Port de Pollença to Port de Soller

There’s an old Monty Python sketch where two announcers come on the air to describe the eclipse of the sun in real time as if it were a sports event. The eclipse takes so long that after a while they run out of things to say and have to continue to kill time, trying to find interesting things to say about the movement of the sun.

That’s how I felt this morning, when the Scottish woman whose musings about nothing on the beach yesterday sounded so melodic, sat next to me at breakfast and just started chatting to no one in particular about the sun. What the sunrise looked like, how bright the sun was, how fast it was moving through the sky, how it might be a wee bit hotter than yesterday. This was 7:30 in the morning so I really just wanted her to stop talking.

Because I was trying to focus on deciding how many cups of café con leche it would take to get me up and over the mountains on my ride today. I’ve known about today’s ride since before I left Maryland. Roughly 4,000 feet of climbing up to the Tramuntana mountain range, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and which provides the scenic, curvy mountain roads that you see in Mallorca tourism brochures.

I had decided to head out early, both to avoid the heat of the day and to ensure that even if I went really slowly I’d make it to my destination, Porto de Soller. In the end, things went pretty well. All the way up the first ascent, bikers on racing bikes were passing me (as usual). 

When I got to the top, a bunch of them were stopped, taking pictures. I pulled off, took off my helmet and drank some water. One of the guys looked at me and said “We’ve been talking about you. For you to make it up here on that bike, you must be in great shape.” And at that moment, my clunky, heavy touring bike and I went from being a subject of derision to one of admiration.

In terms of both miles and climbing, I still had a long way to go. It's hard to capture in photos how beautiful the ride was.

About three-quarters of the way through the ride, I decided to deviate from the script and go down the world-famous “snake road” to Sa Calobra. This a road that essentially goes careening down a mountain to the port. Here are three descriptions of it, proving the whole “eye of the beholder” thing: 1) “it is one of the most dangerous and most difficult roads in Spain. At the same time one of the most spectacular ones, where lovers of curves will be very satisfied.” 2) “it is a masterpiece of engineering, yet it remains unclear why the road was built at all.” 3). “Cycling to and from Sa Colobra is considered to be one of the most iconic cycling routes in the world.”

I went up this road to get there

And then down this road.

While I was more than happy to coast the 8 or so miles down that road, there was zero chance I was going to ride back up, so I bought a ticket for a boat going to Port de Soller. . . 

. . . where I am now drinking a beer and writing this at an outdoor café.