NCL Epic - Day 10, Ibiza, Spain

 

Today, we are docked at the beautiful island of Ibiza, Spain. Ibiza is famous for its nightlife and electronic dance scene, but we aren’t here that late so we’ll have to miss that. We booked a tour today called the Gourmet Tour – Top’s Ibiza – Bullit De Peix. Bullit De Peix is a regional cuisine, essentially a fish stew.

The excursion started with a village tour of a small village called Santa Gertrudis. The tour guide was this delightful old lady that was always smiling and bubbly. She walked the village with us, pointing out certain plants. Then, we were lead to a local church called Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera, and told to walk around and meet back together at the church. There were some small shops around here and the tour guide gave us wonderful ideas of what to buy to bring home. One of the things she recommended was Ibiza salt, which was less than a dollar a bag, but they cost an arm and a leg in the US.

San Gertrudis de Fruitera Church

Shopping was great here. Prices were much cheaper than the earlier ports and the little town felt clean and quiet. I kind of wondered if people were still sleeping from a night of partying.

Sculpture of the First Bishop of Ibiza, Manuel Abad y Lasierra by Ibizan artist Petro Hormigo

Then we were back on the bus, driven by some beautiful scenery, and arrived at Playa Puerto de San Miguel, a beautiful beach with lots of restaurants, water activities, and people sunbathing. I did not take many pictures of the beach because beaches in Spain are all nudity friendly.

Playa Puerto de San Miguel

Time to eat. Remember, our excursion is called the Gourmet Tour – Top’s Ibiza – Bullit De Peix, so now it’s time for that Bullit De Peix! The restaurant was right on the beach, a nice seafood restaurant called Port de Balansat. It almost seems like they were trying to be secretive about the name of the restaurant – I’m guessing because if we had gone to the restaurant on our own, we could have saved a lot of money, or they didn’t want us to look at the restaurant’s reviews. Not sure. Either way, the food we had was delicious and definitely a little different than the fish stew we eat at home. The meal came with bread and drinks (beer or wine), in addition to the fish stew. Everything was unlimited. After the meal, we were each given a slice of greixonera, a traditional Ibizan bread pudding that is heavenly.

Bread Course

Second Course

The meal was served family style but unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the big serving trays of fish stew. Another note: the fish had bones in them.

Dessert Course

Greixonera

The dessert was so amazing. My mouth waters now when I think about it. I wish the dessert course was unlimited!

This was the end of our excursion. After lunch, we were back on the bus and back to the ship. This was an expensive excursion but I really enjoy local cuisine so it was worth it in that aspect. We had local beer, local wine, local fish stew and local dessert, all combined with a little bit of local history and the shopping was great too.