One of the irreplaceable experiences of a trip to the island of Mallorca involves visiting Valldemosa, an area framed by the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range (a World Heritage Site). Going with a rented car is recommended, as is delving into its history, trying a coca de patata (an extremely luscious Mallorcan pastry) and later going down to a tucked-away part of the coast.
Listening to Spring Waltz* you feel his delicate-fingered hands extending from the heavens to stir your inner being. You allow the rocky landscape of the “Serra”* to immerse and enclose you. You notice other hands: landscapes of strong hands that have left their marks with every marjada* on the way. It smells of cypresses, olive trees, almond trees, pines, cool moss and,
submerging into the most beloved… VALLDEMOSSA.
Its atmosphere seduces you, its enchanted streets that narrate the lives of writers, musicians, artists. A scene of couples entwined in infinite passions, of ardent love affairs, mystic or carnal, of understandings and misunderstandings, a letter box for cartas espirituales,* for love letters. A prelude accompanies you, No. 7,* and your soul shimmers.
And you delight in painting yourself a sugar moustache*
psst… at Can Molinas.*
And you bathe among “rolling stones”* and cool water down in the cove with the gentle descent.
By Regina Palomero
*Spring Waltz (work by the composer Chopin, who resided in Valldemossa).
*Serra: the local name for the Sierra de la Tramuntana mountain range.
*Marjada: terrace made by hand with dry-stone walls, used for mountain farming.
*Such illustrious individuals have lived in Valldemossa as Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria, Unamuno, Ramón Llull, Chopin and George Sand, and the Douglas family, among many others.
*Cartas espirituales: a work by Saint Catherine of Palma (patron saint of Valldemossa).
*Prelude No. 7: work by Chopin.
*A sugar moustache is what gets imprinted on your face after biting into a coca de patata dusted with icing sugar, typical in Valldemossa (trying them at Can Molinas, a bakery-café that first opened its doors in 1920, is recommended).
*Rolling stones: The Valldemossa Cove is rocky, with rounded boulders.
