April 29 - Fourth Cruise Day - Bay of Biscay Redux and Dashed Hopes

We were told on day one that the Epic is a big ship and doesn't move too much but last nite was one hell of a rock and roll night. Wind speed over 50 knots and us heading crabwise into it made  our 2015 cruise in the Bay of Biscay which is notorious for its' storms, seem a distant calm memory. Who would have thought the Med could be so stormy. Blurk.
The good news was that by morning the storm had abated and we were both feeling much better, only tired. We had a lazy morning, an early brunch and a bit of a window shopping spree before we had to be on our way to our excursion on Majorca.
On paper, this excursion looked fabulous. A bus tour through the Majorcan countryside, a stop in a fascinating inland hillside village called Soller, frequented by musicians (Chopin) and artists (Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso) looking for inspiration, a ride back on a restored train built in 1912 and a guided look at Palma, the capital, at the end. What could be better, right?
The first thing to go wrong was an annual bicycle race called The Palma 312 which snarled traffic everywhere and delayed us over half an hour which meant our free time in Soller was reduced to a pee break and ten minutes in the town's only square. Our truncated free time was actually good news though because Soller can easily be covered in five minutes. Perhaps it has seen better times and is now in a serious state of decline. It reminded Carol of a neglected village somewhere in Tunisia.
The train ride back was also a disaster although the train itself was kinda cute. Can any of you remember the old inter urban trains with wooden slat seats and windows you opened but could never shut again and which rattled mercilessly and the steel wheels which clickety clacked loud enough to make you deaf? Well now multiply that effect tenfold each time you went into a tunnel (and we had thirteen of them) and you get a picture of our trip back. We were deaf, frozen and stiff from the cold wind blasting in through all the open windows.
On our return we were driven through downtown Palma which in part reminded us a bit of certain neighbourhoods in Barcelona and were given free time to explore on our own. We, however, only wanted to sit in a warm sheltered spot and thaw out.
In the evening we had a very nice dinner in an actual proper sit down restaurant and then a show called Burn the Floor. Fantastic dancing and music inspired by shows like DWTS but better