Easter in Soller: The Cinderella line

Easter marks the start of the wedding season in the Soller Valley, and the four-day celebrations are back. Those coming here for their ‘Wedding blessings’ have all had Civil ceremonies in their home countries. The ceremonies take place in church if their Celebrant is a Vicar or in many other locations with Wedding Celebrants. The guests arrive for at least a long weekend, hence the need for a ‘rolling’ celebration. This is usually cocktails and canapes on one night, bride and bridegroom family dinners on another. Then a boat trip for the whole party after the wedding day. The Wedding Planners of Mallorca know exactly what they are doing, and this year promises to be a bumper one for love and marriage.

Easter journeys bring many second homeowners back to the Soller Valley. They arrive to take up their ‘other’ lives and are usually very glad to be back. The changes which have happened in their absence are big talking points. So much talking and planning goes on here which takes years to materialise. This means change, when it happens, still comes as a shock. Eighty new bedrooms to let in Soller this year. All from small interior hotels which got permission years ago but have only now opened. ‘Where did that come from’? is a common question. Then there are the debates about new shops opening on sites of old loved and much-lamented favourites. Retirements, illness and business decisions change the face of our shopping streets every year. Some change is loved and others not so popular. Market forces make the decisions and eventually we get used to change.

Easter is the time for tournaments and competitions and the teams are on the move. In our family it is a Basketball tournament in Minorca which takes the teams to fly the Soller flag. Groups of Scouts take to camping up near the Monastery at Lluc and everyone is Easter busy. Family and friends’ groups meet up for walking the hills and mountains around us. After the devastation of the storms some weeks ago the landscape still hasn’t recovered. Many fallen trees have been removed now but those familiar with the terrain will notice change.

The great excitement in our world has come from the extension of the bus timetable to give us a ‘midnight bus’ to Soller from Palma. This will be forever known as the ‘Cinderella line’. The point of the bus is to allow workers to get home after their late shifts in hotels and restaurants. This means a seven-day service from now till the end of the season. The repercussions of this are enormous as so many want that night out in Palma without the expense of taxi fares home. Everyone is rethinking their plans around this development. Summer nights out in our Capital City will be on the list for locals and visitors alike.

As Easter leaves us, the Soller Valley looks forward to Orange Festival with its dining opportunities and Fiesta. The main Weekend of the Orange is April 29 and 30. The gastronomic days include restaurants with special orange menus, this takes place between April 21 and May 7. This is a great time in the Valley as all eyes and tastes turn to the abundance of the citric in our world. The food, fun and orange decorations are also the focus of serious discussions about the place of the orange in our world. New fields of the Canoneta orange have been planted and we all watch the progress of the new crops. Sollerics are farmers at heart and this fiesta celebrates all that is good about the orange.