Almost every padel club has a terrace. And anyone who plays padel knows that many of the best stories do not happen only on the court, but before and after the match.

Before playing, the terrace is the place where you wait for your partner, check whether your opponents have arrived yet and have a coffee to wake yourself up if it is an early morning match. Or perhaps an isotonic drink if you are determined to give it your all and need to convince yourself that today you are going to run for every ball.

After the match, the terrace takes on a different role. Winning or losing no longer matters quite so much. What matters is talking about that impossible point, laughing at the ball that went straight into the glass or remembering that serve that ended up in the net while everyone was watching. Among friends, there is always some little tradition: whoever loses buys the beer, whoever sends the most serves into the net pays for the next round, or whoever misses the easiest ball has to put up with the jokes until the next match.

Club terraces are part of the padel ritual.

But in Mallorca, there are other terraces with no rackets, no balls and no scoreboard. And yet, they can also take your breath away.

I am talking about the terraces of the Cathedral of Mallorca, La Seu. A place many tourists never get to visit, and even many residents still have on their pending list.

The Cathedral of Mallorca is one of Palma’s great symbols. Its silhouette facing the sea is part of the city’s most recognisable image. But seeing it from below is not the same as walking across its rooftops, beside its flying buttresses, its counterforts and its open views over the bay.

La Seu is a jewel of Mediterranean Gothic architecture. Its interior impresses with its height, its light and its enormous rose window, known as the “eye of the Gothic”. It also holds very special artistic interventions, such as Antoni Gaudí’s reform of the main altar and Miquel Barceló’s ceramic chapel, inspired by the sea, the loaves and the fishes.

But this post is not so much about explaining the Cathedral. It is about climbing up to its terraces.

For years, they were closed to the public, and although I had walked past La Seu hundreds of times, I had never experienced it from above. Until one day, I decided to visit them with my friend Laura.

Laura is not exactly the sportiest person in the world. She is more into books, courses, notes, quiet coffees and long conversations. To reach the terraces, you have to climb a narrow spiral staircase. And that is where our little adventure began.

At first, we were very composed, commenting on how beautiful the stone was and how special it felt to enter a less visible part of the Cathedral.

Halfway up, Laura was not talking quite so much anymore.

And when there were still more steps to go, she looked at me with that face that said, “this was not part of the plan” and told me:

“Ana, this feels more like a leg workout than a cultural visit.”

I could not help laughing, because she was right.

Sometimes in Mallorca, even the calmest plans have their sporty side. And that morning, without a racket and without a court, we almost did a vertical cardio session.

But when we finally stepped out onto the terraces, everything changed.

Suddenly, the effort of the climb disappeared. Up there, the noise of the city felt further away. The stone of the Cathedral opened around us like a giant skeleton of arches, rooftops and counterforts.

From below, the flying buttresses are barely noticeable. From above, however, you understand their size, their strength and their function. They look like stone arms holding up the Cathedral.

And then there are the views.

The Bay of Palma, Parc de la Mar, the Royal Palace of La Almudaina, the rooftops of the old town, the port and, in the distance, the Serra de Tramuntana. Everything appears from a different perspective, as if the city had arranged itself so you could understand it better.

Laura, who only a few minutes earlier had been mentally negotiating with every step, fell silent. And that is not very usual for her.

Then she said:

“Okay, I take it back. It was worth it.”

The terraces of the Cathedral of Mallorca are not a secret place. They are right there, in the heart of Palma. But they are one of those experiences many people overlook when they visit the island for the first time.

Sometimes because they only think about the beach. Sometimes because they do not know the terraces can be visited. And sometimes simply because nobody has told them about it.

And that is one of the things I most enjoy showing friends or groups when they come to Mallorca: places that do not always appear on the most obvious list, but allow you to see the city from a different perspective.

That is what I try to share when I show Mallorca through Grip and Trip.

A padel trip does not have to stay only on the court. It can start with a training session, continue with a match, carry on with lunch by the sea and, the next day, take you walking across the terraces of a Gothic cathedral with views over the entire bay.

Because Grip and Trip was born precisely from that idea: bringing sport together with the most authentic way of discovering a destination.

Mallorca has padel clubs, yes. But it also has stories, hidden corners, unexpected views and places that are enjoyed even more when someone local shows them to you with care.

And perhaps that is why, after visiting the terraces of La Seu, Laura told me something very similar to what many friends say after playing padel on the island:

“Next time, let me know… but warn me first if I need to train my legs.”