Exploring Majorca By Rail
I had deliberately wanted to be by the station, so that I could take the odd trip out.
I went to Inca and Manacor, as the beautiful old railway to Soller was closed due to engineering works. It was December and although it was quite sunny, the towns were rather dead. I just had a nice coffee and moved on.
It does seem though, that these trains are not the easiest to use, as what information there is, is rather poor. To get to Manacor, the birthplace of Rafael Nadal incidentally, the train reverses direction at one point and you need to change at another, for which there is no announcement. Stations generally, aren’t signed, so you could get dumped at a place in the middle of nowhere. I nearly did.
The Intermodal station in Palma is a bit of a nightmare. It may be an interchange, but don’t ask at the bus information for details on the trains. They’ll tell you politely, that the trains are another company. And the only ticket machines there, don’t seem to sell tickets to Inca and Mancor. Or at least, it appeared so to me. I’ve had no experience of Spanish trains elsewhere, but compared to Italy, where I’ve used trains a lot, they weren’t the easiest to use.
If these countries want to make trains easy to use for tourists, they should look at their maps and ticketing systems.
The Caballito de Mar Restaurant, Palma Majorca
Five years ago for my sixtieth birthday, C took me to Majorca. We stayed in an excellent hotel outside of Palma and she asked them to recommend a good restaurant that could do gluten-free food. They recommended the Caballito de Mar Restaurant on the avenue along the sea-front, underneath the town. It was excellent, so on my brief trip, I went back.
In fact, I went back again, as the sea bass was so good the first time.
The restaurant made up for the sub-standard hotel.
My Hotel In Palma, Majorca
I stayed in the Palacio Avenida In Palma
Palacio Avenida In Palma
I took this picture from the bus stop, where I got off the bus from the air-port. The closeness of the two, is the best thing about the hotel.
In the three days and two nights, I spent in the hotel, I didn’t manage to have a decent shower, as the taps were rather tired. I did get to sit in warm water, which might have helped my dry skin, but I had to keep my foot on the plug to stop the water running out.
One thing I didn’t like was the tiling on the floor.
A Bathroom With A Skating Rink
It is clean and shiny in the picture, but with wet feet, it was like a skating rink. Now I have had a stroke, but my balance is good. Thank goodness it was, as if I hadn’t I’d have been on the floor several times in my short stay.
It is supposed to be a 4 star hotel, but I’ve had better facilities and service in B & B’s in places like Accrington. It could just be that Spain is in such a state, that everything is being done to cut costs.
I didn’t eat much in the hotel, just sampling one very poor cold breakfast, where I wasn’t even offered coffee or any hot food.
I certainly won’t be staying there again.
Revenue And Customs Are Watching You!
This advert was on the Stansted Express.
Revenue And Customs Are Watching You!
Do people take note?
Two Gold Post Boxes In Leeds
I took this picture in Leeds on Saturday.
Two Gold Post Boxes In Leeds
Someone must have won a gold medal at the Olympics. But then Yorkshire did better than Australia!
Do We Need A Bank?
Nationwide seem to have got it right here, even if I didn’t get the whole slogan in the picture.
Do We Need A Bank?
But I think the only reason for having a bank, is to have a nice warm place on a cold, wet day to go into, to use the cash machine.
Were The Pigs Telling Porkies?
In the case of Plebgate, it certainly seems that some are being economical with the truth, just as the police were after Hillsborough.
We will probably never learn the truth about this. I just suspect that both parties might have been tired after a hard day and something said out of turn by one side just escalated.
I’m lucky in that I’ve never had a confrontation with the police and have only been threatened with arrest once. That was incidentally, when I was about eighteen and I was hitching home with a bag with my clothes in it. I was having bad luck with lifts and was walking through Elstree about two in the morning. A beat officer wanted to check my bag and initially I said no. Only when I was threatened with arrest did he get a look at the dirty washing, I was taking home to my mother.
US Gun Statistics
This article on US gun statistics is fascinating.
You can draw your own conclusions, but I will say this. Everybody who dies in a shooting, whether deliberate or by accident, is a tragedy for more than just that person.
I know what grief feels like and it’s not pleasant!
How Can Governments Be So Stupid?
This story of how the French government has forced Gerard Depardieu to become a tax exile has been repeated through the years in many countries and it always ends up with less money being collected, the brightest and the best leaving and job losses. Usually too, you find out later that those politicians behind it, have made provisions to hide their income.
Every country needs to find ways of keeping all of their best people at home. But of course only by using totally fair and humane methods.
So how can they do this?
Obviously low personal taxes do help. And I don’t just mean income taxes, but capital gains ones as well. After all, many people who create one fortune, have a record of going on to create another, which means further employment and tax revenues from all places. But then there are people who don’t believe that if you lower taxes you raise more money! You may not, but if you frame the rules right and cut down on tax avoidance, you should get an increase.
Quality of life is also important. I live in London and I have a very good quality of life. I live fairly cheaply and get all my healthcare free. I even get all of my local public transport free. Obviously, others have other priorities, but as in France, most people can find a good lifestyle to suit their pocket.
So I think, that governments should probably concentrate on getting the basics of life right for its inhabitants. That means a good basic services, like education, police, fire and refuse collection and a health service that works for all.
Governments must also create opportunities for all levels. At the bottom, they put all sorts of administrative barriers in the way of the unemployed in getting well-paid work. If say I wanted to employ an eighteen-year-old to help me sort out this house, the barriers would be immense. So consequently, when I do, it’ll probably be a friend’s son and cash-in-hand. At the top level, governments always give out contracts to their friends. How many computer contracts have been let to companies, who’ve failed before?
Napoleon once said that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers. He was wrong in that, we’re probably a nation of entrepreneurs. We all seem to want to be our own boss. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing in the eye of most of us, but to some politicians it’s anathema.
I don’t believe the French are any different, as probably are the much-maligned Pakistanis and Somalis.
So governments should just create an environment that makes us all want to stay here and create employment, which hopefully pays enough taxes to keep the process continuing.
France has done everyone a favour, by conducting an experiment that belongs to the past. It failed then and it will fail now.
Travelling To Stansted and Gatwick Compared
In my trip to Majorca, I booked out via Stansted and back via Gatwick. So how did the routes to the two airports compare?
Stansted is easier at present, than it will be in a few months, as the 21 and141 buses actually stop at Liverpool Street station because of the diversions for Crossrail. So I just get the bus and walk the twenty metres or so to the station. In fact on Sunday, as the diversion wasn’t being announced or I missed it, I actually walked from Moorgate, which wasn’t too bad.
One at the station I just got a train direct to the airport at a cost f 14.85 with my Senior Railcard.
A Personal Train
As the picture shows, at seven on a Sunday morning, I got a personal train.
Coming back into Gatwick, I just walked to the station and one of the staff there, said that as I had a Freedom Pass, I just needed to buy a ticket to East Croydon. It was just £3.25.
I came back via Clapham Junction station, where I changed to the Overground to Dalston Junction station.
It was all very easy, but it is probably a bit slower than going to or coming from Stansted. But only by a few minutes.
I did waste some time at Gatwick trying to locate my train and an information board like London Bridge, where all stations are indicated with the next train, time and platform, wouldn’t be a bad idea. One guy told me that it is in hand.
I suppose too, that I could have gone to Victoria and then got a tube, which might have been quicker. But then the Overground is so much easier and if you have a heavy case, it’s all step-free transfers.
So hopefully it’ll all get better.
The Anonymous Widower 