I am sitting in the Edinburgh airport waiting (what else does one do in an airport) thinking about my two weeks away from home. It is always a challenge when one goes on a holiday to foreign country with people you don’t know well. I booked the hotel, planned the rides, picked the location and then let them loose on the country side to fend for themselves.
They all told me they had the time of their lives. Mallorca is a very magical place. It has every type of road imaginable. Flat straight roads, flat windy roads, climbs, technical descents, the most spectacular 12 miles of road I have ever ridden, and cafes every 5 miles or so. I am glad they were able to share my enthusiasm for a place I love. The problem with travel now a days is there is a fine line between being overridden by tourists and tourism and having services that make the trip enjoyable. I feel in Puerto Pollensa in Mallorca I have found that compromise. We stayed in a hotel that provided breakfast and dinner. The food was well prepared, but it was predictable. I encoiuraged everyone to go out and enjoy authentic Mallorquin cuisine. All did and all were impressed. Some of the group liked to go out with others, some choose to ride by themselves so they could stop and follow their own schedule. Both ways seemed to work.
I will go again to Mallorca, hopefully with a group who want to taste what we tasted. Long grueling challenging rides, beautiful mountains, lush green farmland, roman ruins, walled cities, giant cathedrals, friendly people, respect from the cars, and a government that thinks of bicycles as good for the economy and marks and paves bicycle routes because it will bring more cyclists to their part of the world.
Yes I will return and I hope some of you will be there with me.
Take care.
Don
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