May - Visitors, settling down, shotguns and celebrations

Month 3 done - 1/4 of a year and things are buzzing along nicely. I'm told the end of May is where the manic phase starts to tale off - but May had been mad. All bikes out. Most come in one afternoon and need turning around to go out the following day so the pressure is on from about 5pm until when we are done to get them prepped so - busy, busy!

The month started well though. Foggy came out for a few days. He loves his cycling and is a bit of a demon both going up and down hills so this place is made for him and yet he's never been out before. It was great to plan an itinerary for him that would show him what the Island has to offer - and it also got me out on the bike more when I had the chance. The weather was kind (apart from his last day) so some good cycling was had. In a complete coincidence a mutual friend was out here to do the infamous Mallorca 312 so we drove out to Port Pollensa to meet up and ride out to Cap Formentor - a terrific day all round.

Mid month (14th) saw the Soller festival of Es Firo. We've never been over here for this before so it was all new to me - and just mental. Its a celebration of when the Moors invaded at Port Soller and stormed up to Soller until they were beaten back by the Christian defenders in 1561. Basically - 1/2 the town black up head out to sea on boats and then come back in as an invasion to the beaches where they are met by the Christians and two battles take place. Firecrackers are going off everywhere, live shotgun rounds are being fired into the air where they mix with fireworks. They then march of to Soller town square where more of the same continues into the night. I had the privilege to be able to watch all this unfold with Maeve and Jeremy in their two kayaks - amazing. A fantastic atmosphere and a surreal experience - never seen the like of it before! Maeve thinks its the best day of the year in Soller - she may be right!

The following day Loz arrived for a week. We hire the most beaten up little car for 20EUR a day as that was cheaper than taxis to and from the airport and meant we could get out a bit if we wanted. Unfortunately I had more overtime than ever but we still managed to get some 'holiday time' in. Pete and Roo stood by the offer they made of a free sunset cruise - so we ended up on Bonnie Lass with Jeremy and Maeve one evening for a short sail out to watch the sun go down - beautiful. We saw quite a bit of them as we also had them over for dinner later in the week - nice to 'entertain' in the flat. All to soon it was time to take Loz back to the airport and hand the little car back (after a trip to Lidl to stock up) and I was back to the normal routine.

Brilliant to meet friends over here and have people over to stay but the place still feels very quiet after they go.

I've been out on a electric full suspension MTB for the first time on an MTB Tour lead by Andy! Frankly stunned by the terrain you can cover on one of these things. I started very carefully but was getting the hang of it by the end - incredible!

Toward the end of the month I got a bigger ride in and went off in search of Sobrement - the steepest and hardest (though not the longest) climb on the island. By god it lived up to its reputation and yes - I had to get off and walk some of it - that's a first for me and very disappointing but there was no other way of getting over the top. Anyway - its done now and I know what its like - despite the pain it only took a couple of days before I'm thinking about whether I could make it up with a larger first gear. Who knows I might have to go back and find out - but not just yet!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1605717859

I've read this back and realised that it was a busy month! I haven mentioned that trip to Palma to get my Residencia - but yes. that's done so officially my primary place of residence is now Spain!

More visitors are coming out in June when the business should quieten down as the weather gets properly hot - lets see how that goes!