Spain (Mallorca) in very slightly relaxed restrictions!

It's been quite a week this week as on Tuesday the bars and restaurants here were finally able to open their terraces on Tuesday, only until 5pm mind you but still.....we were all quite giddy with excitement! 😝  We went for a coffee at Meraki and sat on an actual terrace on an actual chair at an actual table with coffee in an actual cup and saucer - pretty heady stuff!   You don't really appreciate things until they're not there do you?  Anyway, this past year has taught me to appreciate the little things if nothing else and sitting on a terrace, even in fairly chilly weather, is one of them.  You know who's law means that the weather has been a little chilly this week but we have had a couple of warmer days on one of which we were lucky enough to have a wonderful menu del dia at Ca'n Ferra.  

The work on the new Tourist Information Centre in the Port which I mentioned in a previous blog post is gathering pace and the new building is taking shape nicely:

It certainly looks like the town is investing in tourist services.......... 😜

Today was overcast with rain forecast although luckily it held off until mid afternoon; it is however scheduled to be wet for a few days which isn't going to help the bars/restaurants a great deal 😞 but in order to keep our step count up, we parked further round the bay and then walked through to the Sunday market in Alcudia via the beach in front of the villas at Voramar.  En route, we made friends with this cheeky fella:

Check out those horns 🐐  Once in Alcudia we rewarded ourselves with....yes, you guessed it, another coffee on an actual terrace....well you get the idea!  Alcudia Old Town is as lovely as ever 😍

There weren't many people about although the market itself was fairly bustling despite everything being well distanced so that was good to see.  

This week I finished yet another 1,000 piece puzzle and have turned into quite the puzzle nerd over this past year.  I have developed a system for doing puzzles now that works for me - yes I have indeed become that tragic 😂  My latest triumph was greatest rock albums (204 in total) and whilst doing it I had great fun noting the ones in my record collection so it's probably right up there as one of my favourite puzzles so far:

Last week I mentioned the stencils that have been painted onto streets locally and wondered about who had put them there.  As a reminder they look like this:

Well now I know.  As you can see from the picture, it's near a drain and this is the common denominator because it's a scheme launched by the Environmental Authorities who have been spraying them near drains using various stencil pictures to raise awareness that anything that goes down the drain ends up in the sea.  The initiative is called "The Sea Starts Here".  What a great idea 👏 let's hope it has the required effect.

Covid numbers are excellent now in the Pollensa area with only one positive case - long may that continue!  On seeing the news from the UK, we still have vaccination envy though as there are very elderly non-care home residents here who have yet to be vaccinated here so I guess those of us rather younger are going to have wait for some time yet.  Still, if we can keep the numbers down, we'll get there safely eventually.  Where and when the restrictions will ease here next we don't know but certainly all the Spanish regions have reached an agreement to restrict travel over the Easter week in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.  And of course for the second year running Spain's famous Easter celebrations have been cancelled 😟

Finally, the Sunday meal at the Bellaverde Restaurant in collaboration with Pollenca Cares has taken place for the third successive weekend, providing 250 portions of hot food to local needy  families - you can see a video of an interview by local television with Svenja Galle, owner of the Bellaverde (her part is in Spanish) here which gives you a good overview of this initiative even if you don't understand Spanish!  Wonderful work by all concerned 💕

Stay safe and hasta el próximo domingo!