch menu April 7th 2015 MSC Magnifica

Appetisers

White cabbage roll in Parmesan crust – stuffed with vegetable rice, over champignon cream (M)

Thin slices of prosciutto and Mozzarella – on a bed of tender lettuce leaves (J&M)

Soups

Cream of chickpea soup – with leeks and bacon (J)

Main Courses

Oven-roasted tomatoes – stuffed with rice and aromatic herbs (M)

Rolls of lemon sole and asparagus – with tarragon sauce, steamed potatoes and green beans in extra virgin olive oil (J)

Desserts

What!!! I had no dessert today.

Picture sequence from left to right.

I think I’ve mentioned this before about the repetition in the MSC menus, today two dishes available are both stuffed with rice!!

Lunch meals on MSC Magnifica

After lunch we made our way ashore having let the majority of the queue to disperse. MSC have arranged a shuttle service at a cost of $19.90 per person round trip valid all day to take us from the dock to the Cathedral in town.

We thought that was a total rip off and decided to walk into town.

Heading into to Palma

Just outside the terminal you can get on one of the red city tour busses, the only thing is that the queue was a mile long and it would need at least 3-4 busses to come and go before we would get on.

They go every 20 minutes and cost $17 per person for the hop on hop off 24 hour ticket validity. Watch out for the time schedule of the busses between summer and winter as they finish rather early, anyway we decided to walk towards the cathedral.

The walk all the way took us nearly an hour, although we did stop and buy a city bus ticket from a stall along the way down by the marina.

Port of Mallorca marina in Spain

Again, the next bus came along and was full, lucky for us we had decided to continue our walk along the Avenue Gabriel Roca towards the Cathedral and not join those waiting.

Mallorca walk towards the cathedral along Avenue Gabriel Roca

Beautiful images from our walk along the Avenue Gabriel Roca.

Majorca images as seen from our walk

Palma de Mallorca images

The worse thing about the walk was the battle with the wind, it was a very biting wind and even though we had our beanies and scarf it was still cold. Some people just had t-shirts on which we found crazy. Finally making to the cathedral where we managed to get on the next bus that stopped as most passengers got off here.

The Palma city sightseeing tour

Palma City sightseeing bus 2015

Palma sightseeing bus tour 2015

We stayed on this bus for the entire circuit, as did most passengers. It took us around a large area of town, up to the castle called Castillo de Bellver with views over the city, before more of the town, passing the cruise terminal heading back along the marina front returning to the cathedral.

Majorca bus tour images

Sightseeing bus tour of Mallorca

Bus tour of Mallorca images 2015

The entire circuit took over an hour and as this was one of the last busses we couldn’t get out and take a closer look at the castle de Bellver, but the views were great.

Castillo de Bellver – Castle in Palma de Mallorca

Palma de Mallorca view from the castle 2015

The Porto Pi area of Mallorca.

Porto Pi in Mallorca 2015

Majorca 2015

Church on its steeple in Mallorca

Mallorca images

Once we completed the circuit we got off and then took a look inside the Cathedral Mallorca.

Le Seu Cathedral Mallorca

Cathedral in Mallorca

It is a wonderful building and well worth a look for the $6 euro entrance. It was closing at 6pm, but that still left us plenty of time to have a look around.

Cathedral in Palma de Mallorca

Cathedral Le Seu panorama

Inside to Cathedral of Mallorca

The cathedral is huge and you could easily spend longer than an hour here. There are various other rooms to see as well as the main hall which you see in these photos.

Le Seu Cathedral in Palma de Mallorca

Each of the areas of decorative work and statues etc are all listed and you can rent a headset with a guided recording in many languages for you to listen as you walk around. We had limited time so passed on this, like I’ve mentioned you could be here for some hours if it was really your thing.

Cathedral Le Seu in Mallorca

Cathedral Le Seu in Mallorca 2015

After our walk around inside the cathedral we spent a while window shopping until Moni found a pearl bracelet, fake pearls of Mallorca being a very popular item here in Majorca and for $8 euro a bracelet was purchased.

By now the city bus had finished and according to their schedule, with it not being summer in winter it stops at 5.15pm, far too early really especially with so many tourists around.

We thought about staying in town for dinner and we took a look at a menu outside a busy restaurant. A caesar salad was $17 euro about $22 AUD and with that we decided to go back to the ship for dinner. We are not cheapskates but becoming ripped off tourists is just not us.

Moni spotted a taxi which brought us back to the cruise terminal from the Cathedral for $5.85 euro, a lot cheaper than the ships shuttle bus. Even if we took a cab four times it would only just be more than the shuttle. Not very good value for those that paid it today especially if they only used it for one round trip.

Back on board and through the one security screen, I asked the staff member on duty how many passengers were still on land, over 1600 was the answer, probably all the Argentines on the late sitting for dinner.

After a nice hot shower to warm us up we joined Chris & Shirley at our table in a very quiet dining room.

About 50% of the tables were empty at the 7.30 sitting

Dinner menu MSC Magnifica

What did we have for dinner?

Appetisers

Pasqualina pie – filled with spinach, artichokes, Ricotta cheese and eggs (M)

Steamed salt cod bites – with potatoes, tomatoes, tender lettuce leaves and basil emulsion (J)

Salad

Ensalada catalana – mixed greens, red onion, sweet peppers, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs and green olives (J&M)

Soups

Minestrone – fresh seasonal vegetable soup with extra virgin olive oil (J)

Pasta and Risotto

Spaghetti alla Carbonara – with egg, cream, parsley and crunchy bacon bits (J&M)

Main Courses

Baked rice timbale – filled with mushrooms, peas and Scamorza cheese (M)

Breaded chicken breast Kiev – stuffed with garlic and parsley flavoured butter, accompanied by potato puree (J)

Desserts

Coconut mousse (J)

Torta della nonna – custard pie with assorted nuts (J)

Picture sequence from top left to bottom right.

Dinner meals with Shirley & Chris 2015

Dinner was fine, with the classic dishes a bit of a let down, again repetition through the menu. And with Moni not feeling to crash hot we called it a night.

I passed through the buffet to get a couple of cups of tea, to find lots of people having dinner there, possibly some that missed early sitting or just too hungry to wait for the ten o clock sitting.

Buffet food images on MSC Magnifica 2015

We soon fell asleep and I woke to the slight sound and rumble of the propellers churning away as we eased away from the dock, my iPhone read 11.58pm which would have made the captain happy to be on time. I wonder if the two passengers who had missed the ship in Malaga made it back to the ship today.