We flew out on the Thursday, was a 3pm flight, as we checked in the lady on the desk was astounded at our lack of luggage and utterly incredulous at us travelling without a pushchair for a two year old, in her words ‘you are legends’ little did I know how much this aspect would come to bite me royally in the ass.

Emma roared round the airport like a complete loon, rarely agreeing to sit on the Trunki and when she did sit on it the strap broke off rendering it nigh on useless, she ran off, hid in shops, wouldn’t hold hands, complete nightmare. But Lucy was VERY excited – can you tell?

By the time we got on the plane the relief was palpable, not least down to being able to keep her in one spot for more than her customary 7 seconds, to be fair she was great though that was probably assisted by the £30 I spent on colours, magazines, stickers and toys for that exact purpose!

We arrived and headed to pick up the checked bag on the carousel of hell and then went over to the car hire bit, collected our car and set off, before figuring out that we didn’t have a map, not so good with 3 tired overwrought children and it now being 7.20pm and it going dark.

Headed straight the local supermarket for a ‘big shop’ where yet again, the phenomenal range of fresh food and veg is a miraculous sight in it’s own right, no wonder they are so much healthier and happier than us, our supermarkets are full of packets, jars and frozen goods, over there virtually none of that, the balance is completely skewed the other way.

Set off and remembered that we still didn’t have a map – do’h! However I knew the general area and had received physical written instructions from the wonder that is Villa Parade – we followed them in the pitch black and remarkably found the villa on the first look.

Arriving in the dark is never a good thing, you cant get a feel for the place or the location, so we quickly explored, turned on the hot tub to warm up and put the children to bed and relaxed with a bit of British TV (thank God for a freeview box with British Channels) and a bottle of Lancers.

Next morning I was greeted by this view – at the back of the house and this view at the side – not bad eh – I could certainly get used to this view every morning I can tell you. Though you cant see it on this image – the view goes out over Pollensa Bay.

I got my bearings and figured where we were in relation to towns, mountains and roads, I’m the navigator in our house and it helps me to feel at home to know where I am. The children got straight in their swimmers and headed out to the gated pool – there is NO denying it was cold in that pool – and the hot tub wasn’t warmed up yet.

Tim and I sat back, watched the children as they alternated between sunbathing, table tennis and swimming  – brilliantly the house already had a ton of inflatables and buckets and spades so they just got stuck straight in. 

We went into Pollensa thats afternoon/evening and found the wonder that is Ca N’olesa in the main square – simply superb pizzas, in a stunning location – now Im on holiday, eating and drinking after a chilled out sunny day – bliss

Friday morning we headed into Puerto Pollensa and found the Gran Cafe 1919 for croissants, pain au chocolat and coffee – on a lovely pedestrian promenade – perfect for families it became a regular haunt for us for nightly ice creams sundaes and waffles. Back to the villa to relax some more – then onto Stay Restaurant overlooking the marina in Puerto Pollensa for tapas and a cheeky G & T

Saturday we headed into Palma for Tim’s usual pilgrimage in Massimo Dutti – we LOVE Palma, its pretty, cosmopolitan, cultural and fantastic for shopping, we headed up to a cafe for croissant and coffee (noticing a theme?) and Tim as accosted by an elderly woman foisting olive leaves onto and into him, as I marched onward she was stuffing them down his shirt and into his pockets, was comical to watch him try to be polite but firm till we saw her try and take his wallet in the process then demand money for the leaves!

As we headed up one of the stunning wide pedestrianised streets Paseo Del Born – we were suddenly feeling like someone had pressed pause – we had unwittingly walked straight into a Flash Mob event, in this case a Flash Freeze event where everyone and we mean EVERYONE was just stopped in time, frozen, mid chat, mid coffee, mid cycle, mid call – was SO surreal til we figured out what was going on – cars stopped, the street fell silent – was incredible – so we decided to join in and froze to the spot too, after taking this cheeky snap.

Though I know it just looks like they are all mid action – they weren’t – they were all frozen still – for about 3 minutes – and then they came and did it again half an hour later.

Tim shopped, then we headed to Porto Pi – an indoor shopping centre – where I mainly chased the never tiring smallest member around – regretting not bring a pushchair?  you could say that.

Back over to the villa we ate in that night we headed out around 8pm for icecream and waffles at Gran Cafe

Sunday is market day in Pollensa – this is truly not to be missed – Pollensa is very Spanish – sounds odd doesnt it of course its Spanish you might be thinking but often Majorca is accused of being too British with its English Breakfasts and pubs, not in this area – its still very Spanish so the market here is a sea of amazing stalls of fresh fruit, veg, meat and spectacularly – anchovies – Oh. My. God. Just amazing. 

Emma drove us insane by charging through crowds and diving into shops and at that point it was decided that a pushchair was a must – so after a lovely wander around Pollensa we headed to the Hire shop to get one sorted out and met a lovely chap who provides all the stuff you might need on holiday – we were very impressed, let me tell you that pushchair was 15 Euro VERY well spent. Back to Pollensa again to discover this, the 8th wonder of the World…. Il Guardian

Il Giardino is a restaurant where the chairs spill into the pedestrian square – perfect but down the side they have their very own bakery *sigh* where they make not only the bread for the restaurant, but also to sell warm fresh croissant, pain au chocolat and wait for it…. ensaimada a treat so revered in our house we might have to get a plaque – you buy the pastries and then go and eat them in the restaurant – a perfect concept – just magic – this MIGHT be the reason I came back 9 – yes NINE pounds heavier.

Yes that is us all drooling over the pastries in the reflection

Look at the layers in there  – and let me say this – they were WARM – WARM I tell thee

In the afternoon we headed over to Festival Park – Majorca’s answer to a an out of town shopping outlet centre – to be honest it was pretty small, and not much of interest to us but they have some super children’s’ entertainments and activities there, including a carousel and fantastic water fountains for the kids to play in – worth a trip for that alone for us, full of locals spending some super time with their children

Think that’s enough for now – the rest of the week will come in Part 3 by @alysonsblog