Fries “Schranke” in Paguera

I do like travelling. But I hate the packing and everything around it. Even on business trips, for that reason, I have occasionally turned up with nothing but a T-shirt and boxer shorts in my laptop bag.

But sometimes the good stuff is somehow close by, and one of Mallorca’s most beautiful sides is precisely its exceptionally great diversity. What you can reach from Palma in a maximum of half an hour is phenomenal. And different enough to bring up a little holiday feeling even for residents!

The best wife of all needs a bit of peace and focus today. So I grab the older part of the offspring and set off on a little excursion!

Paguera has something mysterious about it for me. The party-loving Germans are in El Arenal and on the Playa, the Brits sunbathe (or rather burn?) in Magaluf and the surrounding area. And all the other tourists should please be travelling sustainably and luxuriously. At least that’s what the island government would like.

Apart from the fact that there aren’t that many truly luxurious locations on the island anyway. Rather, the majority of predominantly Mallorcan hotels could definitely take another look at their concepts that have gotten on in years… But luxury of whatever kind doesn’t exactly jump out at the viewer in Paguera!

The wonderful “Mann spricht deutsch” is more in your face. Only here it wasn’t half of Munich descending on Italy in the 80s. It was Germany descending on Paguera in the 2000s. In the 50s and 60s, by the way, it was wealthy Madrileños who were drawn to Paguera.

And then in Paguera – as in many expat spots – this peculiar subculture was added. Where, as a German, you never know whether you should feel uncomfortable, maybe even embarrassed. Or whether, deep down, you actually find it kind of nice. Then there are places like “Krümels Stadel” or the “Schwarzwald Café”, where the willing tourist doesn’t even have to notice anymore that they’re in Spain. Although I wouldn’t even know where in Germany there are comparable places.

I seem to remember that the Schwarzwald Café played a role in Goodbye Deutschland. But since I’m not up to date enough, I look it up in the always well-informed Mallorca Zeitung. It says there it should be open. But it isn’t.

Paguera today, early on a Thursday evening in the middle of August, doesn’t feel deserted. But it isn’t really full either. On top of that, there are odd opening hours. The new waffle shop is closing right now. Even though it’s right down by the beach. Well, then we can’t spend any money there …

Right next to it is a lovely children’s playground. And to make it even better for the kids, there’s even a kind of fairground with a small ride and a bouncy castle. So honestly, for a small resort town, I think that’s a great offering.

The kontiki Beach, with 4.5 little Tripadvisor stars presumably not a complete disaster and located right on the beach, is open. In fact, though, it’s not even more than half full.

We stroll past more closed shops. Some look like they’ll open again tomorrow. For others, that seems to have been a while ago. These are surely also after-effects from the Covid period; even so, it seems as if Paguera hasn’t fully woken up again from its winter sleep.

But we’re drawn to a particular spot anyway. Thüringer Land, where we were once before during Covid times. Back then it was closed and the Grillmüller was open. Either Mrs. Müller had taken over a few shops from Mr. Meister, or the other way around … In any case, the two bratwurst gastro places in Paguera, located almost next to each other, basically belong together; Grillmüller has the slightly larger range.

But for me it’s about the classic currywurst, the kind I also like to eat at Grillmeister on the Paseo or at Playa de Palma. And you get it here in really good quality. Either as Krakauer (I don’t like it …), as a Thüringer, or the sausage goes into the machine as a half-metre. It’s then garnished with this curry sauce that tastes similar everywhere. And then the catering tax is used to dust it with the yellow powder that gives it that mild heat. And if you order fries with it, you can choose between ketchup or mayo. I take both, of course.

It turned out the way it had to. It tastes like childhood. Like the chip shop in the pedestrian zone where, after swimming, I was always allowed to buy a bag of fries. With lots of mayo on top. And I still love that cheap catering mayo to this day. My synapses are trained to it; I can’t get around a second portion. The sausage is as expected—how could it surprise, after all? That wouldn’t be its job. After all, I want to get here what I came for. And that without a single little foamy dollop of horseradish mustard …

Conclusion: Good! Exactly as expected. Plus a San Miguel on tap at the special offer price—what more could a man’s soul desire?

Our salesman? Or waiter? Or cook? was really nice! Only been on the island for two days. But ran the place with a pleasant laid-backness that makes you happy to come back! He also told me that it had apparently only become this quiet just today.

I hope the restaurateurs in Paguera had a season that was good enough to soften the losses from Covid a bit! I like this somewhat unruly mix of restaurants, cafés and souvenir shops. It’s a wonderful little trip back in time that is 15 minutes away from Palma. And yet shows a completely different feel for life.

With children, the beach is fantastic, and what Calvia has put together here – as in most other places belonging to the municipality – in terms of playgrounds and so on is great stuff. So if you ever feel like a truly German snack-bar currywurst, then you have to go to Thüringer Land!

If you know more about the mystery of the closed shops here, then please write it to me in the comments below