By Bus To Palma Nova
Sad to say, rather than flooding fbb's in-box with pictures, timetables and maps, No 3 Son seemed to feel that he was in Palma Nova for a holiday! What better holiday can there be that riding around on an excellent network of red and yellow buses?
The kids today? Sigh?
So fbb had to work it out for himself. The old man decided to take a virtual ride from Palma itself along the road to Palma Nova and beyond. It all kicks off at the superb underground bus station, plonk in the centre of the city and fully integrated with trains and metro.
fbb also has the full network diagram which is a good quality PDF file, so will enlarge really, really well.
But it is a bit baffling. Remember fbb's mantra, "you can be either compressive OR comprehensible but rarely both"!
Google Maps suggests that there are several routes that trundle along the busy coast road via Palma Nova and Magaluf.
104 to 107 follow the same route to the resorts and then spray out to various locations at the end. Thankfully, every route has a proper timetable and a computer generated map.
104 to 107 leave Palma conventionally, but join the coastal motorway to whizz westwards. The 108, by the way, does not use the motorway.
The four routes soon return to "ordinary" roads.
A short nip down the hill and you are on the sea front road! Here is one doing it!
Of the four routes going thisaway, fbb decided to virtually ride the 105.
It looks straightforward, doesn't it? A nice straight pink line south from Magaluf to a terminus at Sol de Mallorca.
Oh, how deceptive a simple diagram can be!
Although the 105 wiggles frantically along the top of rocky cliffs and crags, you hardly ever see the sea. The view is obscured by greenery and the highly priced residences that do have a view.
Eventually the terminus is reached and it is superbly underwhelming!
The stop is opposite a small casino.
But, if you walk on a bit, views of the sea are to be had.
And there are steps which lead down to the rocky coves, in this case ...
... Cala Xada.
Real timetables are displayed at the stops; here is an extract of that for the relatively infrequent 105.
The more frequent 104 has its repeat pattern ...
... in Spanish, Catalan and English.
... and there is a good service until late.
Impressive, eh?
One thing is certain. Were fbb ever to visit Mallorca, there would be at least two full weeks' of bus riding before the old man ever thought of hitting the beach.
Thanks to No 3 Son for enticing his old man to take a look. Pictures did arrive but mostly of timetables in the rain ...
... a bus shelter in the rain ...
... and a real time display in the rain.
fbb does not know what the sideways display might be there at the top!
Also passing was a tib articulated bus which No 3 Son explained to his house mate was "a bendibus".
Yes, there would indeed be plenty for the old bloke to investigate. Forget the bars, beaches, birds** and booze; explore the buses!
** of the feathered kind, of course!
Big imperceptible change in Manchester : Thurs 28th Sept
must say the system looks good, but my experience is that drivers are surly and rude tap in works but not tap out, pay cash they refuse a ticket and pocket it. when my wife tried to tap out, went to driver to try sort, he snatched card from her and threw it out of the bus, when she went to retrieve he just closed door and drove away. Told Hotel staff and they said drivers are a law to themselves!!
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