Day 15 (Friday 16/9/11)
To Es Migjorn for coffee in the usual bar in the centre (Bar Peri). Another Brit, nice chap, typical of the ones that seem to be around there, saw my phone on the table and asked if I was using their wi-fi; I wasn’t, but he had got the password from the guy at the bar, so I was able to log on [barperi123456]; the other Brit eventually got connected, but was unfortunately not able to get his email going!
Home (via Spar for more shopping!) for a swim in the sea, followed by beer and lunch. Today must be the first day we got to 2 o’clock before having the first beer of the day!
Day 16 (Saturday)
Went for a bit of a drive: Es Mercadal, Cami den Kane, Favaritx, Na Macaret, Addaia (lunch – tapas), Home. Very pleasant.
Burgers for tea
Day 17 (Sunday)
Bright start.
Never tire of opening the shutters to be greeted by this view…
Swam in the sea, 12.00-ish; tried new getting-in place — wish I’d tried this before, very easy.
Thunder and lightning + heavy rain for ten minutes or so, around 1.00
Rest of the day pretty much wet; doors and windows closed, though this did not keep all the rain out!
Es Cranc for tea: fish soup followed by rapa (angler fish) a la marinara for me; asparagus then grilled prawns for JL. (NOTE: do not have fish soup followed by a sauce-type main in future — too much similarity! NOTE 2: do not have asparagus in Spain — it’s white and watery!)
The family Cranc treated us as old friends, with kisses on leaving.
Day 18 (Monday)
Woke to more wind and rain. No pre-breakfast swim!
To Mahon for a wander round in the morning. Discovered the “blue parking” along the port by the ferry terminal is just a time limit (two hours), but you have to leave a note saying when you arrived. (NOTE: should keep pen and paper in the car.)
Coffee in the square at the bottom of the “main street going up” then walked up to the top square, sat by the fountain and walked down again. Checked out the multi-story ferreteria but didn’t buy anything. Bought palo crema from the pastry shop for tea.
Home for lunch, via the Hiper supermarket where we bought pork loin steaks for the evening meal.
Frequent cloudy periods for the rest of the day, with temperature noticeably cooler! Wind and sea unabated.
Day 19 (Tuesday)
Wind very loud overnight; woke to dull skies and seas still enormous: decided to go somewhere else to get away from it!
To Cuitadella, where we parked above the ferry terminal and walked into town. Very leisurely coffee outside a bar in the centre, and generally mooched about. Combination of end of season and our comparatively early start meant the place was very quiet — felt like almost deserted at first!
Decided to drive out of town in a vaguely southerly direction in the hope of stumbling upon a place for lunch; when that didn’t work out, starting to head homeward. At this point I was tempted by a sign on the ronda saying “platges” and mentioning “bars” — should have stopped to think or looked at a map! Drove for miles along increasingly rough roads until we ended up in a car park where the sign said “15 minute walk to the beach” (no sign of, or mention of “bar”)! Decided to cut our losses and return to Ciutadalla for lunch. Very nice pizza and beer in the Plaça des Pins; JL had Spanish omelette and salad. Hung around a while longer, since weather had turned nicer and we weren’t sure it would be so at home.
Es Cactus for evening meal: I had stuffed peppers followed by grilled scorpion fish, excellent; melon cream then duck leg for JL.
Day 20 (Wednesday)
Weather looking much better. Decided to be brave and do a pre-breakfast swim — too damned brave: absolutely freezing!!
Remainder of the day (happily) a standard Menorca Wednesday: church, Rising Sun, hypermarket, Es Grau, swim, sleep, tea at home.
Day 21 (Thursday)
Typical last day — eating up, drinking up, packing up. Trip into Mercadal to try and get a replacement coffee pot, having melted the plastic bottom by turning on the wrong ring on the cooker: failed — only option was EUR28.50 posh job, so gave up.
Day 22 (Friday)
Slightly later departure time, with no need to leave apartment until 11:00. Uneventful run to the airport, filling up the petrol tank on the way. On-time take-off and landing. Home around 4:30
All-in-All …
Excellent time; already looking forward to next year! Was three weeks a good decision? — definitely!