Well, here I sit on our adorable canal boat moored at Chatel-Censoir, halfway through our Canal du Nivernais journey and I’m wondering: WHY DOESN’T EVERYONE DO THIS….EVERY SUMMER????
Yep, we’re having a great time. Our two regrets are: 1) we can’t drink or eat enough in 10 days to make a dent in the wonderful food and wine from the Burgundy region, and 2), we can’t bring any of it home. I am thinking of throwing away clothes, and may still do that to make room for wine. I won't be able to fit in these much longer anyway!
But I digress, as usual.
I haven’t even finished blogging about our time in Majorca yet. Our Majorcan holiday just kept getting better. The weather remained perfect – not too hot or humid, just perfectly sunny yet cool in the evening. So of course, we spent lots of time soaking up the sun and relaxing. We both read about 6 books each, a rare treat that shouldn’t be so rare!
Charlie continued to ride several miles each day, usually around 35-50. His longest was about 70 miles, with lots of elevation. In fact, during our 2 weeks in Majorca, he rode over 400 miles and his total elevation was 18,000 feet. Man, that’s a lot of up and down.
Once Richard arrived, Charlie took him on a really fun, and challenging, ride along the coast, then met Robyn, the boys and me at a great beach café at the very end of Alcudia that specializes in local seafood. We had hoped to swim in the cove and catch some rays while waiting for the guys to arrive, but the wind picked up to about Force 3 so we abandoned that idea and took a long walk – uphill of course.
When the two cyclists finally arrived, intact but not too happy with the wind, we ordered a platter of assorted seafood that I cannot begin to describe, but can say that even though I grew up in Florida, with a father who was an avid fisherman, I have never tasted fresh fish as good as the three fish that were on this platter. No, don’t ask me what they were, because none of us recognized the Spanish names the waiter told us. Can you tell from the photo?
It was quite a day, and we ended it on the roof terrace of Robyn & Richard’s condo with another outstanding bottle of Spanish red as we watched the moon rise over the Mediterranean.
Two days later, Robyn’s sister Alex, her husband Dan and their three children – Linus, 7, Tilda, 5, and Daisy, 3, arrived from France, where they now live. We hadn’t seen Alex since Robyn’s wedding in 1993 and had never met Dan, so it was a great treat for us to spend time with them and get to know Dan and the kids.
Our last full day of fun there was spent on a powerboat Richard rented to take us to Formentor and two other very small coves along the rugged mountainous coast of the Baha de Pollenca. The water is crystal clear and a deep azure blue that becomes a brilliant aqua closer to shore where we anchored. Although a little cooler than the Gulf of Mexico, the swimming was refreshing and exhilarating.
All five kids are part fish and spent the entire day jumping in and out of the boat, snorkeling, swimming to shore and generally getting that shriveled “prune” look. We ended the day with huge pans of paella on the roof terrace. Does life get much better?
We must say that leaving the next day was quite a struggle, Majorca is a magic place and enjoying it with people we love makes it very special indeed.
But it's off to France and another adventure. Say, does anybody know if the food and wine is good in France????
Richard and Charlie, or is that Stevie Van Zandt?
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