Alfred M. Staehle's Travelogue
1961 Virtual Great World Cruise
This travelogue presents transcripts of letters sent to family & friends by Alfred Staehle and his wife Lois, relating their experiences of places visited on Caronia's 1961 Great World Cruise. Collated by and shared with us by his grand-daughter, Sharon Atkins.
Palma, Mallorca
11 February 1961
Arrive Palma 6.30am
11 Feb &
12 February
programme
Log Abstract…
At: 07:30 (LT) 06:30 (GMT) Palma arrival
Passage: 1 day, 4 hours, 30 mins.
Voyage Distance: 403 miles
Average Speed: 14.14 knots
The brochure extols…
Palma…
The delightful capital of the Balearic Islands, and its chief port, is located on the largest island of the
group, Mallorca. These islands were once part of the Carthaginian Empire during the 5th Century B.C., and were
conquered by Rome in 128 B.C.
The Balearics have endured a succession of conquerors: the Vandals in 465; the Byzantine Empire under Belisarius in 534, from whom they received their present name; then the Arabs in the 9th Century and the Ommiad Arabs in the 10th Century, who held the southern part of Spain.
They were finally united to the Kingdom of Aragon by Pedro IV in 1344 and have remained a part of Spain since that time. Today, the islands produce great quantities of wine, olives, figs, lemons, oranges, almonds and flax, but they are probably best known by the modern world as one of the loveliest resorts for both winter and summer holidays.
Palma is noted for its picturesque harbour, its fine 13th Century Gothic Cathedral, the Moorish Palace, as well as for its excellent hotels, its beaches and the abundant flowers.
Palma, Mallorca
A.M.S…
On February 11th, after one full day at sea between sightseeing tours, we arrived at the pleasant, beautiful
harbour of Palma, Mallorca; one of the Balearic Islands. We elected to stay in Palma instead of taking a longer trip
around the island, which we understand now has over 400 hotels, but I suppose this includes many small pensions.
At any rate, we saw three very beautiful hotels: the “Mediterraneo”, the “Fenix”, and the “Victoria”. The latter very new, beautiful garden, and on the seafront.
At the Victoria, where we had a snack, they put on a show of dancers for us which was interesting chiefly because it was entirely unlike our concept of the exciting, heel stamping, castanet beating Flamenco dancing. Rather it was slow and included a noise-making device like a bagpipe!
Well, Palma really fixed up Lois. She selected a gorgeous, sumptuous, eye catching, lavender suede coat with bag to match which has captivated the male members of the Caronia and aroused polite envy among the ladies. If there was a contest right now for the best-dressed gal on the ship, at least in sportswear with the judges being men, I'd be the mere husband of the glamorous Mrs. Staehle.
We did go into the cathedral of Palma where there are encased in glass three thorns, believed to have been in the crown of Christ at his crucifixion. The cathedral has been here since the 13th century. One wonders where this sacred memorabilia had been preserved for well over a thousand years prior to the building of the cathedral.
Despite the fact that February is supposed to be the worst month of the year at Mallorca - generally rainy and damp we enjoyed a very pleasant warmish day.