A roller coaster of epic proportions - setting up 2 companies, moving to a new country, with a new language and refurbishing a restaurant with our own blistered hands. Seasonal tourism, changing cultures, suppliers and hurricanes all kept us on our toes - but cor blimey did we get A LOT done.
Fresh off a trip to the USA and filled with inspiration from the Grand Canyon, Zion, Death Valley and San Francisco - we decided to pull the trigger on Velovie and jump straight in. Within a week the flat was over run with project plans, budget sheets and visa applications, and we did wonder if it was all a bit too much... But some much needed encouragement from our local cycling club gave us the push we needed. Before we knew what was happening, we had a car packed to to rafters and we were on the road to Europe!
Getting to Mallorca
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1,386 miles
A proper road trip - leaving at 4am to get the 8am train across the channel, then driving 12 hours down to the South of France. From there 7 hours to Barcelona where we catch the ferry to Mallorca. M&Ms anyone?
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Overnight Ferry
Ann mini adventure on it's own, the overnight ferry from Barcelona to Mallorca is grim to day the least! Cabins are mandatory if you have a dog, so at least we managed to catch some much needed sleep.
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Getting the keys
Landing in Palma at 5am we drove straight across the island and were walking on Alcudia beach by 7am. By 9am we had picked up the keys, and by 9:30am we were sweating bullets - the place was a real mess, & we were way o ver our heads...
The Refurb
The furniture was water damaged, the electrics blown, drains blocked, fridges fried, cupboards rotten and the bar... Well it was unusual to say the least and would certainly need to be completely demolished. But we do love a challenge, so after a quick walk reset we went to buy chcolate croissants and a sledge hammer (not something you hear very often). By 1pm Elsa was demolishing the bar, and what followed was 3 months of refurbishment work, electrocutions and paint fights. Anything we could do to turn things around, make this work and keep the dream alive.
Essential branding
Big Logo
Ofcourse we need a big-old sign when you walk through the door - but we decided to keep costs down & do it ourselves, making a template from A4s stuck together with masking tape, and using spray paint from old Porsche colours! The colours are taken form the beach right behind the clubhouse, and we take them with us where ever we go.
Version 1
Feature Wall
This stone wall was pretty much the only thing we managed to keep, and whilst it went through a few iterations the 1st one was pretty good. Screen for the races, the beginnings of our memorabilia collection and ofcourse on of our favourite bikes. What you don't see in the photos is that the stones were hard as granite, and even a small hole would take 45 mins to finish. It also housed some pretty massive spiders (but we don't like to talk about them).
Many, many
Plumbing Issues
Realisng that we had a leaky roof, a flooded kitchen and 2 blocks drains was just the start of it - because then we had to demolish walls, dig up flooring and rip apart walls to start reparing them. Add this to the list of things we had no idea how to do, but we jumped straight in anyway! If anybody needs some advice on tiling, re-wring, brickwork, unblocking drains, or cockroach infestations - yup, we can probably help.
Beautiful but difficult
Concrete Tiles
We new that we would be ripoping almost everything out, so we wanted to make sure we had at least one thing that was 100% Mallorcan, and really nice. We found this small family business in Inca that were handmaking this concrete tiles in the same way for 3 generations, and we loved them. What we didn't consider that being made from concrete, cutting them required a diamond disc and an angle grinder! Every cut took 10 mins and ALOT of dust, and all in this patch of tiling took 3 weeks to complete. More sub-optimal timings. Eagle eyed readers will also notice the wrecked original floor which was covering orange teracotta tiles.
Green Credentials
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Sally, Gary & Barry
Big spaces can feel pretty cold, so we knew we needed plenty of plants to soften the space.
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King George
Jamie had a Habbit of naming every plant he's ever owned, and for some reason only the outside ones had Spanish names.
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Larry 2nd
All the furniture in the background was water damaged and had to go in the skip.
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Sanchez
The name & the haircut say it all. This one was the problem child that took a year to chop back!
The Back Bar
The beating heart of the cafe, the back bar needed to a lot of things - but first of all it needed to have running water, functioning plug sockets and cupboard that weren't falling over. It was so much work that it actually gets it's own section! Everything from more demolition, tiling, re-wiring, cuboard building, spraying, joining and plumbing... You name it we did it.
Laugh or Cry?
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Ceiling Collapse
Long story but the a leak from the neighbours bathroom made our roof fall in. Which was sub-optimal.
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Satan's Sofa
Inhertied from the previous owners, and left in the wet for several years this monstrosity was infested.
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Shelob Spiders
Large enough to set off the security cameras, we reckon this one was about 9 inches across... Urgh.
Equipment
Slovenian Heros
Rok & Jan. These guys rocked on up to the cafe at the beginning of the off season, and stayed for another 6 months. They became firm friends, helping us with everything from painting, tidying, assembling and leading social rides. More importantly they were friendly faces, and always there for us. Gents, we salute you.
Turbo Time
One of our many grand schemes was to have a permanent Zwift Racing setup in the cafe. To be fair we had it all set up and used it for training through the winter, but ultimately the cycling season was so short it just didn't make sense to keep it. But it was GLORIOUS while it lasted, and it got us some brownie points when Eric Min (Zwift CEO) came for a ride.
Cafe Life
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All the Bidons
We are very lucky to have so many generous Pro's visit & Donate bidons
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First Kit Delivery
This was special (a fly on the wall would have seen a lot of celebrating!)
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Loafing
Quiet season didn't always mean bad weather, so we did get to take a load off.
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Sunsets
Cummon' it's Mallorca - we had a lot of beautiful sunsets just like this one.
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Stereo Saviour
This was a game changer - you can't have a cafe without some tunes.
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Yoghurt Bowls
Granbola & Acai bowls for days and days. Have I had enough now? Nope!
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Big Boy Cookies
What can I say... if you've been to see us, you know what these are all about.
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Cup a loada' these
Stamping cups is theraputic, boring & satisfying all at the same time.
The Pro Show
Wrapping up 2023
This year was something else. if you told us on the 1st Janaurt that we would have bought a business, moved to Mallorca, entirely refurbished a restaurant, established a cycling brand and eating 1,754 croissants... We just would not have believed you. We can crtainly say it was fun, challenging and stressful. But we wanted change, an adventure and to follow our passions - and we certainly did all three. On the way we picked up some incredible friends, a bit of a sun tan and some now completely acceptable latte art skills.
2023 was a year like no other, and whilst frought with challenges harder than we ever imaigined we are certainly glad that with how it's turned out.
One thing for sure is that we have only just begun this journey. We have a. lot fo work to do, ideas to materialise and things to figure out. But now we've started there's no going back. We are all in, for the love of what we do and the people we're bringing along for the ride. So watch this space for 2025 - it's gonna be bananas!
