Thursday, September 16, 2010
Google Palma de Mallorca pictures and you'll find some beauties. Look for enticing stories about Palma and you won't find much. Here are some paragraphs from Wikipedia.
Main sights
"Palma City Sightseeing" Plaça d'Espanya
The Plaça d'Espanya is the transport hub of Palma. The Estació Intermodal caters for buses and trains (the latter controlled by TIB). The two old buildings home to the tourist information and several cafés sit either side of the two large escalators which lead into the Estació, which interestingly enough sits underneath a large and popular park. On the lawns are several glass boxes, which let in light and ventialtion to the station below ground. There are also train-themed playing structures, each one shaped like a train carriage and named after towns along the line of the Ferrocarril de Sóller, a railway dating back to 1911 which has its Palma Station right next to the park. Just down the street from here a new bus station is under construction.
The Cathedral Area
Palma is famous for La Seu, its vast cathedral originally built on a previous mosque. Although construction began in 1229 it didn't finish until 1601 and local architect Antoni Gaudí was drafted in during a restoration project in 1901. The Parc de la Mar (Park of the Sea) lies just south overlooked by the great building which sits higher than it on the city's stone foundations. Between these two are the town walls. There is a vast canopé of blue and yellow diamonds strung over a low area here, and shaded by this rows of outdoor wooden pews.
The Old City
The Old City (in the south-east area of Palma behind the Cathedral) is a fascinating maze of streets clearly hinting towards an Arab past. With the exception of a few streets and squares which allow traffic and are more populated with tourists most of the time, the walkways of this city quarter are fairly narrow, quiet streets, surrounded by a diverse range of interesting buildings, the architecture of which can easily be compared with those in streets of cities such as Florence (Italy), for example. The majority are private houses, some of which are open to the public as discreet museums or galleries. The tall structures, characteristic window boxes, detailed metal carvings and overhanging eaves of these buildings make a stark contrast with the view of the bay that is obtained by stepping out of the shady alleyways next to the cathedral and onto the old city walls. The Old City is also home to the Ajuntament (or Town Hall), the Convent of the Cathedral and the Banys Àrabs.
Colom street.
View of the ancient mills of El Jonquet.The Banys Àrabs, or Arab Baths, one of the few remnants of Palma's Moorish past, are accessed via the quiet Ca'n Serra street near the Convent of the Cathedral, and include the lush gardens of Ca'n Fontirroig, home to Sardinian warblers, house sparrows, cacti, palm trees, and a wide range of flowers and ferns. The small two-roomed brick building that once housed the bath is in fact of Byzantine, dating back to the 11th century and possibly once part of the home of a Muslim nobleman. The bath room has a cupola with five oculi which let in dazzling light. The twelve columns holding up the small room were pillaged from an earlier Roman construction. The floor over the hypocaust has been worn away by people standing in the centre, mainly to photograph the entrance and the garden beyond it. The whole room is in a rather disreputable condition. The other room is a brick cube with a small model of the baths as they once were in the corner. Unfortunately one of the columns in this model has fallen over.
Garbage Collectors
Harbour of Palma with the Castle of Bellver at deep.Rather more modern additions to the old parts of the city are the attractive and subtle bronze garbage collecting bins. They operate under the simple method of putting one's refuse into the cylinder at the top of the machine and turning a handle which then revolves the cylinder, tipping it into the lower area of the bin.
[edit] Sports
Football is the most important sport on the island, led by the Primera División football league team Real Mallorca with its stadium placed at Palma.
Because of its island condition all the sea sports have also a big presence in Palma. Maybe the most important event is the Trofeo Ciutat de Palma.
Palma was the host of the tennis event Battle of Surfaces.
Playa de Palma in El Arenal.[edit] Geography
Palma is the major city and seaport geographically located in the south-west of Majorca. The city lies on the larger coastal Bay of Palma in the western Mediterranean Sea. The land area of the city is about 21.355 km² with an altitude of 13 metres.
Palma is bordered by rocky inlets and marinas on the south side, whilst many of the tourist resorts are positioned towards the east side of the city. The central zone that extends from Palma is generally a flat fertile plain known as Es Pla. There are two uninhabited islands, which is located southeast of Palma and Dragonera which is west of Palma.
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