IBIZA, Balearic Islands, Spain

 

I had never heard of Ibiza before I saw our cruise itinerary.  I discovered when I read about it in the guidebooks that it is a somewhat upscale summer resort island frequented mostly by a younger crowd from Spain and southern Europe. Ibiza is allegedly, where the "foam disco" was invented.  While we were on the island, I had an opportunity to ask what a foam disco is.  I had envisioned walls lined with foam rubber where excited young people danced and caromed off the walls. Close. The dancers are sprayed with foam from spray cans. The walls are not padded. But dancing and caroming off each other is the point of the experience.

The Silver Wind visited out of season.  It was still late winter: the resorts don't get busy until May.  While there was still some night life, Michael and I did not get to see it as we were there during the day and the clubs do not open until after 11 p.m. We were not meant to live on Spanish time.

We had no particular expectations for Ibiza and booked no tours.  After watching the ship dock at 8:00 a.m. we had a leisurely breakfast before venturing ashore around 9:00 a.m. 

The Silver Wind is small enough that the ship was able to dock right next to the street that runs along the shore-front. There were some workmen and street cleaners about.  A few shop owners were cleaning their storefronts but mostly nothing was happening, even at the market.

The Silver Wind's Shore Concierge offered a walking tour of the old walled city, called Dalt Vila, for $50 per person.  We picked up a good map from the tourist official who had come on board and decided to take our own self-guided walking tour as shown on the map.  We had just saved $100!  

We had a wonderful stroll uphill inside the old walled city along narrow cobbled streets and picturesque buildings.  The city is not a museum but has well maintained residences with small boutiques and restaurants interspersed among them.  Most buildings are whitewashed. My impression that Ibiza is an enclave of the wealthy was reinforced when we came to a five star hotel just below the cliff on which sits the cathedral.  Michael and I had a quiet and relaxing walk. The only pedestrians we saw were people from our ship.  Occasionally we saw a small car negotiating the tiny crooked streets.  The corners of the buildings had deep scratches indicating that even the small autos had trouble negotiating the tight turns.

We lingered in the high places until 10:00 when the cathedral opened.  It was historic,relatively simple but pretty and had a small museum attached.  After exploring the city walls we returned around noon to the lower city as the sidewalk café's were just beginning to open.  The patrons appeared to be having breakfast, not lunch.

The local market, not very busy in the off-season, was open.  We discovered a Wi-Fi hotspot outside a nearby café, watched the characters hanging out in the square and checked our e-mail.  It was here that I found that my bank account had been credited with the deposit of the funds from the sale of my Tennessee house!  We returned to the Silver Wind for lunch in a celebratory mood.

Later in the afternoon, we returned to the café for a couple of beers.  We felt that they deserved our business as they had provided us with free Internet service. The stop at Ibiza had turned out to be extremely pleasant.  The weather was relatively warm and sunny; temperatures in the high 60's with little wind.  We had no stress or obligation to do any particular thing but enjoy the experience.