From my vantage point on the top floor of the 4-star hotel in which I’m staying tonight (don’t be envious – it overlooks the pool rather than the ocean), I just have to say that the fatigue and sweat of a long, hilly bike ride can be so easily washed away with a dip in the Mediterranean. Really, everyone should just do that.
Logically, I know that any ride that starts and ends at sea level must have an equal amount of ascents and descents. But it didn’t feel that way. My ride today took me through many quaint port towns, each of which had a marina full of yachts and luxury sailboats (I often forget how much money there is in the world). And given that Mallorca is shaped more or less like a contact lens, which I guess every island is, that meant a day of riding down to each port and then back up to the road. As the day wore on, it felt like there was a lot more uphill than downhill. It probably didn’t help that I, on my heavy, thick-tired “touring" bike loaded down with water, food and other supplies, kept getting passed by young, fit riders on their fancy carbon fiber European road bikes. Whatever. Come back when you’re 66 and we’ll see how you do it.
This island is small but has contrasts. On my ride today I would pass parched scrub and dry unplanted farm fields but then would turn a corner and be in a charming town with designer clothes stores and coffee shops. Then a long descent to the yachts and back up to the scrub.
away when I walked up to the fence.
Oh, and one observation. I guess maybe because this is an island, there are lots of piles of small, bleached white snail shells along the side of the road. When I was dodging traffic on a mountain road during my ride today and my earbud (which was giving me the directions for the ride) fell out, bounced on the road and then into a field of white snail shells, I got about 20 minutes to contemplate how much an earbud looks like a snail shell. But I found it.
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