Palma

My last stop on the cruise on the Norwegian Epic was in Palma Mallorca in Spain.  I didn't know much about this stop before I went.  I had considered doing an excursion, but none of the options jumped out at me.  The most I had heard was from a woman I met at my hotel before the cruise, she said it was pretty there.

I was pleasantly surprised by Palma.  Although the weather wasn't great the day we were there (I did manage to miss the rain), the island was lovely, turns out there are some rich and famous there.  It was a fabulous marina there was lots of beautiful boats.

The cruise ships dock here near the town, and a shuttle bus is offered for just a few dollars round trip.  But it is walkable too.

The town is one of those places where a map is handy for when you finish, otherwise it's just lovely to walk around and pop into shops along the way.  It's a higher end shopping area, and not a great location for cheesy souvenirs.  I had been looking to get some souvenirs from my family that were different then the typical "Rome" T-shirt.  While they did have some stuff like that here, this was a better place to buy my mom a pearl necklace.  They are known for Mallorcan Pearls.

I didn't spend a lot of time off the ship here, as this was meant to be a more relaxing day in port.  But walking around the town it had a similar style and feel to Barcelona, only wealthier, cleaner and brighter.

In town there was a beautiful large Cathedral, my friend and I opted not to take a tour, it was in such an odd spot though, across a small road/alley from another building, it was tough to get a picture of the front.

Overall, this was not an "exciting" stop on my cruise, but a completely wonderful surprise anyway.  The island is beautiful and on a return trip I would either just sleep late and walk around or take a short tour on the island so I could see more of it's beauty.