Welcome to the world of Mediterranean holiday islands! Our first for the year is the Balearic island of MALLORCA. Muy bueno!! For our American readers, it’s the first-world answer to Cabo San Lucas, but much much better. Plus, the hotel rates down there are shockingly cheap. Soenke found a 35-euro-per-night rate for an ocean view deluxe apartment. Not bad!

We enjoyed 3 days of relaxation and exploration, including motoring around the island… getting lost in quaint villages… visiting lighthouses at the end of narrow, very-high-up, scary roads… standing on the edge of plunging cliffs to see the gorgeous ocean below… admiring the turquoise water at the beaches… gaping at topless sunbathers… going SAILING… eating tapas… all so bueno!

The most surreal thing about this *Spanish* island is that since the holiday areas are overrun with Germans and Brits, most of the restaurants serve only German and British food ! It was weird! We practically had to send out a search team to find us a tapas bar, or anything remotely Spanish in nature. Whatever happened to “when in Rome” ???

Overall, we had a fantastic time. I was especially delighted to learn that I still retained some of my Spanish linguistic abilities from that one year in high school where I think I showed up occasionally for Spanish class…

Photos follow:

Beautiful turquoise waters:

Someone’s sand handiwork:

The sailing duo:

Lighthouse at end of long scary windy narrow road:

The impressive cathedral at Palma:

A meeting of the great financial minds of the world took place in Zurich, Switzerland last night where Stefan (Credit Suisse), Deanna (Wealth & Tax Advisory) the “other” Jennifer (Zurich Financial), Soenke (Lufthansa… ok so not financial…but…), and me (Crawford international CPA and Professional Traveler) met for a “Global Summit” to discuss international economies, cross-border transactions, secret unnumbered Swiss bank accounts, and the effect of the strong Euro on the pocketbooks of all Americans trying to have a nice cheap European vacation!

Ok actually we didn’t really talk much about any of that, but we did cover other very important topics like… shopping for underwear in Zurich, where to find the best margaritas in Southern California, Swiss mountain-man wrestling, body painting, & where to buy proper tortilla chips in Europe (we still don’t have the answer to that).

Deanna had arrived in Europe from LA earlier that day and was looking suspiciously rested, glowing, & fashionable. Why can’t *I* ever pull that off when I get to Europe?! I usually look and feel like a truck just ran over me!

[Note that this dinner included a reunion of 3 of the original Paris People ! ]

In the first picture, we have (from left to right) Stefan, Soenke, Deanna, the other Jennifer, & me:

Feeling better after some post-dinner margaritas: