Weekend in Menorca

Last weekend, the UK had a bank holiday. Tyler and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend with a trip to Menorca – a Balearic island off the coast of Spain.

We barely escaped disaster on our journey to paradise (“disaster” might be over dramatic). Tyler and I hopped on the train after work, which was scheduled to arrive at Luton Airport in 45 minutes. For 30 minutes, the train inched along – much slower than expected – when an announcement was made indicating that we would be pulling over for a while at the next station due to delays. We waited…and waited. Worried we would miss our flight; we jumped off the train and ordered a very expensive Uber. After waiting in traffic for over an hour, we busted out of our Uber, sprinted into the airport, through security, and arrived to our gate as the plane was boarding. It was quite literally a trains, planes, and automobiles sort of day.

Our arrival in Menorca was late in the evening. I peered outside our curtains of our hotel room, but couldn’t see anything in the dark night. Luckily, we woke up from our travel nightmare to a gorgeous vista facing out of Cala Galdana.

We spent most of the first day working from our balcony, wishing we had that view from our office every day. In the evening, we took a stroll to Restaurant Cala Mitjana, which was recommended by co-workers. We were greeted by a sign that read, “Closed due to fiestas in Ferreries.” Only in Spain. If only I could convince Jeff Bezos to shut down the office every time I wanted to party. I can envision my out of office automated reply now, “Sorry, I’m partying. Kind Regards, Alison.” Don’t worry (I know you were), we found comfort in the arms of a hotel restaurant, Casa Nostra, which had the cutest wine list on a rolling pin.

It turns out, the “fiesta” that derailed our dinner plans was in honor of Ferreries’ patron saint, St. Bartomeu. Since day 2 of our adventure was quite cloudy, we figured a daytime fiesta might be better than a chilly beach. When we asked our concierge about the Fiesta de Ferreries, she responded by saying, “Today is just the donkeys.” I’m not sure if that was supposed to deter us, but it did the exact opposite. We jumped on a bus to Ferreries, where we watched donkeys parade through the streets, while the locals drank, cheered, danced, but mostly drank (primarily Pomada), in the center of town. You can check out all of the details and tradition surrounding the Fiesta de Ferreries here.

We kept the party going by visiting Cova d’en Xoroi, a bar built into cliff-side caves overlooking the infinite sea.

Day 3 was a glorious day spent at the beach. We took a 30 minute hike from our hotel to Cala Mitjana, a bay surrounded by pine trees with the most turquoise water I’ve ever seen.

We followed up the beach with paella and sangria with a view at Cape Nao Beach Club. After lunch, we took a long swim in the warm Balearic Sea. And we wrapped up our beach bum day with dinner at Restaurant Cala Mitjana (seeing that Fiesta de Ferreries was over).

Our last morning was spent soaking up the dreamy view during breakfast at our perfectly located hotel, Melia Cala Galdana. We left feeling so incredibly grateful for our first European adventure since our big move, and even more grateful that we didn’t miss our flight.

XXOXOXX

Alison