Wednesday, April 7, 2010 – IBIZA Spain, part of the Balearic Islands
There are four large islands off the coast of southern Spain – Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. With a year-round agreeable climate, they are a well-known vacation spot for many Europeans – especially the Germans and English.
Ibiza has a harsh, rocky landscape which receives little rainfall. There are over 50 beautiful beaches, the small villages offer a maze of stone streets making for great exploring and have trendy shops and cafes. The old walled town of D’alta Vila was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999 and is perched high on a hilltop. Its walls were constructed during the 16th century by Felipe II to protect against the French and Turkish invasion.
The day was cloudy and sunny and a nice 68 degrees. The ship supplied a shuttle to the town centre and we quickly rented an Avis rental car for 40 euros for the day. A diesel IBIZA car (how appropriate) and it turned out we did not have to even put any gasoline in as the tank never went down! We covered only 60 miles during the day and saw spectacular scenery.
Together with a Canadian couple from Manitoba, we headed north out of town towards Santa Eulailia and to the Hippy Market in a small village near the east coast. Gene bought me a beautiful grey and white pearl necklace – the pearls are very large and from Ibiza. The market was from the ‘60s era with all kinds of tie-died articles and handicrafts.
We continued up the coast to Cala San Vicente and then headed in land, driving many switchback roads and through the mountains seeing sheep and flowers in bloom. Whitewashed houses dotted the landscape and terraced fields. We stopped at a few churches, but again, they close for the afternoon siesta. Went to Bafalia and found a watchtower/cylindrical fortress in the field, which was built to defend against the Turks. Continued westward through the switchback roads to Sant Miguel and to a lovely church and then drove due south to Eivissa (Ibiza) and then continued south to the Salt fields. Acres and acres of water and salt and we drove between the salt fields. A bull dozer was loading trucks with the dried salt to take to the ships in the port. Another road led us to a beautiful beige soft sand beach – there was a cute Picasso-esqe pink picture of bathing beauties on a mural by the sea. Another watchtover was at the most southern tip of the island and then we found the port and ships waiting to be loaded with salt.
Found our way back in to town and then to the McDonald’s for free WIFI (where a lot of crew were already on their computers) and took the last shuttle bus back to the ship. We sailed at 4:30 and we enjoyed a nice dinner – duck was my choice tonight.
Jeff Stevenson will be the entertainer. A very good English comedian who shared his experiences of trying to meet our ship! He left the UK on Saturday and ended up in Tangiers for 3 nights (which was way too long for him) and then we told the ship could not make it to port so they told him to fly to the wrong island!! So he went to Formentera and then was told to return to Ibiza! So instead of being onboard for 3 nights, he was on for one night and will disembark tomorrow in Barcelona.
Worked on getting the Ensemble Experience tour organized for tomorrow and off to bed. Wind is at 25+ mph which is absolutely nothing compared to our last gale winds.
“I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.” - George Bernard Shaw
