I could feel the time coming -- the time in April or early May when I would be taken out of school for two weeks. I was just a kid, about seven or eight years old. I'd hear the key turn and click in the front door, I hadn't gone to bed yet. It was Dad home from work. I was right there, asking the question: " Have you booked our vacation?" eagerly awaiting his answer. This time it was yes.
Great excitement grew inside of me as vacation grew nearer. My parents took us on vacation each year around this time, always to the same place, a Hotel, the Hotel Cala Fornells. It was a family run hotel back then, on the island of Mallorca, more commonly spelled Majorca, pronounced "My-orca". It had its own private beach and was about two miles away, down a winding and hilly road, from a town called Paguera. This island is one of the main islands in the Balearics.
I packed my suitcase days before we were ready to leave for vacation. My love of aircraft at that early age was incessant, and this was my early love travel. The day wouldn't come soon enough, when we all got in the car and headed to the airport, London Gatwick, in England. After we checked our luggage and cleared passport control we'd wait in the departure lounge. There I would find a window and watch the planes taking off and landing.
Once it was our turn, we boarded and soon were in the air. That's the magical part about travelling -- flying. In a short two hour flight we would be on the ground in Palma. I will never forget the smell of that airport terminal -- the aroma of Spanish cigarettes and cigars. It wasn't offensive -- rather sweet and pungent. If I ever, to this day, smell the lingering aroma of Spanish cigarettes and cigars, it takes me back to these memories of childhood vacations.
Before long we would be at the Hotel Cala Fornells, we knew the owners and were quickly greeted. It was full board here, so we had missed lunch and would get a soda and snack from the bar. Mum would then head down to the private beach with us, masks and snorkels in hand. It was great for snorkelling and we would spend hours in the sea throughout our vacation, searching for unusual fish, seahorses, crabs and octopuses.
Sometimes we took the time to walk through the pine forests, to Paguera, where we played mini-golf, drank soda and ate ice creams. Back to the hotel at dinner time, and it's Paella, my favourite; followed always by ice cream, yoghurt or fresh fruit. Those yogurts were amazing, I always wanted to keep a lifetime supply of them. We took boat rides and go around some of the coves, go ashore, and even swim in some of that crystal clear sea. I remember my father hiring a small sailboat. I had sailed with my school, and when the rental company representative realised I could handle this thing, we were off, me teaching my dad how to sail!!
All too soon, we were back on the bus and heading to the airport, sometimes I would cry, I didn't want to go home, the love of travel was well inside me, no more paella, no more of that wonderful yoghurt, swimming in those crystal clear waters or playing mini-golf.
Travel has taken me far and wide. I have been fortunate in my life for that. Travel also found for me my wonderful wife in Florida where I now live, and we have an adventure together of traveling. Teaching my father to sail was great, it was the beginning of a whole new adventure. Maybe soon I'll get to write about more sailing adventures.
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