A few days after the wedding, when our American guests had flown back over the pond, we jetted off to spend a little over a week on the beautiful Spanish island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea. We stayed in the little town (perhaps even a village) of Sant Elm on its west coast, where my Mum has an apartment which she kindly loaned to us for the week.
Oliver and Lucy enjoyed the flight (unlike the 2-year old in front of them who screamed and fought against being strapped in until we were well and truly airborne).
Hayley and I particularly enjoyed it as Hayley ordered us a bottle of Champagne to celebrate the start of our honeymoon.
By the time we had landed, got a 40 minute taxi-ride to the apartment and unpacked (not to mention moving all the breakables onto higher shelves), we were definitely ready to eat. So we headed to Tigy's, a great little pizzeria overlooking the beach.
The next morning it was time to head into the sea. We went to the smaller of the two beaches (separated by only 50 yards where a hotel fronts onto the sea) which is shallow for a long way out: perfect for the kids. They loved it. Oliver attempted to befriend every other family bathing there, but as most of them were German, only the adults understood him. Bless him, he didn't really understand why the kids didn't talk to him. Not that it worried him much. We had a wail of a time.
Sant ELm is a fairly quiet little town so there's not that much to do and at lunchtime it was pretty hot, even on the beach. So most days we tended to go back to the apartment for some lunch and hang out there for a while til it got cooler. My Mum had kindly left the Sky box so Oliver had his kids TV. But he was also quite happy playing. Without almost all his usual toys he made characters out of snorkel tubes and other bits and bobs lying around. Lucy would have a nap or play too. Then in late afternoon we'd head off for another cooling swim.
A couple of days we went over to Port Andratx. On one occasion we took the 4pm boat, which gavce us chance to admire the fabulous villas of the jet set and Hollywood stars, their houses hanging off the tops of the cliffs, looking out to sea.
One day we took out a pedalo. Lucy had wanted to look more closely at the boats ever since arriving, often pointing at the biggest mtor yachts in the bay and saying "I want go that one". Once out beyond the cordoned off swimming area, we all got into the water where we could see we were surrounded by fish. Despite being way out of their depth, the kids loved it. Even Lucy bobbed about unaided at times (though one of us was always right beside her in case her arm bands didn't give her all he assurance she needed).
Later in the holiday we discovered a swimming pool that we could use. The sea is great, but after a while sand gets everywhere and the water there is very salty, so a freshwater pool made a nice change, especially with a bar serving food and drinks right next to it.
This was also the site of some evening entertainment for the kids. A young woman would set up a CD player and speaker and do sings and dances with the kids for half an hour.
The heat and disrupted bed-times did mean that the kids didn't sleep the best. Lucy seemed happy to forego sleep, going to bed hours later than usual then rising as bright as a bird at her usual 6am! But this lack of a sure routine meant that even though we had a frined who would babysit, we never got to go out as a couple for an evening. But we can't really complain, as once the kids were on bed we sat on the balcony having a nice cold drink, watching the boats in the bay as the light in the sky slowly dimmed.
By the time the holiday was coming to an end, we figured we had pretty much sussed how to get the best out of the facilities available to us. But all good things must come to an end. So we packed up and waited for our pre-paid taxi to the airport.... but that's worth a post in its own right.
(There are more pictures from our honeymoon here.)
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