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The Virgins of the Soller Valley

October traditions in Soller

featured in Sights Reviews Author Shirley Roberts, Mallorca & Soller Correspondent Updated

Have you ever heard much about St Ursula? I confess she meant nothing to me until I moved to the hidden valley of Soller of Mallorca. Her presence is felt every October when a young mans fancy turns to love and muse. Our half term and October visitors walk the streets of Soller and will happen upon a lady with a big iron pot cooking on a gas ring – rather like a huge wok.

Sizzling hot oil and a dish of batter alongside ready for total immersion... Health and safety eat your heart out this open air cooking has gone on for decades and its unlikely to change. The small doughnut like offerings to St Ursula are called bunyolas and are mini doughnuts with a hole in the middle deep fried and sprinkled with sugar. The mixture is usually made with potato flour, eggs and milk and is served in cone shaped bags already for sharing. The significance of the ‘hole in the middle’ I leave you to ponder on but it has something to do with virginity! The night of St Ursula finds a love struck boy with a rose and his bunyolas singing at midnight outside the door of the object of his passion. Of course if her bedroom window opens out onto a balcony the whole thing is much more romantic.

October in Soller and the Port is the time between seasons. Families arrive and are grateful for the warm sun that accompanies the middle of the day. They are not, however prepared for the really cold mornings and evenings. Sollerics start wearing scarves now as the cold morning mountain air plays havoc with your chest! This peculiar state of affairs took me years to get right and I would have been one of the visitors in shorts going in the sea in October. Not now, I am a fully paid up member of the scarf wearing, sea avoiding locals who wear leather jackets and coats the minute the calendar gets to October. We walk along the beach admiring the English children brave enough to go in the sea and play on the beach in their swimming costumes.

The beach is giving way to the mountains and the lanes as the walkers and cyclists are back in town and are very welcome. Yoga retreats take place in the Soller valley in fincas such as Cas Bernats (www.casbernats.com) and the spiritual element of visitors coming to recreate themselves and find peace is evident here in the winter months. Beauty lends itself to many manifestations and this valley has it all.

Beauty sometimes is a while in the making and currently the whole of the sea front in the Port of Soller is under ‘obres’ (works). Repic beach escapes this massive refurbishment because it is already pedestrianised but the rest of the bay is awash with diggers, workmen and track laying. The tram is being repositioned and moved towards the centre of the road. The reasons for this are manifold and depend on who is telling the tale but we understand that the coastal authority want the land along the sea back. The tram has occupied this space for many years on a lease which has now expired. The blueprint for the completion of the works is very exciting with a boardwalk hanging over the sea for restaurants and walkers. As with most change there is an anti lobby and the local papers are full of recriminations about the project. These works will go on for the next few months and we are glad that our valley has many beautiful alternatives to that stretch of sea front.

Location

Map of the surrounding area

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