Sunday was a day off from tennis and market day in Santa Maria (and some other towns in Mallorca). Santa Maria is close to where I am staying and is a pretty interior town in Mallorca with a population of about 6500 people.

I met up with one of my German teammates, Gabi, who lives part time in Mallorca and her husband Frank and friends Maria and Juan Jose. Maria and Gabi found me in the produce and food section where I’d already checked out the stalls and purchased olives, olive bread (there’s a theme) and with them bought a giant rosa tomato and an avocado. The tomato and avocado with anchovies on the olive bread will make a few good lunches this week.

The market sells everything from food (cheese, produce, sausages, wine, salt, bread, sweets and more), to dog beds to clothing of all sort to towels, blankets, underwear, belts, purses and pillows. It’s a pretty large square and was completely packed with stalls and people.

Maria and Gabi also bought some produce, then we…by we I mean they shopped for clothes at “Senior Seis” (Mr. 6), since he sells many items for 6 euros (about $6.40) including dresses and skirts. They each found items to their liking, then we headed back to where Frank and Juan Jose had secured a table overlooking the market square.

We had a leisurely lunch which was delicious…snails with aioli and Mallorcan bread in an olive oil sauce; tomatoes with olive oil and anchovies (unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of this lovely plate), ham on bread with tomatoes and olives, and squid (a variety of it anyway, rather rounder than the type we normally see) on bread with olive oil and tomatoes and with olives on the side. It was a leisurely lunch, and relaxing…by the time we finished the market was nearly all taken down and put into trucks ready to be moved to the next market…there are markets every day somewhere in Mallorca.

After walking back to my car I drove to Consell and took a walk towards the mountains which turned out to be really lovely..in only five minutes the landscape changed from densely packed houses to farmland with sheep grazing and fields of olive and almond trees, with the Serra de Tramuntana range as a backdrop.

Tomorrow…back to work on the tennis court!