Palma

I went down to Palma for some sightseeing.

As always, the food was excellent.

Shaving off thin tasty slices off of
pigs' legs seems to be a national pastime

End result, well worth it

The city has all the usual features one might expect from a port city that has been attacked repeatedly over the centuries. Specifically, it has a nice port, an old quarter with tight streets, and highly geometric city walls that are probably shaped like a 20-gon, with interesting guard towers.

There is something retro and iconic about this building

In Spain, Goldilocks appears at her tower
only after 1am, and parties until sunrise

But in addition, the city walls feature one of the most impressive moats I've ever seen. Moats are an awesome home improvement idea that should be featured more, or ever, in This Old House. I can conclusively assert that every single little boy out there, and probably every girl as well, has dreamt of living behind a moat. But at some point during the growing up process, this fantasy gets displaced by the tedium of grownups' mundane aspirations. Temporal logic dictates that there must be some definable point, a specific instance in time, when the moat dream dies off for good. I suggest that we define that point as the definitive end of one's childhood (the end of the "floor is now lava" game can be used as an early indicator of this impending, irreversible change).

Wonder if they ever brought alligators from Africa to this moat

But how awesome would it be to have a moat? I bet that if you put one around your Manhattan apartment, its price would triple overnight. I'm surprised no one has done this; it combines Americans' love of gauche, show-off ideas with their distaste for strangers. Mallorcans have pulled it off incredibly well. I assume it was borne out of necessity initially, but then they must have taken delight in extending their moated city. As if to scream "nyah nyah, can't get past our moat" at the world, they've placed a gorgeous Cathedral just barely inside their moated city walls. Kudos to them for keeping the dream alive.

Moat and Cathedral

The geometry of the door is identical to that of the Pope's hat