The weather forecast was terrible, wind and high rain all day long. From talking to other hikers it sounds like the trail down is a few kilometers of trail, then lots of road walking. The couple from Madrid found a bus from somewhere along the way and were planning on hiking there, then taking the bus. Stupidly we forgot to ask where, because after thinking about it that sounded like the best option. We started hiking that way, but at some point we started getting suspicious and started looking at where the busses went and we couldn’t find anything reliable about a bus route, there was one, but the hours were irregular and the bus stop was a long way off the trail.
We decided to head back and check out the monastery, then take the bus down from there (which we knew was running). The monastery was basically what we expected, there was a nice church area and a kitschy gift shop, and an interesting botanic garden. Then we checked the bus times, the next bus to Inca (where we connect to other places) was at 11:40, so we went to the cafe and had a coffee and tried some kind of cheesecake with honey and whipped cream (reminded me of ricotta cheesecake), and another cake with some sort of purple fruit based topping that we couldn’t identify. After that we went to the bus stop at 11:35. At 11:40 the bus hadn’t showed up yet, and I checked the schedule again and realized that we forgot that it was Saturday (the days blur when hiking) and the bus has a different schedule for weekends and holidays, and we just missed the bus which came at 11:30 on weekends, and the next one wasn’t until 3:30! We found another bus schedule that came less often and instead of heading to Inca went to Soller (which was fine we just wanted to get out of the wind and rain and get somewhere more interesting), so we walked around a bit and then came back for that bus at 12:30, but the bus never showed up. We checked online and the issue was that other bus line only runs in summer. At that point we walked over to the info center and asked if there was any other option, and they said the only other option was to call a cab. So we asked them to call a cab for us to take us to Inca.
We both got a little motion sick on the drive down because of all of the switchbacks. I honestly didn’t realize we were still quite that high up in the mountains, and made me feel a little like it was cheating to take a car, but the rain and wind was really obnoxious, and I’ve hiked plenty of those days.
In Inca we found a highly rated tapas place for lunch, and while not as amazing as the one is Soller, was really delicious (comparing it to the one in Soller isn’t even fair, that was one of the best meals I’ve eaten in years). The particularly noteworthy dishes for me were the fried baby squid and the spicy Mallorican sausage, which was cooked in oil with greens, peppers, garlic and tomatoes.
Then we walked back to the train station and took a train to Palma.
In Palma we walked around the shops and the old town, and visited the cathedral and then went to the sea and saw the big waves crashing on the shore. It had been raining steadily all day, but then the rain started to really pick up. Our pants and shoes soaked through completely, our jackets leaked in parts (mine was the cheap one I bought in Soller, so not surprising). We found a place to eat some food and warm up a little, and did some research and debated staying up all night or sleeping at the airport, but ultimately decided to get a cheap hotel and a hot shower and dry off and at least get a couple hours of sleep before our flight.
The hotel was a good choice. It was only about a kilometer from the airport, right near the beach, and it wasn’t too expensive, largely because it’s off season I’m sure. We woke up and got a taxi before 4 AM, and got to the airport probably earlier than we needed to, but we weren’t sure if it might take a while to get a taxi. On the plane, and back to Germany!