We got our rental car Thursday morning and headed directly to the Drach caves, about an hour and a half east of Palma. Driving stick shift was a challenge in itself, but actually finding our way to the caves proved to be harder and easier than we thought. Some areas were very well labeled, while others were not labeled at all.
When we got there we quickly realized several things the travel books failed to mention:
1. They do not accept credit or debit cards and the nearest ATM is in a small town down the road.
2. Although it is suggested that young children do not take the tour, young children created about 40% of crowd.
3. Tours start every hour and they are full, fuller than I thought was safe for a cave tour.
We went down to the nearest town to get cash, went back and bought tickets, and then waited with the masses till our tour started.
The tour takes about an hour and it is pretty impressive. They take you very far down, but the walkways and stairs are all well maintained. The rock formations are beautifully lit throughout the tour, making them almost look fake.
I have to add that the tour guide was pretty amazing. At each stop, he said a few things in Spanish and then translated everything into English, Italian, French, and German.
The tour ends at the biggest underground lake in Europe, where they have an orchestra playing and they perform a light show. Slightly on the cheesy side, but very well done, it was the perfect ending to the tour. After the show you can choose to end the tour by boat and crossing the lake or by foot and walking around the lake, since we were crammed in with close to 150 people we chose to just walk.
We left the caves and headed south along the coast to the Platja Es Trenc, one of the most renowned beaches on the island for it's white sand and crystal clear water. We made our way from town to town till we arrived at a beautiful beach. We knew we hadn't quite made it to Platja Es Trenc, but we were tired of driving and frustrated with our lack of a good map and some direction, so we stayed and enjoyed the random beach we found.
After about two and a half hours we started our drive back to Palma, and, as our luck would have it, we found a sign for Platja Es Trench about ten minutes from the beach we had visited. Completely over it, we just drove by and made our way back to the hotel.
We washed up and headed into town, this time following a dinner suggestion from our guide book. We walked towards the recommended restaurant and were pleasantly surprised by the narrow winding streets with tons of little bars. We walked up to the restaurant from the book and decided it looked kind of cheesy, so we walked up and down the streets for a little bit till we found a bar we liked. It was a tiny little place, almost cave like. You walk down the stairs into the bar, turn and walk down a few more steps to the small dining room. It was exactly what we were looking for.
We had a delicious meal of tumbet (Mallorcan vegetable casserole style dish), fried green peppers, and dates with bacon. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, we were exhausted.
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