Just back from Menorca and have added a new pub to my all time favourites list. It may actually, along with Groggans Bar in Dublin, the Diggers in Edinburgh and the Plovdiv Pub in, well, Plovdiv, make the top four. El Portal Del Mar is in Cuitedella, just before the Plaza de Colon in the old town. It has the most amazing oval bar which straddles three different heights of the floor. There are chairs of three separate sizes all the way round the bar so everyone is at the same height at drink level. Brilliant. Has a poignant kind of decayed feel about it essential to the most promising pubs. I could have stayed there all day. In fact I did.
The pebbles in the pavement swim,
palms sway like seaweed,
the little streets wash away
and as we turn to water,
we're faceted everywhere,
skewed in the sun,
reflected fat and thin and ruddy
then gossamer grey
in table tops and puddles.
