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A huge patch of gloom has fallen on us this week. A beautiful fresco painted by a brilliant local artist has its place in the Teixidores Square. It was covered in graffiti next to the window of Aqualia’s office, the bus stop and other places on Thursday night.
It only took a few hours to stop the suspected vandal. Known to the police and many in the community, he is now in trouble. Sheer disappointment is felt all around the absurdity of this behavior.
A day before the police were called with a sensitive issue involving a minor. Once the situation was resolved, the police took Social media congratulate themselves on their work. We watched in horror as the impropriety became apparent and the neighbors were outraged.
Is all this just the madness of summer?
Festivals and markets
The people of Soller don’t like heavy hearts. We are mostly sun people and we greet our visitors with smiles and positivity. We are looking forward to at a waterfront party that began today with the arrival of ships from France. 15 old-fashioned sailboats arrived in Puerto Soller today to celebrate our twinning with Port Vendres in France.
(This happened in 2017). It will be a pleasure for the photographers as they will stay with us on August 3 and 4 before the flotilla moves to stop at other Majorcan localities. After their arrival, the port will be in party mode with events and music until it leaves on August 5 to appear in other places in Mallorca.
The Saturday market was relatively full, as were the walks along the waterfront. The reality in the statistics collected is that we are operating at about 25% of a normal summer. Now is August and part of business semi-annual finances are being calculated. Some of our favorite restaurants are fully booked for consecutive evenings. This is such good news, but it won’t pay the annual bills. The season started far too late for that and the future of this year is anything but clear.
Number of visitors
Quickly moving on to more good news, we see that different visitors make up our numbers this year. More from Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Scandinavia means that we are increasing our exposure in these countries at a Young generation. Many of them reluctantly chose to visit us for lack of choice. Some of them made offers to buy houses in the Soller Valley while they were here. The business model of who does what is simply fascinating.
Parking lots and bus stops
Parking plans have just been announced for Calle Cetre in Soller. This is all quite revolutionary and protest groups are forming. A two-storey car park with an easier pedestrian path to the center of the city is the key to the plan. In the development we say goodbye to a pétanque court, a children’s playground and the city’s central bus stop. Petitions are in preparation and the town hall will be inundated with comments.
The bus stop should be the least of the issues as it was always meant to end on the main road. The buses are way too big for Calle Cetre and used this route until the new bus stop could be installed. Municipal Pétanque The yard will be a new home, as will the playground, but people are very attached to their spaces and routines. The expectations of the new car park are 402 spaces. It will take months to sort out and work does not start, in what remains of our summer season. Winter could well see huge parking works in Soller and Puerto.
Invent it
So August and summer are definitely here. Even Dame Judi Dench arrived in Puerto Soller last weekend. Family and friends reuniting is always a heartwarming spectacle and even more so this year. We all learn new skills, one of which is the realization that we are just not prepared at all for next year.
These are unique times and no one wrote the rulebook. We make it up as we go along, and we laugh at those definitive souls who think they have the answer. We really wish the schedule for 2022 could be that simple.
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