And so things start to come to life. Unlike the first swallows of summer, the first cuckoos of late winter and the phoney early spring emerge in their cocoons, strapped and wrapped in lycra and clip-clopping across the floors of the supermarkets, sports drinks in hand and then barking to each other along the roads of the north. The cyclists are a-gathering once more, the Tour of Mallorca is not far off, but mostly these two-wheelers are the German and Swiss fanatics, keen-eyed, skin-face-taut, wind-and-weather-beaten like yachties, visions of facial health contrasted with the pasty, winter visages, the frumpy fizzogs of the locals. By the pointed thing roundabout, the boundary between the town and Playa de Muro, Alcúdia town hall has erected a special welcome poster of the cycling world in motion. Welcome, "willkommen", and then as they make the return trip, leave the municipality and enter Muro, the cyclists are sent off with a hope that they will be seen soon - till soon, "bis bald" in German. Piss off, baldy, might the odd, unsympathetic driver cry, and don't come back any time soon. On their two wheels, the much- and oft-cursed riders on the "Strom" ** are the current that sparks the early season, ignites activity among the first-mover bars and restaurants. Restaurant Boy will be "abierto" 9 February, opening its plastic-sheeted terrace to the Max-Hürzeler-ites of a nearby Playa de Muro Iberostar, moistening the Weizenbier glasses, flaming the grill under marinaded lumps of fleshy protein. Elsewhere, non-cycling-route bars are making their preparations; new shelving for the kitchen, sprucing up tables and chairs. The hibernation, the long sleep of post-October is a passing slumber of inertia and survival. Hope springs, or rather, late-winters eternal. Despite the mood of pessimism that depresses the long sleep period, optimism - muted maybe - begins to course through veins woken by some activity, any activity that is the pre-season.
It's starting again.
Note: for those of you not up to speed with the German, "Strom" means electricity or current.
QUIZ
And riders on the strom should be ...?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Showing posts with label Restaurant Boy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Restaurant Boy. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Laid Out For All To See
Road works. Roads work. When there are road works, do roads work? On and off, according to the stop and go. There is a view that all public work is compressed into the weeks before the season starts. This is a view based on the idea that to do such work earlier would impress too few people; because there are too few people around. So, this view continues, do it all in March and April and there will be folk about who can admire the effort being made. This is probably garbage, but not without some substance. Why, for example, is the road in Playa de Muro being laid now? Again. Over the bridge. How often does one stretch of road need to be laid and then relaid. Several times, it would seem.
As the season hoves into view, traffic gets heavier, ever more cyclists are veering all over the place, foot-based tourists are wandering in the middle of the road, dogs and cats get in on the act and, to cap it all, there are ruddy great tarmac-laying machines massively lumbering along the local roads. This is not a criticism of road works per se; indeed, I am all in favour. Just - why do they happen now? And please don't give me the road-laying-needs-heat argument, because I don't buy it, especially given that some road laying does occur in colder winter weather. I have long thought that Mallorca is inherently non-productive in just about everything it does, so add in road works and all the rest and the resultant delays and that non-productivity is increased severalfold.
Anyway, moan over. As for all those cyclists, of which there are seemingly thousands at the moment, where do they go? I am back in that territory widely and incorrectly known as cyclists contribute nothing to the local bars and restaurants and only buy bananas, Ritter Sport and water from the nearest Eroski. This is simply not so. I have mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating. Boy, Restaurant Boy, Playa de Muro, half past five in the afternoon. Packed. Jam-packed. How many? 60? 70? 80? Nearly all cyclists. Drinking, mainly large glasses of Weizen, and eating. Eating the great lumps of meat that Boy serves up. (And that is great as in size and quality.) The reason why there are so many? The restaurant works closely with Max Hürzeler. I've said this all before, but its repetition is needed to counter this utterly fallacious view of cycling tourists. They don't spend. You'd better believe that they do.
Time share, sorry holiday club, touts. Anyone know exactly what's happening? This was a big story last year, with complaints posted to me as well as to "The Bulletin". The office that was their base has been for rent, and there is no sign - as yet - of our favourite street vendors.
Someone asked something surprising of me yesterday. Actually, the someone was Marshall at the karts in Bellevue. Had I changed my look? That was the question. I confess to having been taken aback, not that I was affronted, just that I had never considered that I had a look. Anyway, this is by way of warning you that whatever this look might be will be on display in the island's leading daily this Friday. Long have I eschewed revealing the true me via this blog - no vanity here - only for "The Bulletin" to come along and break the visual silence.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Radio", The Corrs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS8w0hNpJ2w). Today's title - this comes from a song by the group whose name came from William Burroughs.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
As the season hoves into view, traffic gets heavier, ever more cyclists are veering all over the place, foot-based tourists are wandering in the middle of the road, dogs and cats get in on the act and, to cap it all, there are ruddy great tarmac-laying machines massively lumbering along the local roads. This is not a criticism of road works per se; indeed, I am all in favour. Just - why do they happen now? And please don't give me the road-laying-needs-heat argument, because I don't buy it, especially given that some road laying does occur in colder winter weather. I have long thought that Mallorca is inherently non-productive in just about everything it does, so add in road works and all the rest and the resultant delays and that non-productivity is increased severalfold.
Anyway, moan over. As for all those cyclists, of which there are seemingly thousands at the moment, where do they go? I am back in that territory widely and incorrectly known as cyclists contribute nothing to the local bars and restaurants and only buy bananas, Ritter Sport and water from the nearest Eroski. This is simply not so. I have mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating. Boy, Restaurant Boy, Playa de Muro, half past five in the afternoon. Packed. Jam-packed. How many? 60? 70? 80? Nearly all cyclists. Drinking, mainly large glasses of Weizen, and eating. Eating the great lumps of meat that Boy serves up. (And that is great as in size and quality.) The reason why there are so many? The restaurant works closely with Max Hürzeler. I've said this all before, but its repetition is needed to counter this utterly fallacious view of cycling tourists. They don't spend. You'd better believe that they do.
Time share, sorry holiday club, touts. Anyone know exactly what's happening? This was a big story last year, with complaints posted to me as well as to "The Bulletin". The office that was their base has been for rent, and there is no sign - as yet - of our favourite street vendors.
Someone asked something surprising of me yesterday. Actually, the someone was Marshall at the karts in Bellevue. Had I changed my look? That was the question. I confess to having been taken aback, not that I was affronted, just that I had never considered that I had a look. Anyway, this is by way of warning you that whatever this look might be will be on display in the island's leading daily this Friday. Long have I eschewed revealing the true me via this blog - no vanity here - only for "The Bulletin" to come along and break the visual silence.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Radio", The Corrs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS8w0hNpJ2w). Today's title - this comes from a song by the group whose name came from William Burroughs.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Oh Boy!
The problem with the cyclists is that they don’t contribute anything to the local bars and restaurants.
As a couple of hotels in Playa de Muro prepare to open their doors to the cycling season’s lycra intake, so the above complaint will be heard above the sounds of car horns urging the pelatons off the road. These cyclists, all hale and hearty, watered and fed only on sports drinks and bananas, eschewing the calorific and arterial bombardment of beer and beef, spending nary a euro at the local hostelry. There may well be some who are tucked up by nine o’clock, sending themselves off to sleep with a study of the following day’s hundreds of kilometre route map, but there are plenty who are not.
A lot of the cyclists are German. Germany was built on beer and meat, as were most of the cyclists. It is wrong to suggest that they do not frequent the bars and restaurants and are not capable of demolishing the side of a cow and vacuuming up a barrel of lager. Or rather, it may be a correct impression if you don’t know how to attract them.
There are few places open in Playa de Muro during the late winter. But one restaurant that will be opening in February is Boy. Notwithstanding its potentially misunderstood name, Boy (the name was adopted as a translation of “chico”) has made itself a restaurant of choice for the cyclist. It helps that Juan Antonio himself is a keen user of two wheels, but that’s just a part of the story. The restaurant has forged a strong relationship not only with the springtime cycling fraternity but also with Max Huerzler who organises much of the cycling tourism.
Where others might ignore or moan about the value of this early tourism, Boy has turned it into an advantage. I think it’s known as running a business. And they have extended their own business by a couple of months by getting close to the cyclist market.
So when others are complaining, take a look at the terrace at Restaurant Boy on a sunny February late afternoon or early evening. All that lycra may not be to everyone’s taste, but all that lycra does indeed go to restaurants and does indeed spend money.
QUIZ
Yesterday – Grange Hill. Today’s title – one for those with long memories, this was a television pop show produced by whom?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
As a couple of hotels in Playa de Muro prepare to open their doors to the cycling season’s lycra intake, so the above complaint will be heard above the sounds of car horns urging the pelatons off the road. These cyclists, all hale and hearty, watered and fed only on sports drinks and bananas, eschewing the calorific and arterial bombardment of beer and beef, spending nary a euro at the local hostelry. There may well be some who are tucked up by nine o’clock, sending themselves off to sleep with a study of the following day’s hundreds of kilometre route map, but there are plenty who are not.
A lot of the cyclists are German. Germany was built on beer and meat, as were most of the cyclists. It is wrong to suggest that they do not frequent the bars and restaurants and are not capable of demolishing the side of a cow and vacuuming up a barrel of lager. Or rather, it may be a correct impression if you don’t know how to attract them.
There are few places open in Playa de Muro during the late winter. But one restaurant that will be opening in February is Boy. Notwithstanding its potentially misunderstood name, Boy (the name was adopted as a translation of “chico”) has made itself a restaurant of choice for the cyclist. It helps that Juan Antonio himself is a keen user of two wheels, but that’s just a part of the story. The restaurant has forged a strong relationship not only with the springtime cycling fraternity but also with Max Huerzler who organises much of the cycling tourism.
Where others might ignore or moan about the value of this early tourism, Boy has turned it into an advantage. I think it’s known as running a business. And they have extended their own business by a couple of months by getting close to the cyclist market.
So when others are complaining, take a look at the terrace at Restaurant Boy on a sunny February late afternoon or early evening. All that lycra may not be to everyone’s taste, but all that lycra does indeed go to restaurants and does indeed spend money.
QUIZ
Yesterday – Grange Hill. Today’s title – one for those with long memories, this was a television pop show produced by whom?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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