Well after much preparation the day finally arrived when the Tyneside Vagabonds Cycling Club annual training camp in Majorca commenced. Living out in Alnwick a very early start was needed in order to be at the airport in time for the flight at 7 AM from Newcastle to Palma in Majorca.
The flight arrangements with Thompson holidays proved to be absolutely fantastic and far exceeded my expectations, no problems at all with the check-in, the flight left bang on time, the in-flight service was excellent and we arrived in Palma on time. On top of this the baggage emerged very very promptly and we were directed very efficiently to a waiting coach which again departed on time for the 50 min transfer up to Puerto de Pollensa.
We are staying at the Pollensa Park Hotel which has made a favourable first impression, the rooms are clean, comfortable and spacious with a balcony and offer all the facilities we require. Having dropped the bags at the hotel and grabbed our pedals we set off for the bike hire shop which is just along the coast and collected our hire machines. There didn't seem to be any major issues with any of the bikes and we were soon back at the hotel, some of the group stopped en route for something to eat, others made their way straight back to the hotel via a local supermarket conveniently situated just round the corner and selling excellent baguettes.
The plan had always been to try to make the most of the travel day and to get a short ride in in the late afternoon mainly to make sure that all the hire bikes were working well but also to gain a bit of initial familiarity with the local area. In the end we covered just under 20 miles at a steady pace which was very enjoyable and even the short ride included the mandatory cafe stop beautifully situated in a small bay.
Soon back at the hotel where we made the best of a very generous buffet dinner which was very welcome after a long day, the plan tomorrow is to not go mad but to do a 60 to 70 mile ride over rolling terrain, the weather forecast currently looks promising so all in all it should be a good day.
Overall today has gone very smoothly, apart from Bob Holywell stealing a jelly baby from my hand just as I was about to eat it on the coach travelling up from the airport, really nice friendly group of people on this holiday, I think is going to be great. I guess the only downer is that I'll not be able to upload any video as I had planned because the hotel Internet connection is absolutely terrible, I wish I hadn't paid for it!
No comments:
Post a Comment