May 2021. The Belgian government lifted the ban on leisure travel in April, but strict travel rules limited options. As the Balearic Islands – lles Balears or Islas Baleares – were a yellow zone, we booked flights and a hotel in Palma de Mallorca.
We chose Manacor as our ‘outside Palma excursion’ as we the heritage to Sóller didn’t run due to coronavirus countermeasures. But we did want to test the trains in Mallorca. So we went to Manacor.
Manacor is a town and municipality in the north east of Mallorca. It has tourist areas such as Porto Cristo, site of the famous Caves of Drach, and Cales de Mallorca. Manacor has one of the busiest street markets on the island, held every Monday morning. Manacor is famous for furniture manufacture and artificial pearls.
It’s also were Rafael Nadal was born.
The two guidebooks Danny brought with him painted an underwhelming picture of Manacor. But we saw a vibrant town, albeit calm due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Some hindsight research on the Spanish and Catalan Wikipedia pages and on Visit Manacor also show a vibrant cultural life and a few sights to explore. We clearly even ‘underdo’ Manacor.
We just walked around in the city centre. Both the Església Nostra Senyora dels Dolors and the Torre del Palau were closed. So we had lunch at Mig i Mig.
Enchanted Manacor
While there, there was this city event ‘Manacor Encatat‘ or ‘Enchanted Manacor‘ going on. This event was a campaign to support local businesses.
Sebastià Riera Pocoví and Toni Galmés Bennàssar created five large wooden, cardboard, foam and polyurethane figures that are related to an enchanted forest: a gnome, a fairy, a pegasus, a tree-man and a dragon. It gave the city centre an enchanted atmosphere.
Als scattered around town were some oversized mushrooms.
Post scriptum
Can I add an end note?
The flag and coat of arms of Manacor are awesome. The typical Aragon red and yellow, obviously but also a heart in a hand. Mana (hand) and cor (heart).
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