2013 Mallorca, España Scenes

An aerial view along the north-west coast mountain range. This was taken as we passed over the western tip of the island, so our place of staying is far into the distance.

The hotel is on the left of this picture. Taken from the main road as we approached it.

A rather understated entrance to this hotel, probably as the best adaptation of this large residence which was once owned by a very rich Mallorcan family.

We susect that this was the original gates to the residence before becoming an hotel. Although the drive curves up through the gardens, it ends at the side of the main buildling which is no longer used for a proper entrance.

A view south along accommodation over the front entrance, taken from one of the dining terraces (visible in picture 03).

As the hotel is on a steep hillside, the beautiful gardens are made from a series of terraces, well planted with flowers and fruit trees, and also providing many sheltered almost private areas suitable for sun lounging.

Some of the trees were bearing fruit, which seems to be Persimmons, the first time we have seen them growing.

Other trees were bearing Pomegranates, including a tiny Bonzai version in one of the show areas.

Deià is renowned for the Spring flowering of the fruit trees, and this looks like unripened Oranges. One part of the gardens was planted with a small path avenue of Orange trees, all slowly developing. I would think this area would smell beautiful in the Springtime.

This it the open-air terrace which is used for evening meals (see picture 13). We were allocated one of the rooms near the far end of the balconies above the restaurant.

Although over the eating area, our balcony looked out through the gardens over the original drive curving around at the bottom of this picture.

These days, the final part of the drive next to the buildlings is used as part of the eating area for evening meals (subject to weather). Here the tables are being set up ready for the food.

When we first saw the night scene, there was quite a lot of garden lights, which made me think that moth trapping from this location would not be successful. However, every night all the lights were turned off at midnight, and our balcony was well shielded from winds by the building wing. The results are shown in another Album here.

Our Moth Trap operating on our Balcony. The Lamp light is misleading, as it is a dark blue colour to the naked eye. Cameras will expose the "black light" as white emmissions like in this picture or sometimes a purple colour, depending on the light sensor used.

This 100mm long Grasshopper was also attracted to the Moth Trap light, and I found it in the morning inside the balcony doors (I'd been going in and out occasionally through the night to see what had come in, so it had probably flown in to the inside curtains). It was on the glass pane of the door, and when I went to pick it up to put outside, I received a powerful hit in the stomach as it decided to hop away when I was just 0.3 metre away from it. I was a bit more careful catching it after that, and after a photograph it flew off into the garden at quite respectable speed.

Also in the Moth Trap the following morning, was this fairly small "Longhorn" beetle (about 20mm body length). I have not yet found an identity for it.

At the northern end of the garden, away from the buildings, was a quite isolated sun terrace, which didn't seem to be used during our stay.

As we were a few kilometres from the coast, but could still see the sea from most of the terraces, down through the main valley.