We had a tight connection in Madrid and it took us a while to get to our gate - seemed like endless trains and escalators. We went through passport control and security in Madrid and boarded a domestic Iberia flight to Palma. On the plane we suddenly got the sick feeling that we should had cleared customs in Madrid - thinking how could we be so stupid and envisioning flying back to Madrid to try to sort out this mess. We were encouraged when we saw a customs sign in Palma, and, sure enough, the international baggage was segregated from the domestic baggage. The Iberia agent informed us that the bike bag did not make the flight, but that they would deliver it to the hotel by 5 PM that same day. We arranged our own pre-tour, arriving two days ahead of the Santana group - some of whom were doing a pre-tour in Madrid. We stayed on the Hotel Valparaiso Palace - a beautiful 5 star hotel sitting atop a steep hill (more on that later!) overlooking the cruise ship dock. The people were very service-oriented and we had a lovely room overlooking the pool and the water. The weather was unsettled and windy when we arrived, but no rain. We took a brief nap and felt even worse when we got up. We had a late lunch at the hotel (a parma ham and parmesan cheese salad) and then took the bus into downtown Palma. Palma is an amazing large city - reminded me a bit of Barcelona (no surprise there!) The Palma Cathedral was massive and certainly the dominant landmark, built during the 13th century. We heard that Mallorca had a velodrome and tried to find it using our map - we find the remnants of a demolished racetrack and velodrome, only to later learn that there is a brand new velodrome - next visit!! Then we took a cab to the outskirts of the city to a high end bike shop to see about renting singles for the next day. They were very accomodating and had some decent aluminim Orbeas for rent - only problem was, according to the bike shop folks, no really good plact to ride from the shop and we didn't have a car. We went back to the hotel and just grazed for dinner (South Beach bar and a glass of wine) and went to bed early.
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