There is probably no need to write about the fact that time flies at a dizzying pace, it is probably felt by each of us. And that time is relative, a famous theoretician once found that out, only he used complicated mathematical formulas to do it. I have a simple lesson for this, which explains why time is passing faster and faster. It is due simply to the fact that for a one year old child, one year is his entire life, while for a ten year old child it is only a tenth of his life - so relatively speaking, it has passed ten times faster than it did for the toddler. Well, when you're pushing fifty... you can't waste too much time writing some long introductions. So, long story short - summer is here, summer holidays are starting and we're off on a family holiday.

The choice of the destination was of course not completely random. Our two older children have completed their first year of Spanish lessons, and even my wife and I have begun to make an effort to learn at least the basics of this lively language, so the search for our destination had a clear parameter - the official language of the country should be Spanish, so that we would have the opportunity to put our newly acquired knowledge into practice. Well, let's pour ourselves some clear wine right from the start - there hasn't been much of that knowledge yet, and some of us don't have high ambitions either. Personally, I take learning another language in my middle age primarily as a "dementia prevention", and I will wash any communicative achievements as a nice bonus.

We started our search for a holiday destination with the intention of finding a nice place on the south coast of Spain, where we had never been before, without using the services of a travel agency, but due to the fact that we got to this planning stage quite late this time, the offer was already quite full and we still couldn't find accommodation that would suit our needs and at the same time not be too far out of our budget. So our efforts slipped into searching travel agency catalogues and checking if there were still places available. In the end, as it usually happens, we ended up with the same travel agency as always... and the choice of destination this time fell, as it has many times in our past, on the island of Mallorca - later we even calculated that this holiday was the tenth anniversary holiday for some of our family members. The original intention to visit some place that was not familiar to us had therefore taken its toll, but on the other hand we knew quite well what we were getting into, even though our hotel was different this time, a few hundred meters from the accommodation resort that had hosted us many times in the past. It is also true that it has been six years since our last visit to our favourite island - our youngest daughter was not even one year old then, and therefore it was as if she had not been here yet, and our middle son didn't remember much either, so we took it as an opportunity to show the youngest and remind everyone else of some of the beautiful places and attractions.

So our vacation was booked, the girls started to adjust their outfits and the departure date was approaching. With only a few days left, my wife and I were sitting on a bench at dusk after an evening walk and after a few months we started wondering aloud if we should get a fancy selfie stick in the form of a drone so that we could immortalize ourselves as a family in many beautiful places without having to bother passers-by or install a camera with an activated self-timer on the stumps. This idea has crossed our minds a few times, most recently with Santa Claus, but so far it has always ended up not only on the question of whether such a selfie stick is too much of a luxury, but also on the fact that to operate a drone, albeit a man-sized one, but with a camera, requires registration of its operator, but more importantly also of the pilot, along with passing some kind of online test. So, this did not depend only on the acquisition of a drone, because I have several radio-controlled aircraft at home, with which I have occasionally gone to the field, but since the new standards came into force, I have not yet gotten around to studying the rules of flying and, therefore, that registration and test. With only a few days to go before I left for vacation, the idea of getting a drone seemed to take hold again. However, since my wife likes to take pictures of our family and I wanted to make her happy, I tried to find out what the registration and the test actually was. So I found out which website the registration is done on, and in order to learn more, I thought I would try to register for now, then study some more and try to take the test - but I probably won't be able to do it before the holiday. After entering a few details and verifying via bank identity, the first question of the test suddenly jumped out at me, and that time was running out... Safra, I read somewhere that there are only two attempts, and then you need to re-register - anyway, let's try, there are a few holiday mistakes to pass the test. And so, within the next half an hour, without much preparation, I successfully passed the test I had been putting off for almost two years, and also because of that, all I had been doing all this time was getting dust on my planes. When I unexpectedly managed to pass the test and became a registered pilot, the way to purchase the drone was clear - we ordered it on the e-shop, which guaranteed timely delivery, picked up the box, and since there was little time left, we just loaded the contents of the package into the backpack, with the understanding that the familiarization with the operator and the first flight would take place in Mallorca.

Besides the backpack with the drone, of course, as always, we had to pack suitcases with clothes, toiletries and cosmetics, toys for the youngest member of the expedition and games to make the long evenings more interesting, in case we got bored. Despite early and repeated calls, the children failed as always to prepare their things in advance, so the packing took place in the usual slightly tense atmosphere, but at least I vowed this time not to let anything disturb me and to leave for the holiday in complete peace, which I managed to do - I stuffed my luggage into the car, checked the windows closed several times and turned off the appliances, and still we arrived at the airport well in advance. However, this advance turned out to be unnecessary, as the plane was about an hour late for departure. Never mind, I'm not going to let that get me down either - my wife and I bought a small bottle of Bohemka ICE at the departure terminal in the convenience store and the world was immediately a bit happier 

When the plane started to move a little before midnight and we took off, the journey was quite relaxing - at least for those of us who consider the occasional turbulence as a pleasant rocking, inviting us to sleep, while other passengers are convinced that the plane will disintegrate in the air and we will all perish. My wife belongs to the latter group, so she does not enjoy air travel very much - but fortunately she understood early on in our relationship that there are many destinations in the world that cannot be reasonably visited except by plane, and that her desire to explore the great outdoors is stronger than her fear of flying. An interesting paradox is undoubtedly my wife's predilection for watching programmes such as 'Air Disasters', which could be classified by some experts as a hint of mild masochism. But it may be the same pragmatism that I have, namely that the investigation of every such air crash means that others have already crashed, made aviation a little safer by their sacrifice, and therefore, statistically speaking, we should be at almost no risk when we fly. For myself, I might add that if we had accidentally given our own lives in the process of gradually improving aviation safety through trial and error, I take comfort in knowing that our sacrifice would not have been in vain either, and would have pushed aviation safety standards up another notch... and maybe they would have made another episode of "Air Disasters" about us - you never know how famous you will become.

After landing, we managed to successfully reunite with all our luggage and despite the flight delay, we were met not only by the travel agency's delegate, but also by the bus we boarded to complete the last leg of our journey to our holiday destination. Due to the late hour of the night, the kids were snoozing a bit on the bus, and I may have even blinked an eye for a moment, so we were actually in front of the hotel in no time. We pulled all our bags and the kids into the hotel reception, and after a while we got our room unlock cards, and headed to our temporary abodes designated for the next few days. Since our family of five is usually no longer reasonable to fit into one hotel room, we have recently started booking two rooms, with one occupied by the parents and youngest child, while the older siblings have the other room reserved for them. It was the same this time, the kids piled into one of the rooms, we into the other, but after a while we discovered that the chips at this point, already firmly anchored to the wrists of the two older kids, were opening the lock of our chosen room and vice versa. So close the trunks again and switch positions. Once we were in the room, which we also had access chips from, we noticed that at least a cold dinner wrapped in food foil was waiting for us on the table, as we hadn't had a chance to catch the hot one due to our late arrival. This was of course a nice detail, the less pleasant aspect of this fact was that our dinner had also apparently been smelled by some sort of fleshy cockroach that had followed it from somewhere outside through a crack under the door. As I am very reluctant to share my dinner, I had a short but fatal fight with the poor cockroach. Someone might have made a fuss in the reception afterwards about how it was possible for a cockroach to appear in a four-star hotel room... However, I have met a cockroach in a hotel several times and I do not attribute its occurrence so much to poor cleaning and hygiene in the accommodation facility as to the fact that it is a beetle abundantly found in the places of residence of people who give it sustenance with their garbage, like bears in the Tatras, and therefore it is not too surprising if occasionally one strays from the garbage cans and into the building, especially if there is food available somewhere. I'll tell you straight - if I can choose between a cockroach, which I can easily step on, or a bear, which could easily squash me, I choose the cockroach, although of course I don't like any vermin in my room.

After the trip we were all very tired and we went to sleep very late, so by the time we woke up the sun was looking down on the world. Once the curtain was open, we had a beautiful and wide view of the sea, which many hotels don't offer. Due to the fact that the hotel we were guests of this time has all the rooms facing one side, i.e. Sa Coma beach, there is no extra charge for the view, and as we were drawn for rooms on a higher floor, we had a view like the captain's bridge of an ocean liner. So a hundred points for the view, it just seemed to blow a bit harder that first morning than we've been used to in this area in the past, which also picked up waves that with a little effort could maybe be surfed. So, feeling like we were in Hawaii a bit, we headed off for breakfast, which was fortunately as we expected, European, but accompanied by plenty of fruit, alongside which were a couple of bottles of sparkling wine. Normally I don't drink alcohol this way in the morning, but since we are on vacation here, I couldn't resist and filled two glasses for me and my wife - but she didn't like the local drink very much, so I had two glasses for breakfast and the morning was even a bit happier 

While the first day we spent on the beach in front of the hotel and its surroundings, on the second day after breakfast we went on a slightly longer expedition - we went for a walk across the peninsula separating our beach from the next beach Cala Millor. The path led up a short hill, on which there is a small historic fortress - we visited that too, except for my son who, instead of seeing the medieval structure and the view from it, preferred to hunt Pokémon in its surroundings. We then made our way down the hill and after a while we arrived at a boardwalk stretching along the entire neighboring beach, just like ours. We'd been here a few times in our earlier days, so among other things, we looked to see what had changed since our last visit. We found a couple of shuttered eateries that may have been put down by Covid, but maybe they also just haven't stood up to the competition of the others, who knows. Since we wanted to have some cold drinks and ice cream as a reward for our touristy exploits, we chose one of the establishments, which judging by the crowdedness of its front garden is still thriving, and settled down for a while to relax and enjoy the view of the local beach. When we had sufficiently indulged, had drunk all our drinks and the kids had finished their ice cream, we headed into the alleys a little further away from the beach, where dozens of different shops await tourists. What kind of holiday would it be if the children didn't bring some more or less useless thing that they really need to have at the moment? And so the shops have to be browsed, the children's enthusiasm tamed and channeled so that they buy something at least a little bit meaningful, but at the same time it is of course necessary that the acquired thing should cause at least a temporary wave of joy, because that, unlike the acquired thing, is really important. At the same time, however, we were also watching our watches a bit as we walked along, as it was approaching Friday afternoon and the F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend. The uninitiated probably wouldn't know, nor would we have until recently, but after all, Friday afternoons are always the first timed practice sessions, and as we have become F1 fans thanks to our older daughter and Netflix, we try not to miss any important part of the race or the build-up to it. Our intention, therefore, was to transport ourselves back to our beach and hotel using the local train (running along the road) which connects the two neighbouring resorts and is also a bit of an attraction for the kids. Completing this task required obtaining two pieces of information - i.e. "where can you board the train" and "what time does the next train leave"? We spent some time trying to find the train stop by instinct, but this did not lead us to our destination quickly enough. So we opted for plan "B" - ask one of the natives. Armed with the basics of Spanish from a few lessons we had taken, we felt we could put together a sentence with a question, but whether we would understand the answer was far from certain... After a while, we came across a lady doing street cleaning, which was our opportunity. To our flowery question consisting of two words "Bare, tren?" we didn't get any verbal answer that we could reproduce, but fortunately the lady waved in a specific direction, and off we went - then after a while we actually came across a train stop, and as the time and numbers are compatible with each other across Europe, we could read without using a dictionary how long the train would take. There was no one at the bus stop yet, and there was still about a quarter of an hour to go, which we decided to spend in the shade of the adjacent shop. However, I was a bit nervous that someone might steal our first place in the train queue, so I slowly drifted back to the stop from the shop... and I did the right thing, because other tourists had already started to arrive, and even though they had to register me and there could be no doubt about my first place, they were pushing their way to the front, which I didn't want to miss and I defended my first place - I took the space right next to the sign. I was concerned, however, and as it soon turned out they were justified, that the train might not stop exactly at the sign, and then my rights, or at worst myself, might be trampled on by the other transport seekers without my getting first turn. I speak of myself here in the singular, but I was, of course, defending the interests and rights of the whole family, the rest of which had so far tactically sheltered itself from the sun in the nearest shade. As the waiting crowds grew, the family members realized that I might be trampled even before the train arrived, and so they heroically joined me. Of course, when the train arrived, it didn't stop exactly at the sign, but what's more, it was boarded from the opposite side. So we lost several positions at once, but we took a tactical manoeuvre - I sent the family members to the carriages behind the locomotive to get on, even though they didn't have tickets yet - I fought for them with the driver myself, which fortunately I managed, the family held their positions and soon we were moving

Since we were running a bit late on the way back to the hotel, we arrived in the lobby with WiFi signal only when the first measured training sessions were over... so their online live broadcast, but watching the recording somehow doesn't have the magic, when in the meantime my daughter had already read most of the important events from this training on her mobile phone. So we waited for the second timed practice scheduled for a later hour and my daughter was still skimming fragments of the first practice, although she was significantly hampered by the reliability and speed of the hotel WiFi network, which certainly did not deserve the nickname "F1".

And how did it happen that our elder daughter is the main formula reviewer and the one who inspired the rest of the family to watch the whole series of grand prizes? Several factors are probably to blame - one is the fact that there is currently a significant percentage of young drivers among F1 drivers who attract young ladies. These fast beauties and the crew of people around them are of course active on social media. Well, in addition to that, there is a series on Netflix called "Drive to survive" which gives an interesting insight into the wheel of Formula 1 and the behind the scenes of its teams. The disclosure of our daughter's penchant for formula cars actually happened by accident when I asked her on the morning car ride to school what her plans were for the upcoming weekend. Her answer surprised and delighted me at the same time when she told me that the F1 Grand Prix was on in Melbourne, Australia and she wanted to watch it - preferably not just the race itself, but everything including qualifying and practice, which is fun from Friday to Sunday. As a guy who likes fast machines and as my wife often drives faster than I do, it flashed in my mind's eye that our teenage daughter and I might find some common interest. So we started to find out on which channel they would be broadcasting, and the result was a slight disappointment - none of those that can be caught for free on the antenna. Since we didn't want to let the chance to watch a sports carousel together pass us by, we found out that we couldn't do it without paying for one of the Internet TV packages. I resisted all those subscriptions for online music and movie services for years, arguing that there were more than enough movies and music on traditional TV and radio, but I guess I'm getting soft and gradually succumbed to pressure from marketers and family members, so we now have subscriptions to both a music service (I pay for that and probably listen to most of it :-) and some movie resources (here my wife is the sponsor). With the logical argument that it doesn't make sense to add yet another money and time guzzler to those existing entertainment sources, so we should part with one of the existing ones and subscribe to a service that includes formulaic streaming instead, I ultimately failed. The wife pulled the trump card of stating that she was the one who was already paying for two movie services out of her budget, so she would add the internet TV package rather than cancel any of the services. Plus, the price seemed very sympathetic at first (which has unfortunately changed over time), so I didn't even protest much and rather looked forward to the early morning alarm ringing and meeting my daughter and me in front of the screen. Since then, we've done so whenever the formulas are going and we're not alone somewhere out of signal range. And besides, we all spent the next few weeks watching the Drive to Survive series together, from which we also picked up a few funny phrases for the family dictionary, which we use quite often and with a smile.

Since we were not too happy with the family watching the formulas on the mobile phone screen and with snail hotel WiFi, we decided to leave nothing to chance for the qualifying and the race itself. While walking around the area, we noticed that a number of local pubs and bars were running various sports broadcasts on big screens, so we picked one restaurant right across the street from the hotel with the goal of talking the staff into playing the formula on the screen. The choice of pub wasn't random - the Silverstone Grand Prix was on, so we chose the Britania Pub in style. To curry favour with the staff, we went there at lunchtime and left a decent tip, after which we booked the best table for qualifying and the race itself. As it turned out, booking for qualifying was essentially pointless as we were pretty much watching it on our own, but when we arrived on Sunday in advance of the race, booking proved to be the move of seasoned pub fans - most of the good seats in the restaurant were taken, with only the best table being unattended until we arrived. As it turned out just after the start, watching the formulae in a pub setting has its charms, as a heroic battle between one of the McLaren drivers against the then dominant driver of the stable with the red bull in the emblem was rewarded with applause... just a pity the young man in the British car didn't win - perhaps a round on the house would have been in order, but it was still a classy experience.

Partly inspired by fast cars, but mainly with the intention to go a bit further away from the hotel and try out our new four-propeller selfie stick in the form of a drone, we rented a pedal carriage from one of the rental companies. Choosing a particular vehicle wasn't easy, as there are five of us, while most of the vehicles on offer were only designed for four people, or two adults and a couple of children smaller in stature than our two older offspring. So we ended up with the biggest almost-bus we could find, the rental was of course also the most expensive, partly because this vehicle was also equipped with an auxiliary electric motor - which was actually stylish, as today's formula cars also have hybrid power. It was my first time driving a vehicle like this and I must admit that manoeuvring on narrow cycle paths and especially passing oncoming vehicles was a bit of a struggle at first. Also, getting to a suitable place to take off with the drone for the first time proved to be beyond the time capabilities of our rental, as we had to turn around early to be able to return the drone before the rental shop closed. In the end, we managed to take a few family photos on our mobile phones somewhere near the neighbouring beach, and then we had to speed back at a brisk pace with the humming of the auxiliary engine. Finding a suitable spot to test the drone probably won't be easy with all the people around and besides, flying drones is not allowed on a good part of the island due to air traffic or protected areas, but hopefully we'll find a suitable opportunity on the next planned trips we wanted to rent a car for.

One of the goals we set for our trips was Cape Formentor. When we looked at one of the car rental companies and saw that it was possible to rent a car called Cupra Formentor, we were tempted by the idea of taking a picture with the rented Formentor on Formentor - so the choice of car was clear. After a short introduction to the car, we set off and put our eldest daughter in charge of the music production, whose phone was wirelessly connected to the car's infotainment. Strangely enough, the most frequently played piece was the Formula 1 anthem, but no one on our team minded. As we were already approaching the last stretch of the road, the winding serpentine roads in front of Formentor, we soon found out that since our last visit to these places there had been changes and it was no longer possible to drive the car to the destination - we had to leave it in the parking lot and wait for the bus that shuttles tourists back and forth. The idea of a photo of a rented Formentor in the same place disappeared, but since we liked the choice of the car anyway, we decided to forgive the locals for this oversight and not to complain to the rental company. When the bus arrived, there was already a good queue at the bus stop. Our expedition heroically defended the front positions and we jumped into the vehicle among the first.I then unplannedly slowed down the flow of other passengers, because I found out that for each passenger in our group I had to make an extra beep with my credit card at the driver's terminal, and each transaction took some time, and all of this multiplied by five... caused the bus line to be almost delayed. The journey to the Cape was then quite adrenaline-fuelled, as the driver was probably also a fan of car racing, cutting corners decently, he just didn't seem to notice what vehicle he was driving and how narrow the road was. Fortunately, it didn't take long and we arrived at a viewpoint where we jumped off the bus... well, everyone except me, because I found out that when leaving the car you have to beep your card again for each member of the expedition. Cape Formentor is a beautiful place that is definitely worth a visit, maybe even a possible fine for some - according to what I read somewhere on the web, you're not supposed to fly drones in this area, but still, one daredevil among the visitors took to taking aerial shots. No, it wasn't me, although I did have our selfie stick in my backpack - with a few exceptions related to the speed of car traffic, I try not to break the rules, and I haven't even had a chance to try out our drone yet, so we only have regular handheld photos from these places. On the way back on the bus, I had another nice beep with my credit card and just rolled my eyes, wondering why no one thought that the terminal could offer the option of selecting more passengers after the first beep. After transferring to the rental car, we moved on to a late lunch at an American-style Tex Mex restaurant that my wife and I remembered from the past - some good things, fortunately, remain, so we stuffed our bellies with goodies, then shopped for some perfume at a little shop across the way, which was also a repeat of the past, and then it was time to head back to the hotel to get some more rest before dinner.

The next day we set off in a borrowed car to the sound of the Formula 1 anthem for another trip. This time we went to explore the marine life enclosed in aquariums on the outskirts of the island's main metropolis, the Palma aquarium. The last part of our journey from our part of the island is along the highway, which slopes down at some part and heads towards the local busy airport, offering a nice view of the planes that gradually descend beside you in a never-ending chain to the runway, carrying in their guts hordes of other tourists hungry for local beauty and Mediterranean delicacies, which they will be gorging themselves on in the following days as part of their all-inclusive programs. From this point of view, it is probably a good thing that the planes that carry the fattened tourists off the island usually take off over the sea, so there is not much risk of them hitting one of the local hills after take-off in case of overloading... But back to our trip - after a while of searching we found a free underground parking lot not far from the entrance to the aquarium, so it didn't take long and soon we could admire the beauty of the underwater world with dry feet between the water tanks. After we walked around a bit, I found it useful to sit in a local 3D cinema - they were showing some movie about whales, but it was quite dark, so I don't remember much of the plot, but I had a nice nap.The most popular part of the program followed, a lunch of unhealthy fried food followed by ice cream. Calorically fortified, we set off in search of the remaining exhibits and attractions of the aquarium until we reached the exit - here, of course, it was necessary to pass through the operator's subtle trap, a shop with various souvenirs. Fortunately, we made it through without any financial loss, but once we were outside, we discovered that our youngest daughter was missing her new stuffed animal, which she had acquired the previous day during an evening stroll. Naturally, there was sadness and panic, the little one was lost... we promptly tasked our older daughter with a lightning search - even though we were already out of the area, she managed to sneak back inside and headed against the tide of visitors to the most likely place of the last plush pet's whereabouts, i.e. where the little one had been drawing fish. To our delight, it wasn't long before the executor of the rescue mission appeared at the exit, clutching a Muppet in her hand. Fortunately, this incident was without permanent loss, the tears dried up after a while and we could think what to do with the afternoon.Since the girls were outnumbered, the visit to the outlet, a shopping mall located on the other side of town, won. So we went to the underground car park to get the car, I then headed with my parking ticket to the machine, where I paid a few EURo, with a local clerk helping me with the machine, whereupon another client of the car park approached her and asked if parking was free when visiting the aquarium, which she confirmed... and I just blurted out that we were at the aquarium too - but alas, we had already paid and no one was going to refund our money, dammit. Unnecessarily deprived of a certain amount of money and understandably somewhat annoyed by this organizational error, i.e. by the fact that I had not studied the parking conditions and the local staff had not warned me about them, I got into the car and we headed towards the outlet. There, fortunately, I was not robbed of my money while parking, we did a little shopping, focusing on pieces of clothing with logos of selected Formula 1 stables, after which we went to the hotel to catch dinner. On the way, I tried to look around to see if there was a suitable spot to try out the drone, but I didn't find one and soon we were at the hotel... where there was no free parking space nearby - so I dropped my family off at the hotel and parked myself at a larger supermarket a little further away. Before heading to the hotel myself, I decided to try my luck at finding an airport for the drone to fly into - so I went for a longer walk around the area.After a couple of kilometres, I finally got lucky and came across an older, freely accessible football field. With the slight nervousness that of course must have accompanied the first flight with a new machine, I took the drone and remote out of my backpack where I had transported them in plastic lunch boxes - so I actually unpacked my lunch - unfolded the drone into its flight configuration, placed it in the middle of the field, and zipped up all the parts of the system. When I gave the launch instructions via the app on my phone, and the machine took off on its own a moment later, waiting in place for commands, and with a few flicks of the levers I found that it would guide itself nicely without requiring much effort or any reflexes, as the clever electronics took care of everything, so I circled the course a few times, took a few photos and a short test video, whereupon I landed safely and happily headed off to the hotel for a slightly later dinner today, but knowing that taking nice selfies with the family shouldn't be a problem with our new flying selfie stick.

The trip planned for the next day was to Port de Soller, from where we wanted to take a boat to Sa Callobra Bay. The car journey was in a pleasant and optimistic spirit, again accompanied by music in the form of the motorsport queen's anthem. After a while we managed to park up and headed towards the marina, with me carrying my backpack with my drone snack on my back waiting for our first family picnic - I was hoping to find a suitable spot for a family aerial photo somewhere. We were in luck, as one of the boats was just about to set sail in the right direction at the marina. So we bought return tickets at the ticket office and boarded the boat, which was bobbing in the gentle breeze that day on the waves of the harbor. However, when we left the sheltered cove and got out to open sea, the boat started to rock a bit more and water splashed from the bow all the way to the deck. The kids may have liked it a bit at first, but when the rocking didn't stop and the roller coaster ride on the waves began to raise concerns for their safety in some of our family members (and maybe not just them), the stomachs of a few fellow passengers put the crown on it, emptying their contents directly onto the deck without warning. This was beginning to make even the members of our expedition sick, who were now looking longingly for the port, and some began to declare that there was no way they were going back by boat.When we disembarked, we headed to a nearby restaurant to settle some of our stomachs with the help of sweetened drinks. We got some food right away, but my shipmates' thoughts were more on how to get back without having to get on the boat than on food. One of the plans was that only I would take the boat for the return trip and drive for the rest of the expedition. However, as we found out some time ago, there was a requirement to have a permit to enter the area, which of course we did not have, so this plan proved to be inapplicable. My son then found out that a regular bus could run here... indeed it did run here a few years ago, but that option was not currently available either. Since there was a taxi stand across from the restaurant, I figured that if a taxi was waiting here, I could send the family to the nearest town, where I could then pick them up myself in a rental car. Unfortunately, this plan also got a crack after a local policeman standing nearby told me that the taxi would not come here by itself and the only option was to order it extra and pay its way to us and back, which would not be cheap at all... and of course I would have to take a boat to get the car.This option didn't seem quite ideal to me either, so I started to convince the others that the sea would surely calm down by the time we returned, and that we would sit on the boat so that it would rock us as little as possible. Not wanting to waste any more time, we set off on a short walk towards a gorge called the Torrent de Pareis, which empties into the sea with a beautiful beach dotted with small stones. The last time we were here years ago, it was not a very busy place, but this time, to our surprise, there was no movement on the narrow beach. But the kids and my wife at least got their feet wet in the sea water for a while, after which we walked a bit inland, where I finally got the drone out and took the first few pictures for the family album. In the end, they were also the last pictures on this holiday, as there was no more flight of our drone in the airspace of Mallorca. Well, hopefully we will enjoy the conveniences of this modern technology more on our next trips. Slowly the time began to approach when the ship was due to depart for its return journey, and so we made our way to the dock. This time we had a slightly different boat waiting for us, but hopefully slightly smaller waves. In order to rock us as little as possible, we chose a strategic spot in the back near the bar, and furthermore, in the centerline of the boat, which seemed like the best place, in a rustic sort of way. We then made our way back without any stomach upset for any of the passengers and after a while the whole family jumped ashore in good spirits.For the children's enjoyment, we then arranged for my wife and I to take the tourist train from the port town of Port de Soller to the centre of Soller itself, while I would drive there and pick them up. So when they got on and I waved them off, I walked a short distance to the parking lot and waited for the signal that it was time to leave, and also for the GPS coordinates of the meeting point so that the rest of the tour could just hop in the car and I wouldn't have to find parking. The signal still wasn't coming, so I started reminding myself that I was still waiting... after a while, I managed to make contact with the other part of the expedition, who by that time were already wandering around the narrow streets of Soller, but they couldn't find a suitable meeting point and pinpoint its location. Eventually, we somehow agreed on an approximate location and I tried to plug it into the car's navigation system, which was unsuccessful - it must have been some version of the navigation app that only knows shops, gas stations and restaurants, because it wouldn't accept street names. So I entered the street into my phone and went ahead as it instructed. It was easy until I reached the town, but there I plunged into a tangle of narrow streets that I sometimes struggled to maneuver through - at that point I understood why many islanders probably drive mini-cars. Given that I was currently steering a machine of fairly compact proportions, I can't reasonably imagine how I would have navigated my way there with a larger SUV or, heaven forbid, a proper road cruiser native to America.Well, I cursed a bit behind the wheel when I passed several times the parade of scooters parked on the sides of the paths, where even without them it was a bit crowded, but eventually I arrived with great relief at a small square, where a family was waiting for me - they quickly jumped into the car and after a while we finally got out of the labyrinth and took a course towards the hotel, where dinner was waiting for us after our return as always.

On the last day with the rented car we had planned a trip to see dolphins in Marineland, which is located a short drive outside Palma, in the direction we had already practiced from previous trips. We bought our tickets online again, but were still considering whether to give the kids a more personal experience than just watching the dolphin show from the poolside grandstand. Yes, one option was to put them in the front row - maybe the stars of the show would give them a good splash and the experience would be worth the price of the basic admission. We knew from our friends, however, that it should be possible to pet the dolphin and play with it a bit, but that even in the off-season it cost a hefty sum, so we could expect some more increases during the holiday season, within the laws of market economics, and despite the high price, we might not even get our money's worth. Since I could not find any specific and up-to-date information or reservation system for this attraction on the web beforehand, I had no choice but to look for information on the spot and decide immediately based on the price and available dates. So we walked into the seaside amusement park and after a while of searching we found a booth offering extra experiences. Our eldest daughter has a photo of her with a dolphin from way back when, so one of the options was to at least treat her two younger siblings to the same.The price for a photo and a brief caress of a dolphin's snout didn't seem quite low to me then, and of course visitor interest and inflation have driven it even higher... and it's still just one photo. So I ended up looking at it from the other side, with the emphasis on the experience and not just a photo for the album - we slammed our pockets significantly more and paid for the kids to spend some time with the dolphin, scratching it, a hint of training and feeding it treats. A pleasant surprise was that the parents could watch the kids enjoying themselves from a vantage point right next to the pool - but beware, no photos allowed... Of course, because before leaving you still had to buy photos taken by a local photographer for some extra "change" J On the way back to the hotel we had two more tourist destinations - the historic Castillo de Bellver fortress on the hill above Palma, and then the cathedral in the center of the city. Since I had one online work meeting scheduled despite my vacation, that one worked out just right for the hill above Palma - so the kids and my wife went to the fortress and I stood below it with my phone in hand and headphones in my ears. It worked out just right, so moments after I disconnected, the family arrived and we were able to move on to the cathedral. Since I don't like weaving through the streets of foreign cities, finding parking near our destination was once again a test of my nerves and those of my neighborhood.Eventually, however, we managed to park right next to the cathedral, which my wife then excitedly took pictures of, and the kids enjoyed the promised ice cream. Having refreshed ourselves with the frozen treat and solved the problem of the lack of public toilets in the town thanks to the helpfulness of one of the waiters at a nearby restaurant, we got into the car, pulled out of the car park and slowly made our way through the afternoon traffic to the hotel. There I dropped the family off and then drove a short distance next door to return the rental car. In the local island kingdom it always surprises me that when returning the car, nobody checks if it is even there and in what condition - at least if you have paid the "full insurance" (otherwise I probably wouldn't have wanted it) - you just hand over the keys to someone and give the approximate location of the car

On our last night we had dinner planned at a Mexican restaurant that was part of our hotel. Not that we were such big fans of Mexican cuisine, no, but we were entitled to one such dinner during our stay, so we had to take advantage of it J When we were seated in the restaurant, the waiter started to bring us appetizers, main courses, desserts... Well, there was a lot of it, but many of these dishes the other family members were not willing to consume, so the plates gradually piled up in front of me and I, as a good host, tried to save (let's say eat) what I could, since it was already paid for and someone was cooking with it. Let me remind you that our family has five members... and from some courses, five plates appeared in front of me. Although I did my best, it was ultimately not in my power to "save" everything, so by the end I was just polishing off the best bites and many of the plates were taken away intact by the waiter of that size. Even so, I ate so much that I spent most of the evening and the following morning in the toilet reminiscing about all the goodies, especially the spicier bits 

The next day we had a flight to catch, unfortunately not until the evening. Why unfortunately? Because you have to leave your room in the morning, put your bags somewhere, and then spend most of the day somewhere around the pool waiting for the bus to pick you up in the afternoon. The other family members may not mind that much, they recreate until the last minute, and then they take a shower somewhere after swimming in combat conditions, but for me, the vacation ends with handing over the room. At that point, I feel I'm kind of on my way, I have everything I need on me and with me, and I'm actually just waiting to leave. The only way I could extend the time marked as a holiday is to buy the so-called "late check-out", i.e. the possibility to vacate the room later, which I would of course like to do this time, but as it happens, the maids need to rush to the rooms to prepare them for the next holidaymakers, so I'm out of luck.Not that I want to spend any time in the room, no, but it suits me to be able to leave my luggage there, and when the time comes, to take a decent shower, change clothes and recharge everything. When that didn't work out, I, already switched into travel mode, waited in the hotel lobby for long hours for the bus, interspersed with hot and cold drinks from the bar, while the other members of the expedition, still in "vacation" mode, enjoyed the hotel pool and basked in the sun. As the time of the bus arrival approached, the family gradually changed into travellers as well, and the wet swimsuits ended up in a plastic bag in the suitcase.

And here we are, sitting in the bus and heading to the airport, mostly along the road we ourselves have travelled several times in the past few days on our trips. At the airport, we were faced with the usual inconveniences such as queuing for check-in or checking our luggage and pockets. With that out of the way, we wanted to have dinner. However, it was approaching 10 o'clock, and as we discovered, most of the airport's dining options were closing at 10, and there was such a line in front of most of them that it was probably impossible to get to the last one in line. So, in the last minutes before closing time, we snagged at least some sandwiches and drinks from one of the shops and went to the gate area to consume them, where we were to board the plane. Just when it looked like we were about to finish chewing our cud and jump on the machine, the departure of our plane was announced to be delayed by about an hour... That is, the same delay on the return as on the departure - probably so that no one would claim that his stay in Mallorca had been cut short by the previous delay on the arrival by an hour 

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