Mallorca, extasy and motion, oh oh oh

This month I had a marvellous occasion to travel on a business trip to Palma, Mallorca (how cool is that?). Well... What can I say? Everyone knows the song:

Mallorca, join the generation, oh oh oh  
That's Mallorca Mallorca, 
feel the good vibration, 
oh oh oh That's Mallorca

/LOFT - MALLORCA LYRICS/

 

For an Eskimo like me, coming from the North, Mallorca indeed is the place of never-ending happiness. I regret not taking better camera with me, the quality of my pictures is rather poor, but still, shows the charm.

 

 

 

The name of Palma (the capital city of Mallorca) is pretty obvious for Poles (palma in polish is a palm tree)...

The organizers of the conference really made a good job and took us to a trip outside Palma, to see the outskirts attractions like a village of Valldemossa (where Fryderyk Chopin, a polish composer spent part of his life with his lover George Sand).

When the guided tour in Valldemossa was finished, we were taken back to Palma, to Bellver Castle (the first round castle in Europe) for a banquet (and more sightseeing).

The castle (as castles tend to be) is situated on the hill, so we had a really good glimpse on Palma in the sunset and then at night.

Long May weekend: Konopiště and Kutná Hora

We decided to see two more things on our way back home. We were quite tired of the tourist approach we have followed for the past few days, so we made it rather quick.
First we passed by yet another hrad - Konopiště. Nothing special, i believe it must be more beautiful in the season. But we saw the peacocks - that was fun, they approached people really close.

After having a walk in the nearby park / forest we set off to Kutná Hora - a place that was recommended to us by our colleagues we had met earlier. We didn't see the city, we went directly into the Sedlec ossuary which is estimated to contain the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 people. The chapel is really breathtaking. It's rather small and gives a goose pimp to everyone. I wouldn't like to stay there alone in the dark, really scary, but not only. It's somehow a spiritual place, making you think about life and death. Definitely worth seeing.

Long May weekend: České hrady

On the next day of our journey we decided we had seen enough of Prague and it was time to move into the neighbourhood. And so we had a trip under the auspices of "České hrady" meaning Czech castles. Boy, there are so plenty of them! We decided to have a look at two that day.

First one was Křivoklát.

The castle inside was nothing special (we had had a bit enough of old architecture and tourist sightseeing) and we decided not to wait for a guided tour and to have a walk around instead. This was a good idea. Who would have thought that on long May weekend it can be so hot? It was better to profit from the sun rather than stay in the medieval walls.

We chose one of the paths, it took as an hour and something to complete it and gave us good opportunity to watch the castle from different angles and perspectives. We also came across a children's playground which made me particularly happy.

The next Hrad we visited was Karlštejn. Unfortunately, we were caught by rain so we didn't take many pictures of it so you have to believe me it was adorable too.

Long May weekend: Prague 2

Day two in Prague had a pretty rigid schedule. We started from Strahov monastery but our final destination were Hradczany - the famous complex of castles.

When we were done with Hradczany, we went to a viewing tower. There was a Labor Day fete, so a lot of people climbed up to the hill to celeberate the free day - there was music, entertainment and a lot of kids. The view from the tower was very nice (similar to the one from Hradczany, although a bit more broad because from higher altitude).

We stayed on the hill for quite some time enjoying the free day and fantastic weather. I felt really lazy (in a sense: peacefully lazy, not: tired lazy) and was a bit inconsolable when Radek told to move on. We finished the day in Franz Kafka museum.