Como es la Paella?

Although the views from the top of Mount Toro weren't the best, due to the overcast weather, we did have something of interest to watch while we were there. We arrived to find a cycle race about to finish with a sprint to the top of the mountain. While Mount Toro might struggle to qualify as a mountain, it was still a steep, zig-zagging path to the top and we wouldn't have liked to be in the saddle of those cyclists.

Just watching those cyclists toiling to the top made us hungry. And so, back at the apartments we decided that we should try out the site restaurant. Since we were in Spanish territory there was really only one dish to try ...


This wonderful plate of food was half of the freshly cooked paella for two. Before it made it to our plates the cooking pan of prepared paella was brought to our table for approval. The few moments it took to transfer to plate made our mouths water in antipation.

This paella was simply delicious and it included crabs claws which we cracked open with out teeth to reach the delicious white flesh. This was a new ingredient to us and we liked it so much we've converted Chef Bear Oakley, so he has started including crabs' claws in his home made paella.

We spoke lots of Spanish to the waiting staff in the restaurant and were very pleasd with our ability to make ourselves understood. We had a thoroughly lovely evening and to cap it all we didn't have far to walk home afterwards.

We've now come to the end of our Menorcan posts and hope you've enjoyed them and feel inspired to make your own visit.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

True and False Gods

We went from one high place - the trig point - to another, the summit of Mount Toro. At 358m, Mount Toro isn't particularly high, but it is Menorca's highest point. You can tell this when you're there, from all the telecoms equipment and satellite dishes which compete for space on this high ground. Our next photo shows you what we mean ...


Not only were these 21st century icons competing with themselves for space and height, they were also vying for attention with a statue of someone really famous. Can you guess who?


We'll give you a close up in a minute, but the outstretched arms might give you a clue. The statue is of Christ, and quite rightly he does occupy the highest ground, with all the masts situated at a lower level.

While he gazed out at all the emblems of the 21st century gods we decided to focus our gaze on him, recognising that he is far more important than any modern means of communication.


Hopefully you agree with us.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Our Blog Needs You!

As you know, our vist to Menorca was very early in the season which, on the plus side, meant we had the island almost to ourselves, but on the minus side, did mean that the weather hadn't settled down to a pattern of uninterrupted sunshine.

That didn't matter for us though, as we were there to walk, not to sunbathe. We were actually very lucky with the weather as we had only one day which was windy and overcast. It was still a shorts and t-shirts day for our minders, which they were pleased about; it didn't matter for us as we wear our all purpose fur whatever the weather.

That was the day we explored the headland of Fornells. A fine walk took us up high to some exposed cliffs surrounded by sea.


It was very bleak without the sun and very deserted. There were a lot of old buildings and gun emplacements telling us that this had once been a military outpost, but the soldiers were long gone. Can you see us in our photo sheltering from the wind on the shelf of an old gun site. Being so light, we had to be careful that we didn't get blown off the edge of those high cliffs. Our minders were especially worried as they thought they'd never see us again if that happened, but they don't really know how resourceful bears are.

Also at this headland was something we'd been looking for, for quite a while: a trig point. As they are getting harder to find, we've been keen to start of series on the subject of 'bears on trig points', but we were struggling to find one to start us off.

So here we are on the trig point (or Spanish equivalent of) at Fornells, having to be guarded in case there was a sudden gust of wind.


What we're hoping is that bearkind throughout the world, will take themselves and their cameras out to their local trig points, take a picture and email it to us, telling us who they are and where they are. We'll then publish it on our blog.

We do actually have a trig point near to our Norfolk home, so we'll be sharing it with you soon.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

P.S. You can email us @Googlemail.com using "Blogging.Bears"

Twitcher Bears

After our glorious swim and a laze in the sun, we rejoined the walk which once again took us on the trail of the bee-eater.

You may remember us telling you, a few posts ago, that we had been walking in bee-eater breeding territory. We were really keen to see one, having read the guide book description of their beatiful blue, orange and yellow plumage.

We were quite confident we would see one when we came in range of S'Albufera, a large freshwater lagoon which is reported to be a favourite breeding ground.


When we found ourselves with a view of the lagoon, we found a pleasant spot in a grassy meadow full of wild flowers, to do some birdwatching. The view was a bit distant so we had to get our binoculars out.

Patience isn't a bear's strong point and after about 5 minutes with no sighting, we began to get restless. We dug out our sandwiches and scattered the odd crumb as we munched, in the hope that they might attract a hungry bee-eater. They didn't.

Later on in the walk we came within a stone's throw of the lagoon. It was a birdwatchers paradise, but sadly for us, bee-eaters were strangely absent that day. We wished the mosquitoes were as elusive as the bee-eaters though as they swarmed all around us.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Small is Beautiful

By now you should have a good idea how lovely many of Menorca's sandy beaches are. However, in the case of Menorca, it is definitely the case that 'small is beautiful' and the beaches that we fell in love with were the small sandy inlets that we found on a walk close to the small town of Es Grau. We'll show you what we mean:


We've said it before, but we'll say it again, don't you just wish you were there?

Our rock was great to perch on after a swim and allowed us to dry in the sun without getting our wet fur too sandy. We don't want to think that we're fussy and fastidious, but we knew we had a lot of walking ahead of us and gritty fur can cause chafing!

Talking about swimming, we're sure we'll tempt you even more when we show you where we'd been swimming just a few moments earlier ...


Our guide book used the word 'exquisite' and we couldn't agree more. And the real bonus was that we had it all to ourselves. Mind you, had there been anybody else about we would simply have moved onto the next beach as there were more than enough to go around!

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Surf Bay Watch Bears

We enjoyed our spell of lifeguarding at the pool so much, that the next day we felt inspired to move on to bigger things.

As if was early in the season, we found there was no-one available to man/bear the official beach lifeguard stations. They were fine structures as you can see.


We decided to offer our services and clambered up onto the platform to survey the beach. We looked very small against such a big and robust structure, but look hard and you'll see us. The view of the beach was a great one, and it was a beautiful sandy beach.

The only problem was that there were was no-one out swimming for us to watch and we found ourselves being mesmerised by the motion of the surf. Like a siren it summoned us, and we found the urge to leap into the surf irresistible. We didn't feel like we were derelicting our duty seeing as no-one else was swimming.

As we ran down the sand we did discover some casualties requiring rescue - we're the 2 dots in the middle of them.


These were the many jellyfish which had been washed up in an overnight storm. We were quite strategic though; we decided to leave rescue until after our swim and surf, so we wouldn't bump into them, and risk getting stung. This cunning plan worked a treat and we didn't swim into a single one.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Bay Watch Bears

By now we were mid way through our holiday, and we were enjoying ourselves so much that we decided we wanted to put something back into Menorca, by way of a thank you.

We therefore volunteered for a spot of lifeguard duty at our pool.


Happily our spell on duty coincided with a rise in air temperatures and the disappearance of the clouds. It was therefore a pleasure to be lounging round the pool ... attentively of course.

We felt duty bound to check out the large reptile which had sidled up to the end of the pool, as we weren't sure whether he was friend or foe.


As you can see by our relaxed pose on his shoulder, he turned out to be friend, and he told us had just popped over for a drink, as this was the clearest water on the island.

With water that clear, we couldn't resist jumping in ourselves for a refreshing swim.

It was simply heavenly.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Ciutadella Suits

Even though Menorca is only a small island, it was still a reasonable drive from Cala Morell back to our apartment. We had a look at our map to see where we would be passing close to on our way home, and decided to stop off at Menorca's second city, and former capital, Ciutadella.

We were glad we did as, even though we are much more country than town bears, we found Ciutadella a charming city, with lots to please.


In our first picture you see us relaxing in the late afternoon sun in the main square. There was a definite mediterranean feel and the town is steeped in history.

Away from the main square was a maze of narrow streets, which made exploring great fun. There was no traffic and lots of cafe culture, so you probably won't be surprised to hear we stopped off for a beer and tapas. Thanks to our Spanish lessons we were able to avoid the dish containing fried lung and other offally bits!

We returned back to the other end of the main square, which looked like this ...


Our walk back to the bearmobile took us via the harbour, which was a very narrow inlet that hardly looked big enough for the huge ferry that had just docked.

We didn't get to visit the main city, Mahon, so we've nothing to compare Ciutadella with, but we can't imagine it would be much better. Ciutadella is definitely worth a visit so put it on your itinery, if you are lucky enough to visit Menorca.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Sophisticated Living Quarters

Well it seems that we bears have more imagination than our readers, as we haven't had any suggestions for our animal shape. We don't mind telling you though that we thought the natural sculpture looked very elephant-like, and it pleased us no end, as we do like elephants.

This lovely walk had saved a special surprise for us til last. Our route back to the hire bearmobile, took us past the famous Cala Morell cave dwellings, which later became a Necropolis after everyone had moved out. Here we are sitting on the entrance sign ...


... we were fairly relaxed about going in, as we knew that any old bones we found were more likely to be human ones than bear ones.

There was lots to see, as there were no less than 14 caves excavated from the cliff face. Considering that they are prehistoric and were in use more than 1,000 years B.C., they are more sophisticated than you might expect. They have a central pillar to support the roof, and windows, doorways, chimneys and sleeping benches. Our next picture demonstrates the substantial central pillar - it looked as if it would be good for a few more thousand years yet.


We were really intrigued by the sophisticated system for catching rain water. A long groove was carved into the cliff face to channel the water down into a collection trough. You can see this ancient engineering very clearly in our next picture ...


The water in the trough looked as if it was more recent than 3,000 years old, but we still thought a beer would be preferable to quench our thirst.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Cherry or Mushroom Beach?

As we picked ourselves up from our very comfortable flower bed and rounded the corner, we were rewarded with a lovely view of the beach at Cala Morell which was precisely where we were heading ...


... don't you just wish you were there - we do?

A set of steps took us down to the path close to the water's edge, and before we knew it we were on the beach and running into the sea to test the water. It was beautifully clear and very refreshing.

Once we'd cooled down we had a good look around. We loved this characterful and unobtrusive storage shed ...


... but sadly it was padlocked so we couldn't have a peak inside. It might have smelt a bit fishy, so perhaps this was no bad thing.

As we looked out to the rocky headland we saw an interesting rock formation that reminded us of one of our favourite (bears aside) animals. Here's what we were looking at ...


Does it say anything to you?

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Cami Pioneers

Our walk book wanted to limit us to just a peek at the sea. We were supposed to take a few steps along the coast and then head back inland. We weren't too impressed with that, as we are beach loving bears and like to keep the sea in our sights.

However, we spotted a bit of cleared path continuing along the coast and so we decided to explore. We quickly realised that we were on one of the new parts of the Cami de Cavalls, which we introduced a few posts ago.


It looked as if it had been very recently cleared and we were thrilled to be some of the first bears to set paw along this path. We realised that the creators of this stretch were very bear friendly, as they had left miniature palms which were perfect for providing small bears with shade and a place to rest - they were no good for our minders though.

We enjoyed the Cami while it lasted, but sadly it stopped short of our return point of Cala Morell. We were able to return to the walk detailed in our guide though, by spotting the large gravel pit mentioned in the instructions, and making for it.

Moments after rejoining the official walk, we were heading for a headland with high cliffs and a development of luxury houses.


It was quite rocky underfoot, but we found these plants which appreciated the rocky growing conditions, and really brightened up the area with this fantastic splash of colour.

They made a nice soft bed too!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

On the Trail of Bee Eaters

One of our favourite Menorcan walks was the one we did in the north west corner of the island. We set off from the small coastal town of Cala Morell, which is famous for reasons other than walking, as you'll find out soon, but first things first and our account of the walk.

We had a bit of an unpromising start when it seemed as if the guide book instructions were for a completely different walk, to the one we were doing. However, once we what we were seeing on the ground and reading in the book came together, it all began to get rather lovely.


This was the track through the wood we found ourselves walking along and it was rather delightful. We were both keeping an eager eye out for the colourful bee eaters which are supposed to breed in this area. We thought that with their bright colours they would be hard to miss, but either we missed them or they were not at home.

In our next picture you see me (George) not only spotting the sea, but also looking out for the next form of wildlife that the walk writer reckoned can be seen in these woods ...


... I was looking out for wild tortoises. We'd have loved to have seen one, but again, we were disappointed.

At least the scenery didn't disappoint, nor the lovely coastal views when we got there. Here's what we found ...


Don't worry, it wasn't a sheer drop behind us.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Burro Talk

One thing we like about walking in the countryside, is that you have good opportunities to chat with the locals. This is especially important when, like us, you're studying Spanish at an evening class, and need lots of practice. We're learning Spanish in preparation for the big trip later this year, which we've hinted at previously, but not yet unveiled. Don't worry, all will be revealed ... but not just yet.


This fine burro that we came across was very talkative and spoke not a word of English. He was therefore a great candidate for Yorkie and myself to practice on. While Yorkie was still rifling in the rucksack for a dictionary, I got stuck in, with my 'ola senor burro, que tal?'.

We had mixed success. We could chat away happily to the burro and he would answer us back, but in truth we only caught about one word in three of what he said. We therefore had to make a lot of assumptions and as a result the conversation didn't exactly flow, and he must have thought us a bit mad. In the end we found that mime was equally productive, and ended up having a great game of charades.

We tried again later when we met this fine snake basking in the sun ...


... but it turned out that we knew more Spanish than he did. He had a few words of Menorcan (which was different from our Castillian Spanish) and apart from that he spoke parseltongue, which we knew all about from our Harry Potter readings, but sadly can't speak. We therefore didn't get as far as deciding whether he was poisonous or not, but we thought it most unlikely, as he seemed a pleasant chap.

There was still plenty of holiday ahead of us to keep practising our Spanish, so we weren't worried.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Table Talk

The next day we were well into our stride and set out on a much longer walk. We had to keep covering the ground to get round, so spent less time looking round and taking photos.

Our walk took in another great pre-historic village, this time that of Torre Trencada. It was even bigger than yesterday's, not only in terms of area, but also in terms of the size of the monuments. Have you ever seen a bigger picnic table than this one ...?


... or was it a fosillised giant mushroom?

Yorkie was shimmying up by the north east face to layout our high-rise picnic, while I took the picture. I was a bit surprised, therefore, when he came back down, complete with food parcel. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me his imagination had gone into overdrive while he was up on top the table, and he had had the awful thought that in pre-historic times this table (taula is the proper archaeological term) might have been used for sky burials.

I could see what Yorkie was getting at. With that rather gruesome possibility - however far-fetched - at the front of our minds, we simply had to go elsewhere to eat our picnic.

There was a delay while we recovered our appetites, and we used the time to read up about taulas in our guide book. It didn't really help to read that nobody knows what they were for, although the most popular suggestion is that they are idols, rather like totem poles. Secretly I thought Yorkie's idea of use for sky burials, was more plausible.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Very Satisfied Bears

Remember those characterful Menorcan gates we told you were a speciality of the island? Well we found an even better example on this great first full day's walk. Here it is ...


We thought these gates would make a great entrance to our bear cave. There were two problems though: firstly we didn't see any for sale and secondly we thought we might have problems getting them onto the plane when we came home. Maybe someone will see our picture and be inspired to make us a pair.

It seems as if we've blogging about this first walk of ours for ages, and in fact we have, but there were so many interesting sights we simply had to share them with you. You will probably be surprised to learn that all these sights came in a walk of only about 8 miles duration. As a result, we finished before we were ready to go back to the apartment. Our handy Sunflower walking guide came to the rescue, and told us that there were other walks in the area and we didn't even need to move the car.

We voted for a walk up to the hermitage of Santa Maria, as this involved quite a steep climb and we thought we might get a good view of the island. The view was good, although a lot of it was of the town of Ferries where we'd started from. It wasn't that scenic (modern buildings and an industrial estate!) so we'll show you a picture of us sitting outside the hermitage instead.


It was definitely a bear sized church, but like so many nowadays, sadly it was locked, so all we could do was peer in through the windows.

We romped back down the path to the hire bearmobile in record time, with thoughts of a cool beer on our patio occupying our thoughts.

We'd had a truly great first day.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Whose Wedding?

As we were hungry bears after our morning's walk, our priorities were food first and exploring second. We were very impressed that we could get up close and personal with these ancient monuments and there were no barriers or signs saying 'don't touch'.

When we got to the high point of the settlement and looked all the way down to the valley floor ...


not only were we wowed by the view (don't look for us in the picture, we weren't hang-gliding), but we took our metaphorical hats off to those ancient talyot peoples as we appreciated their strategic choice of defensive position.

Not far from our lunch spot, we came across some more interesting constructions of indeterminate age. They certainly weren't ruins, as you can see from our next picture showing the one we passed closest to ...


... but there again they didn't look much like modern constructions. We decided they looked just like tiered wedding cakes - typical of Yorkie, he was disappointed that they weren't edible. Both of our romantic illusions were quickly shattered when we consulted our guide book, and read that although they looked like Babylonian ziggurats (we hadn't though of that one), they were cattle sheds known as ponts. We chuckled to ourselves as we read on, to find out that some of these structures have recently been built to provide homes for people, rather than cattle, since they don't require planning permission.

If we were living in one we'd want a few more windows!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Prehistoric Bears

Some of our readers will be familiar with our 'What's in our Lunch Box' series of posts. In Menorca, the emphasis was more on 'Where's our Lunch box?' than 'What's in our Lunch Box?' as we had our picnic in some very interesting places.

On this wonderful walk we had our lunch among the prehistoric ruins of the ancient settlement of Son Mercer de Baix. They were really old - as they would be being prehistoric - and they created a wonderful atmosphere and a real feeling of history.


Can you see us perched on one of the supporting pillars of the famous Cova des Moor. The historians and archaeologists call this structure a room shaped naveta, but we're less romantic and would simply call it a cave. It was quite large and therefore required 3 stone pillars of the type you see us perched on at the entrance. It was truly amazing to think that this settlement was first inhabited between 2500 and 1800 BC, but even stranger to think that our lunch of ham and cheese bocadillos might not be that different to the lunches eaten all those years ago.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Nature Loving Bears

With each mile, our walk continued to delight. All along the path were lots of pretty wild flowers providing lovely fragrances and a feast of colour for the eyes.


We particularly liked the fine stone walls such as the one we were sitting on. It had even been warmed by the sun which was a real treat for our bear bottoms.

You can see more of these rather lovely stone walls in our next picture.


You can rely on us to sniff out the vines, which you also see in our picture. They were still quite small and there were no grapes ready for harvesting yet. We shouldn't have seen these vines really, as we were lost when we came across them. It was only a minor deviation though, and we were soon back on course.

Our favourite encounters with nature that day were the ones we had with the local pigs. First we watched them out in the fields doing a spot of sunbathing (this time we're easier to see than the pigs) ...


...and then, were lots of oooohs and aaaahs as we came across the following scene in an open air barn ...


You may need to look closely to see the sight which had warmed our hearts. We simply loved that little piglet flopped out on the calf's back.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Climbing Bears

The next day, the first full day of our holiday, was a fine day (shorts and t-shirt weather for those who wear clothes), but there was a bit of cloud cover, so we decided if would be a good day for exploring the interior of the island, to see what Menorca is really like, outside of the resorts.

We'd only gone a short distance when we found a great climbing wall.


As you will know from earlier posts, bears love climbing and cannot simply walk past a climbing opportunity. It calls out to us and begs to be climbed. Bears are also quite competitive - in a friendly way - so Yorkie and I are always trying to arrive at the top before the other. On this occasion, as you can see, Yorkie was ahead of me (I blend in rather well with the rock), but he did start off a few seconds ahead (that's my excuse anyway). He did spend so long admiring the view at this half way point, that I thought I was going to be able to sneak past un-noticed ... but then I sneezed and gave the game away.

It was only about 10 minutes more walk, until we had a surprise find. We came to a row of huge monoliths (also suitable for climbing). As Menorca is an archaelogical treasure trove and contains lots of talayotic remains (prehistoric if that doesn't mean anything to you) we assumed that these megaliths dated from this period.


The ancient nature of these stones left us with a bit of a dilemma. Would it be disrespectful and anti conservation, to have a climb. We thought not, after all we are so light and soft pawed, that we couldn't possibly do any damage, so up we went. This time the tables were turned and I stole a march on Yorkie - on a much more difficult climb I might add. This time it is Yorkie who is the more camouflaged, but he is there if you look bottom left.

What a great start to the walk. We were less than half an hour into it, with 2 great climbs under our belt. We we really looking forward to the rest of the day.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Paddling Bears

There were times when our progress along the cami was quite slow as we found lots of interesting rocky inlets to explore such as this one ...


This was definitely a bear sized harbour and it would be great for Eddie's seal boat. We also took time to swim out to that interesting large rock perched out to sea. Unfortunately we couldn't swim with our climbing gear, otherwise it would have offered a great face to climb.

As we got closer to the next resort of Son Bou we found we had reached a huge sandy bay and it was possible to paddle along at the water's edge for miles. We love splashing about in the sea, feeling the wind in our fur. As we got closer to Son Bou, the simple beauty of sand, dunes and sea was rather marred by some rather unsightly tourist hotels. Unfortunately there are quite a few of these in Menorca, which is a shame when you consider the spectacular natural beauty of the island. We would have preferred some rather more sympathetic developments, but the good news is that the Menorcans seem to have seen the light, and there are plenty of lovely hotel free bays on the island.


Much more aesthetically pleasing was the traditional Menorcan gate that we are sitting on. There are lots of these on the island and they are very charming.

Back soon.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx