We were now on Day 5 of a 7 day/6 night cruise between Spain and France with stopovers in the Balearic Islands—a new term to me—although the island names themselves were very familiar including Ibiza and Mallorca. After an overnight journey the ship was docked in Port Mahon, capital of Menorca, our final calling point before reaching the mainland in Nice. This is one of the largest natural harbors in the world, stretching 6 kilometers (almost 4 miles) long (featured photo above across the top). After the day here we would have the entire next day at sea to talk about the cruise, evaluate the criteria that guided our decision and discuss future destinations.

The Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans all recognized that by occupying the naturally occurring  deep, long harbor at Mahon they could control the trade and military routes of the western Mediterranean Sea. For most of the 1700s the British occupied the island and we could still see reminders of their presence including the two forts, Marlborough and St. Philip, plus buildings in a Georgian architectural style. And we certainly can’t forget the gin distillery Xoriguer (conveniently opposite where the ship was docked) that savvy locals opened more than 250 years ago to supply all of those British soldiers (and us, but only 1 bottle) with their favorite drink.

The website Culture Trip described Mahon as “compact and picturesque” and even better as “small enough to easily cover on foot” which is exactly what we spent the morning doing including walking on the cobblestones in the photo in the first paragraph. The site mentions the Museum of Menorca housed in a 17th-century monastery, one of the oldest opera houses in Spain, the Teatro Principal from 1829 and the Military Museum inside the barracks from the 1700s. They also suggest going shoe shopping for sandals made in Mahon and mayonnaise that, legend says, was invented there. The story goes that during the French siege of Mahon in 1756, the Duke de Richelieu’s chef created a sauce with eggs and oil due to a lack of ingredients and called it “mahonnaise” after the city.

Back on board we had the opportunity to talk with some of our fellow passengers about why they had taken this particular cruise. Much like us, most people said:

• To discover new destinations
• To easily visit several Balearic Islands in one trip and unpack only once
• In fidelity with this cruise line
• To travel on a small ship, 120 passengers
• All-inclusive meals and drinks

In addition, for us it was important that we could travel to the departure point of Barcelona and return home from the disembarkation port of Nice by train. But before we took that train back to Carcassonne, we spent a few days on the Côte d’Azur and those details will follow in a future blog post.

If you go, this is good to know: In Port Mahon the ship was docked directly opposite the old town so we simply walked off the ship, through the terminal building, and easily (although uphill) into the old town.

For the truly curious, here’s a pdf (17 pages) of the ship’s daily activities: Log Book