We pulled into port early this morning. Mahon is a city on the beautiful little island of Minorca off the coast of Spain. It looked different than other ports we’ve been to so far. It has a very long natural harbor, one of only a few natural harbors in the world. The port is lined with homes built into the hillside, many have their boats anchored just outside their homes. You walk up a long staircase to get to the town center. We took a morning tour that took us to Monte Toro to visit a 16th century church and monastery. It was beautiful. It overlooked the whole island.
Next we stopped at a prehistoric sight, Torralba D’en Salord, to look at stone structures that are 3000 years old. They look like the stone constructions at Stonehenge. 
Our final stop was at the cliffs of Cala’n Porter. We visited a bar/nightclub called Cova D’en Xoroi, an unusual outdoor nightclub that is in the caves on the cliffs, a most unexpected venue. To get to it you walk down a long staircase that wraps around the side of the cliff. There are a couple of terraces that you cross and as you round the bend you see the opening of the cave. There are a lot of tables and several bars and more terraces. It was surprisingly large. I don’t think you’d want to have too much to drink at this place or else you might end up at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Interesting restrooms, when you look up you are looking at the sky.
We had lunch at a local restaurant in town. I had to try the salad that was made with the local Mahon cheese. Our tour guide had pointed out green signs along the road as we were traveling. They are posted outside farms that make the local cheese. It indicates that you can buy cheese there. It was a delicious salad of sliced tomatoes topped with capers grown locally and fresh shredded homemade cheese. The other local specialty is fish stew. I ordered it knowing that I was taking a chance on what would arrive at my table. The broth was a delicious vegetable base and it had pieces of cod, a few calamari rings, shrimp and mussels. Very good!
We were invited to join the captain on the bridge to watch the ship pull out of port. The concierge escorted us up to the bridge. It was quite a thrill. There were two passengers who had not returned to the ship. The captain gave a long blow of the whistle to try and let them know we were leaving. We waited a few minutes, he said, “we have to go” and just as they were beginning to pull in the gangplank they showed up. Then a friend of his joined us to see the boat leave port and just as the tugboat was leaving us he climbed down a rope ladder a few feet and hopped onto the tugboat. (I later found out that this was not a friend of the captain but the local port authority. They board the ship at every port and watch it leave. As soon as it is clear they hop on a small boat and return to shore.) I didn’t know you could do that. The captain took us into his office and we shared some wine and talked so long that we missed dinner. Good thing they have room service all the time or we would have to go to bed hungry. Like we couldn’t afford to skip a meal.
Tomorrow we dock in Ibiza, Spain another one of the Balearic Islands.
