Palma de Mallorca

Today, we are in Palma de Mallora, also known as Palma. It is part of the Balearic Islands in Spain. We were scheduled to be in Valencia, Spain, but because of the severe rain and flooding they had, it was not safe to visit, so Royal Caribbean rescheduled our port of call here.

Palma was founded as a Roman camp, and there are spots where you can see some of the Roman walls. There is a history of conquests and destruction from its beginning history, founded 123 BC. It is about a 6 hour drive from Barcelona. The island has basically 3 regions, of which 2 are mountains and 1 agricultural. It is considered part of the Mediterranean Sea area. It has gone through conquests from the fall of the Western Roman empire, the Muslim conquests, and the Byzantine period, Christian conquests, late middle ages to current times.

Buildings were built, destroyed and the rebuilt by the new regime often on top of what was once there. There first place we visited was the Bellver Castle. This is the first circular castle built in Europe. It has a moat and drawbridge where the folks living outside of the castle walls could take refuge where there were pirates attacking or other raids. It was built in the 14th century and has been used as a royal residence, prison, and now a museum. It is built from local sandstone.

Our next stop was the Royal Palace of La Alumudaina which is built over an earlier casrle in 1309. A river runs through the town of Palma giving the town 2 distinct areas - uptown (wealthy) and down-city (where mostly sailors and those folks that depended on the sea lived).

Palma relies on tourism, where approximately 80% of its population work. It is alo known for pearls. Palma has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate with average temperatures 65 degrees. January, the coldest month is around 60 degrees. Today it was around 70. The population is around 419,000Read more