Mallorca

Up early at 5 for Ryan to take Jess and Martin and I to Gatwick airport for our 9am flight. The road journey was good so we had plenty of time for breakfast in the terminal. The flight was half an hour late taking off but somehow we arrived 5 minutes earlier than scheduled. Kath had landed just a few minutes before from Leeds Bradford.

Great view of the Pyrenees along the way

Unfortunately we then had an hour's wait to pick up our hire car. We had hired from Budget who were sharing with Avis and I reckon the customer's of Avis were getting priority.There was a numbered ticket system in operation so we could sit and eat our sandwiches whilst we waited and keep an eye on the queue.

The car had a few scratches and bumps which we photographed before our 25 minute drive to the apartment in PalmaNova. Once checked in by a member of the family who own the apartments Jess and Kath went to the outdoor pool - Kath to swim despite the cold water and Jess to sunbathe. Martin and I took the car to Aldi to load up for the week.

The apartment was large and airy with 2 bedrooms and a balcony which had a bit of a sea view. It got sun in the morning then shade later when we were grateful for it.

View from balcony

After a lovely salad dinner (to be repeated 5 times!) we all walked through PalmaNova to find the dive centres Kath could choose from.

PalmaNova is very much a modern touristy place with hotels, apartments, bars and restaurants. However we could tell when we entered Magaluf as suddenly there were loads more bars, Irish bars, souvenir shops, British food on offer and a medical centre on every corner.

Kath decided on the dive centre she wanted to use so we strolled back to our apartment and retired early to bed so we could all catch up after the early morning.