Scenes from Palma de Mallorca & Valldemossa

Shortly before our trip to Miami for the holidays, the Professor, the little one and I visited Palma de Mallorca and the nearby hillside village of Valldemossa. Mallorca is one of the Balearic islands and is a popular tourist destination for many Europeans, especially the kind who like to party and get trashed--but that's not why we were there. Seriously. The Professor is a casual (mostly beer) drinker, my limit is two glasses of rosé, and Roman can just do a bottle of milk before he passes out (what a baby!). The Professor was there to attend a conference, and the little one and I were there to keep him company (aren't we so supportive? Wanting to explore a new city had nothing to do with our decision whatsoever).

Apart from being a party destination, Mallorca attracts people for its mild Mediterranean climate, beautiful beaches and breathtaking nature excursions. But since it wasn't the right weather for most of that stuff while we were there, we mostly got to know the capital city of Palma. Palma, with its beautiful churches and stately palaces, was definitely worth seeing and was especially charming during Christmastime with all of the lights up everywhere and winter carnivals taking place throughout the whole city.

Here are some scenes from our trip:

We arrived in Palma a few weeks before Christmas and, as you can see, the city was ready for it. This is the Plaza Mayor in the city center with strings of light hung all over the place. So beautiful, right? If we ever move back to the U.S., one thing I will miss most about Spain is the way the whole city sparkles during the holidays. Inflatable Santas on your front lawn just can't compete. 


Apparently kids are not excited enough about Christmas, or so think the people of Palma. Kids shouldn't be able to walk more than a few yards without seeing a balloon seller, a clown, a carousel, a fun house, or what have you. The whole of the city center was like a kid's paradise, or a parent's nightmare. I had to put down more than a few tantrums when the little one wanted this balloon or that balloon or that really, really big balloon that only barely resembled Hello Kitty. He also wanted to ride every single ride (and some more than once) and as he doesn't understand the concept of money and that mommy has to pay 3 euro per ride, he thought I was just being mean to him. Cue the melodrama. I did give in occasionally, as you can see. I guess I'm just a sucker for a happy baby.


More beautiful lights on beautiful streets. Are you starting to understand my fascination?


Of course, there's more to Christmas than lights. There's also fried street foods and this one is one of my favorites. Bunyols are a typical doughnut-like sweet but the dough is made from potatoes. Sounds weird, tastes delicious. 

After they are deep fried, the bunyols are immediately rolled in sugar. Then, they are immediately consumed. 

No trip to Mallorca would be complete without sampling the most popular of Mallorcan desserts, the Ensaïmada, which is a sweet, egg bread that can be filled with cream, covered in powdered sugar, or my favorite, topped with apricots.

The postcard image of Palma is this building, La Seu Catedral. Definitely one of the most impressive cathedrals I've seen and the major tourist attraction in Palma. On the day we visited, it was chilly and kind of grey but the beauty of this building wasn't diminished at all. 

If you have kids, you could make a visit to La Seu fun by hanging out at one of the cafés by the water and letting your kid feed the ducks. If your child is as mischievous as ours however, you might find that you're actually just restraining your child from chasing the ducks into the water. There's also a surprising number of people with really high tech, expensive, remote control boats who come here to play and that's fun to watch too. 

When we travel, we always try to find a nice spot for Roman to run around and burn off energy. We visited two great parks in Palma. This was one of them, located right next to La Seu and the other one was the Parque de las Estaciones by Plaza España pictured below.  

On the third day of our trip, we decided to explore a little mountaintop village near Palma called Valldemossa. We originally wanted to take the little, vintage train to Soller, but alas, the train was down for maintenance. So we took a less scenic bus ride to Valldemossa after hearing about its beauty from a few of the Professor's colleagues. Here it is:

It was only an hour's ride away but when you arrived, you felt you were in a different place entirely, totally removed from buses, taxis, shops, people, noise, and everything. It was just so beautiful and so quiet and so peaceful.

Even the shouts and laughter of the children playing tag in front of this church seemed muffled and distant. I'm telling you, this place was magical. 

This is a bust of Chopin, who came to live here with his lover and reportedly called Valldemossa the most beautiful place in the world. And, really, who are we to disagree with Chopin?

All of the houses were beautifully kept and for some reason, all of them had bright green trim. It seemed to be fitting of a place where verdant green trees and hills surround you. 

It's a tiny village so there isn't much to see but if you do visit, definitely plan to stay around five or six hours, long enough to enjoy a leisurely lunch by the fire and then some coffee and coques de patata, another Mallorcan sweet made of potatoes. And don't worry about any of the calories you consume because all of the super steep streets will definitely provide enough of a workout. 

Walking around the village, we spotted this ceramic pig outside a shop that sells jewelry and pretty things for your home. We decided to roll Roman over so he could say hi to the pig but Roman thought it would be more fun to caress the pig's butt. My little weirdo. 

So that was our trip to lovely Valldemossa and Palma. I'd definitely want to return some day. How about you guys?

P.S. For pictures of our last trip, to Aix en Provence, click here.

Scenes from Aix en Provence

Two weeks ago, the Professor had to present his research at a conference in Aix en Provence and the little one and I decided to tag along. We thought we'd see the sights in and around the city center and then maybe take the bus to nearby Marseille and explore somewhere else. Well, our trip didn't pan out exactly as we planned. Roman's stomach virus lingered longer than we expected and just as he was getting better, he caught a nasty ear infection. The pediatrician prescribed an antibiotic for his ear which cleared up the infection straight away but made his already sensitive and wobbly stomach even more sensitive and wobbly which made him not want to eat and throw up whenever he did. So we scrapped the plan of going to Marseille but we got to know little Aix really well and if I tell you that despite the fussy, vomiting toddler we had a nice time (again, under the circumstances) maybe that'll give you an idea of how lovely this city is. 

Here are some scenes from our trip:

To start things off, here is probably the most iconic image of Provence. A little café with the typical wicker chairs and of course an old guy with a beret sitting with a cigarette and a newspaper. 

When we checked into our hotel and received our complimentary map of the city, we saw that almost all of the recommended sights were fountains. Apparently this is the city of a thousand fountains and no kidding, there's at least one every few blocks. This one above was my favorite. Not because of the fountain itself but because of the whole picture: the moss on the base, the green peeking through the pebbles on the ground and the contrast of the bluish grey doors against the warm tones of this old building. Isn't it charming?

A shot of Roman sleeping next to one of the thousand fountains. The poor little one. This was the first day of our trip when he was feeling the worst. All he wanted that day was to be walked around and around so that he could sleep and I was happy to oblige since it seemed like the only thing I could do for him. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I sometimes walked for three or four hours straight just to ensure that he slept as deeply as possible. I could only ever stop for a few minutes at a time since the lack of motion would immediately wake him up.

The good thing about walking around and around was all the window shopping I got to do. When it comes to window shopping in France, my favorite things to ogle are the boulangeries and patisseries. Pastries are an area where the French beat the Spanish, no contest. I think this picture speaks for itself, don't you think? 

Basically, we come to France to eat. We're not very fussed about the cathedrals or the museums or the palaces. But you can bet your life that we take advantage of our surroundings in all things culinary. Especially dessert wise. This is at the Béchard bakery on the Cours Mirabeau. If you go, try the calisson. After all, the cakes are too big for sidewalk snacking :) 

Above is a picture of the best, accidental find in the history of people accidentally finding things ever (that's right, Signor Columbus). While out walking one day, I decided to head down a tiny street off busy Rue Espariat and I found this little gem. It's a cafe run by and for expats with all of the familiar foods from England and the U.S. It serves tea, cakes, and bistro fare but the best thing about this place is the free wifi and the kid's playroom. For me it was like an answer to a prayer. Whenever we were in our hotel room, Roman would fuss and whine because he was bored but I couldn't take him to the park because he was sick and it was cold out. So it was wonderful to find this place where I could sit quietly and sip a mint tea while my little one played with cars and trains and pop up books. We made sure to visit once every day that we were in Aix. In case you're ever visiting this part of the world with little ones, I highly recommend The Provence Shop on Rue Victor Leydet.

A shot of my little one in the playroom of The Provence Shop. The toys are very well loved and most of them don't have batteries but that hardly matters to little kids or parents. Roman was entertained so I was happy. I just have to mention one awful thing that happened here. It still makes me feel a bit horror-struck when I think about it. On our second day in town, I stopped by the cafe in the hopes of trying the lunch (all I'd tasted the day before was the tea and banana bread which was delicious). Just as soon as my salad was served, Roman started vomiting all over himself. The Professor was at his conference and I was alone with a child covered in sick. It was terrible. I used up half a bag of baby wipes cleaning him off while he cried. The lady who runs the shop rushed over to help and I was so grateful to her not only for her speedy response but also for the fact that she was so calm and casual about the whole thing. For some reason, I was embarrassed when it happened-- the way you get when your child has a temper tantrum in public. When those kinds of things happen, I think we feel vulnerable and exposed because they reveal how little control we have over a situation when we feel like we should be on top of things all the time. So I felt ashamed and grossed out (I never touched my salad) and worried about my son. But the cafe owner was unflappable and helpful and that just meant so much to me. 

Asleep again on day three of walking about town. Looking back over all my travel posts, I realized that I have so many pictures of Roman asleep in his stroller. I could start a Tumblr devoted to them. I could call it, 'The interesting things Roman never saw because he was asleep but wouldn't remember anyway if he had been awake because, let's face it, he's just a toddler.'

Most of the time we were in Aix, the weather was lovely with lots of sun and only a mild chill in the evenings so it was the perfect walking weather. Everyone makes a big fuss about Provence in the summertime when it's lavender season and everywhere you go there are shades of shocking purple. But I have to say that Aix in the fall is probably just as delightful. There's not that many tourists, the trees are just sparse enough, and there seems to be a lovely autumnal hue on all the buildings. 

Of course, every autumn day can't be a sunny one so when the weather turned wet and cold on the last day of our visit, we were happy to escape inside Le Pain Quotidien. This chain serves wonderful organic foods but I have the feeling most people actually come here for the waffles and hot chocolate. We spent at least a good two hours here having lunch and dessert, enjoying the ambiance and free wifi while Roman played with a little French boy who had also brought along some Matchbox cars to play with. The kids raced their cars along the long table and giggled like little maniacs. What I love about this age is that there's no language barrier. As long as there are toys, kids will find a way to communicate. 

Walking around the streets of the city center, I saw this sign repeated a few times. It made me laugh so I thought I'd share it. I've seen signs for deer crossings before but never one for wiener dogs. What privileged animals to get their own designated part of the street! 

This drawing is painted on a window of a bar. It seemed to represent what a trip to Aix should look like. Two people sharing a bottle of wine and deep conversation over a friendly game of cards. 

A shot of the city center at night. When I say night, I mean five thirty or so when the sun went down. Ah, winter. At least it still looked pretty, right?

So that was our trip! We'd love to visit again someday, hopefully when we're all well. Have you guys ever been? What did you enjoy about it?

P.S. Here are some scenes from our last trip (also to France), in case you missed it.

Travel tip: Bring back food!

Okay, this is not actually a tip that is intended to make your vacation easier or facilitate your travel in any way. It's a tip to help you souvenir shop because I, for one, used to find that one of the most stressful parts of traveling. Of course it's not up there with delayed flights, communication barriers, or toddler melt downs in train stations. But when I first started traveling, I would walk around a new city trying to keep my eye out for things that would make interesting, thoughtful but relatively inexpensive gifts; it was like Christmas shopping in a foreign country-argh!

So a few years ago, I picked up a tip from my sister, an inveterate traveler herself: go to the supermarket for your souvenirs. Basically, this idea is rooted in the fact that many people love foods from different countries because they're a novelty and because these foods are either not available or prohibitively expensive in other countries. As a bonus for the traveler, these gifts will be cheaper than something you buy in a souvenir shop and it will be more convenient because chances are at some point during your trip, you will visit a supermarket.

Think about the possibilities! You could bring back a hard to find liquor, unusual desserts (like red bean cakes which I've received from China), or Lay's potato chips with jamón serrano flavoring (from Spain, of course!)

For my part, I have brought back homemade turrón (a typical Christmastime sweet here in Spain), bags of Juan Valdez coffee from Colombia, and recently from my trip to France, Bonne Maman jams in unique flavors like chestnut and rhubarb.

Of course, there are some limitations as to what you can bring back to your home country so make sure you check first (for American readers, here's a link to the TSA foods page). But this is so much better than the usual stuff people bring back from their travels (another refrigerator magnet? groan), at least in my opinion.

What do you guys think? Do you bring back food? If so, what from where?

Scenes from French Catalonia: Perpignan, Collioure, & Ceret

Over the weekend, the Professor, the little one and I returned from a short but delightful vacation to French Catalonia. This is the region of France closest to Spain just on the other side of the Pyrenees; an area which, although technically a part of France, still identifies culturally as Catalan. (If you want to read more about the simultaneous existence of the French and Catalan cultures, I found this article fascinating). We took the high speed train from Barcelona to Perpignan where we stayed but we made day trips to the seaside town of Collioure and to a tiny, artistic town nestled at the foot of the Pyrenees, Ceret.

Before I share our pictures and the details of our stay, I have to mention that this trip came about in a totally backwards way. Normally when planning a trip, you first decide where you want to go, then you look for your accommodations, then you determine your means of travel. When I started planning this trip, I started looking for accommodations first without giving much importance to where we would visit. I knew I didn't want to travel too far from Barcelona (two hours on the train max) but there are just so many scenic towns around here (I'm not trying to brag. Seriously!). I considered somewhere on the Costa Brava and looked at many places in Southern France. I was scouring Airbnb for hours every day looking for an appropriate place. I wanted to stay in an apartment that was itself child friendly and in a family friendly city which basically just meant that the city had plenty of parks, supermarkets in walking distance and plenty to do. I finally discovered this place for rent in Perpignan and it was perfect for us. I wouldn't say that Perpignan is a must-see tourist attraction though it does attract many tourists especially at this time of year. It's a decent size city so it has many restaurants, cafes, nightlife, and high quality shopping but still with a village feel. It also has a major train station (Salvador Dalí reportedly called it the 'center of the world') and it offers coach bus service to many of the surrounding villages for only 1 Euro. For us, it was the perfect destination!

Here are some scenes from our trip:

(Update: Found the photo of the canal! Here we are!)

This is the city center in Perpignan all decked out for the music festival which is every Thursday night throughout the month of August and some of July. On the left is a lovely canal that runs through the city. I thought we got a picture of it but apparently not.

This is one of the main tourist attractions in Perpignan, Le Castillet but we only saw it from the outside. When we travel, we rarely do the touristy stuff unless it's something major that we haven't seen before. We normally just prefer to explore a city the way the natives would. Nevertheless, I thought the castle was quite pretty at nighttime. 

Perpignan has quite a few good restaurants that serve a mix of French, Catalan and Spanish food. We can eat tapas anytime we want in Barcelona, so we chose to eat at places that did mostly French food. Roman was especially thrilled that all the brasseries we visited served his favorite dish--pommes frites (french fries). 

Walking around Perpignan at night really made us appreciate how pretty the city was. As we passed this narrow alley, I exclaimed in delight and told the Professor to quickly take a picture. It reminded me a bit of that famous Van Gogh painting. Do you see it? 

Snails! There was a farmer's market in the Place de la Republique every morning and we'd frequently stop by some of the vendor's stalls to buy fruit and just ogle vegetables really. We weren't brave enough to order any snails but they serve these in Spain too so we have time to warm to the idea. Have you tried them? What do you think? 

We always make a point whenever we travel to find local parks for Roman to play. It's an opportunity for us to have some downtime and for him to run and explore and interact with other children. In Perpignan, as in other parts of France we've visited to date, you can find such pretty ones! This one is in a square called Bir Hakeim a little outside the downtown area. It's obviously a great place to go if you have kids but even if you don't, it's quite a large park with trails, fountains, and plenty of grass so it'd be perfect for a picnic under a shady tree. 

I feel it's compulsory whenever in France to ride a carousel because you can always find one in a park or a plaza. This one is in the Place de la Republique and as you can see Roman was enchanted. He rode it twice and would have loved a third go round but we dragged him away. He didn't go quietly as you might have guessed. 

Front row seats! This was the night of the music festival and there were musicians, acrobats, and dancers all over town. We particularly liked this group, whose music I'm not even sure how to describe. You can check them out if you like: Les Brank'Ignobles. 

Outside the Cathedral of St. Jean, there is a marble fountain and because of its circular shape, Roman wanted to run around it a few hundred times. But at least he stopped to pose for this picture. He's getting much better at holding still for the camera and has even learned how to say 'cheese'. 

This was day two in Collioure. Apparently this place is not as much of a secret as I thought! There were as many tourists as there were pebbles on the beach. As we walked down the narrow streets, we were literally elbowing our way through. You can see the attraction though, right? The water was so blue and clear and the setting is just beautiful with this magnificent castle on one side and an old church on the other. 

The port was so charming and colorful. We loved the brightly painted boats. 

A shot of me and my little darling at the water's edge. On the one hand, the beach in Collioure is perfect for little ones because it's very shallow and the waves are small and gentle. But on the other hand, the ocean floor and the beach are covered in scorching hot pebbles and that can make it hard for little feet. Roman, for one, was not a big fan. He's just a Barcelona baby who's used to the sand. P.S. I have the craziest tan, I know. I was hoping my back would get some sun to match my shoulders but alas...

I loved walking along narrow alleys like this and getting away from the crowds. It wasn't the easiest thing to do with a baby in a stroller though but we managed! 

We didn't manage to find a single park or playground in Collioure and that was tough on Roman because he couldn't play on the beach since the rocks were too hot and too hard on his feet. So we found this little plaza for him to burn off some energy and he excitedly ran around for over half an hour while the Professor dutifully followed him. 

On to Ceret! I have to say, this town was my favorite one by far. It's so charming and quaint and undiscovered. There weren't throngs of tourists, because really, there's not that much to see. The city boasts one art museum (but it's a good one) and has neither a train station nor an airport. The only way to get here is to drive or take a bus. This makes it feel like a secret, special place and for us, it was. 

Ceret was a hub for many artists, most notably Picasso whose name can be seen in many parts of the city from squares to cafes. As you walk about, you can see why so many artists came here. It's so beautiful you just have to stop and paint it like this man above. 

 I loved this charming little detail on the corner of the building.

Throughout our trip, it was strange to hear French being spoken all around us but yet we saw such strong Catalan pride. This picture was taken of a house in Ceret that had decorative tiles all proclaiming this sentiment. In clockwise order they read, 'I am Catalan,' 'This is a Catalan home', 'Here lives a supporter of the Lille Metropole' (a football team), and 'Here lives a supporter of the Catalan dragons' (a rugby team).  

All around the city center, there were leafy trees which shaded us from the summer sun but also made the light so much softer. I loved the way this building mirrors the graceful curves of the trees in front of it and they even match in color.

Speaking of matching colors, I thought this little house with its matching door and flowers was so cute. Throughout the city, there were brightly painted shutters, doors and even lampposts. As we were walking around town, the Professor and I  couldn't help but debate which color we would paint our front door if we ever moved here. I said fuchsia or aqua but the Professor plumped for bright green. 

More pops of color. Wouldn't sitting here with a coffee cheer up a grey, winter day?

Lastly, I leave you with a shot of the little one on the train on the way home. Roman's favorite part of the journey no doubt. 

So that was our mini-vacation! What about you guys? Go anywhere fun?