All You Zombies. . .

Or maybe I should title this “how I spent my vacation”. This was a long, expensive, and occasionally difficult trip, all for the sake of a 90-second once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was well worth it. I have a rather short bucket list, but a total eclipse has been at the top of it for a long time.

I’ve already told the rest of the story, with very little detail, in earlier posts, and will (soon, hopefully) give a more detailed account in our travel blog, Going-Sideways. The important part was on Thursday, 12 August, 2026 at about 20:30. Despite our planning a year in advance, we didn’t do quite enough research -- although the hotel had suites with an "ocean view", that didn't give a clear view of the western horizon. But we were close enough.

The "official" designated viewing spot was on the beach (there’s a book title in there someplace), the Playa de Santa Ponça, about two kilometers from the hotel. There was a time in my life when that would have been an easy walk. N had very sensibly rented a mobility scooter, which we took turns on (see St/rolling), and I had packed along a chair-cane that proved to be a life saver both on the walk and on the beach.

We had no idea how crowded the beach was going to be, and neither did anyone else, so when we saw people starting to arrive we headed out at about half-past noon, and found a nice spot at the water’s edge, on the end of the beach nearest the hotel. We could have left hours later, as it turned out. But we didn’t know that at the time.

A nice man came by and gave us a parasol. (My guess is that he, like us, was a tourist and didn’t need it any more.) I waded in about up to my knees – the bottom was pebbles rather than sand; it hurt my feet and I felt unstable. But I got my feet wet in the Mediterranean Sea, for the first and probably last time. A little later, I realized that we would probably get a better view from further back, because it would put us a meter or two higher. Besides, there were trees for shade, and a shower with cold fresh water.

N did a little more research, and concluded that the seeing would be better at the other (South) end, a few hundred meters away. Besides, that was where the official map said it would be. (The map was put out by the government, which was treating the whole event as a potential emergency. The hotel brought a copy to our room, along with three eclipse glasses.) We found a spot on the stone wall that ran along the back of the beach area, with a wooded hill behind it. There were lots of people all along the way setting up cameras, telescopes, and so on, which suggested that we were in the right place. We were.

A few minutes before the start of the eclipse, we gathered up our things and made our way the short distance down the hill to sit on the wall. The sun was behind the lower branches of a tree when the eclipse started at 19:38, but cleared them a little way into the partial phase, when the sun looked like a very fat crescent. I took a photo, which didn't come out well, and then on a whim a selfie, complete with eclipse glasses.

When the sun had shrunk down to a skinny crescent it started getting noticeably darker, and people started cheering. The sun shrank to a sliver, and then to a tiny red jewel. (It's called the diamond ring effect, but that close to sunset it was more like a ruby, and beautiful.) We took off our glasses, and there it was!! It lasted for about a minute and a half, starting at 20:31.

It is kind of Amazing just how amazing a fuzzy little circle of light can be. I fumbled with my phone trying to take a picture, failed, gave up, and just gazed at it. A minute and a half later we put our glasses back on and were treated to another ruby ring. We watched for a few minutes more, until the sun went behind the headland on the other side on the bay.

I found out later that my phone fumbling had somehow managed to capture a few seconds of video during totality. I was disappointed at first, but very happy about it now–it perfectly captures the beach party mood of the occasion.

The walk back to the hotel was mostly up-hill; we were both exhausted by the time we got back. Knowing we'd miss the hotel's dinner buffet, we stopped in a McD's that we'd seen on the way.

( travel notes and liveblog under the cut )