The sunrise this morning was spectacular and we enjoyed the trip in, though we were late making port due to high winds. Gusting to 66 knots (80mph) it made it difficult for the pilot to even board the ship. Eventually, after spinning the ship around a couple of times, they were able to bring her alongside and embarkation began.

Mallorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous region of Spain since 1983. Palma serves as the capital. Along with other Balearic Islands, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera, Mallorca is a highly popular holiday destination, particularly for tourists from the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Our guide today, on a Princess tour, told us that the population of Mallorca is nearly 1M but last year they had 9M visitors. In fact, 80% of the GDP of this island is from tourism. He lamented how hard it was for them during the two years of Covid, when there was no travel to the island.

We went by bus to the countryside to see the two major agriculture crops, the grape and the almond. We stopped at the largest winery, Macia Baile, which produces 900,000 bottles per year. We took a tour and learned some interesting things about their production, including that they ferment their Sauvignon Blanc in oak barrels instead of stainless steel. Our winery guide Olga was very animated and we enjoyed her presentation. The winery owner, 5th generation, serenaded us on a traditional Mallorcan bagpipe, the Xeremia. Alas, as is often the case with ship excursions, there were way too many participants which took away from the tour.

We were also scheduled to visit Castell de Bellver, however those pesky winds prevailed and the local authorities closed it for the day. The Mallorca Cathedral was also something we were interested in seeing. However, while the sun was shining brightly, you could hardly walk against the wind so we headed back to the ship.

Tomorrow: Sea Day