Celebrities and Café Culture in Soller

Deia has more famous people per inch than even Soller does and the chance of bumping into one of the Lloyd Webber or Geldof gangs is very high. Impromptu music nights in the local bars are a regular summer happening and it’s the price our famous friends pay to be left alone to get on with their holiday in peace. English visitors tend to spot the celebs but the locals are just not interested. I was once on the beach at the same time as Bob Geldof and his family to overhear the local bar owner tell him in no uncertain terms that she didn’t serve Earl Grey tea and couldn’t understand why anyone would drink it. I chatted with her after Sir Bob retired to a corner to drink the local tea (he knew better than to argue with her) and asked her if she knew who he was. The question was met with a blank stare and a shrug. As far as she and many other locals are concerned the world begins and ends in the hidden valley and they are not too bothered about who is famous outside it.

Soller square contains the theatre of life and you have to choose your ringside seat. Sit in Café Central or Café Paris and you will have two opposite vantage points from which to view the happenings. Enter stage left and watch as the people pour into the square from the residential districts behind. They come to shop, go to the bank or the chemist and just to pass the time. They greet their friends and sometimes just crossing the square will take ten kisses because every hello is greeted with kisses on both cheeks. Sit and watch as the children come out to play while their mums have coffee with friends. They chase each other round the fountain and up and down the town hall steps and skip in the pedestrianised areas in front of the church. Local children make friends every day with visiting children and the language of chasing and playing ball is universal.

The tram crosses the square at half hourly intervals through the summer and the theatre continues with babies waving at the tram and the visitors waving back. It is a rite of passage for local children to make that first tram journey on their own under the watchful eye of the conductor. Visitors may well think that the tram is a quaint tourist attraction but it’s not – it is the life blood of transport between town and port and runs 365 days a year. There are complaints about the cost of the tram at 4€ a journey but the discerning visitor with a little bit of planning can radically reduce this cost. You need to take your passport to the ticket office at the train station and buy a book of pink tickets which brings the cost of a tram ride down to less than 1€. For visitors staying for a week or more it is worth checking out the possibility of obtaining a ‘temporary residents tram pass’ to allow you to travel for 1€ - these tickets are available at the Station Administration office.

I hope you come and sit a while with us and let Soller get under your skin just as it has for so many who return every year.