Life with Andrea

Before I tell you about the castle, I should say that they don't speak Spanish here.  All my hard work for naught.  They speak Mallorquin, a dialect of Catalan.  Many people do speak some Spanish, because they're nice and this is Europe, but the native language here is closer to Catalan.  That's why it's Castel rather than Castillo.  And the funniest word is Dilluns.  That is not Hobbit-talk for something.  It means Monday.

Bob, Soren/Gandalf with staff for hiking, Elizabeth.

It was rainy.  Soren was sick.  The drive to the cave was 4 hours.  Life was pooey.  So, we did something different.  We drove around hairpin turns on a road big enough for one car (and only had to back up once for someone coming the other way, generally one could find pullouts) to get to a place to pull off enough that the whole car was off the road.  Then we walked .5 km to get to the trailhead to Castel D'Alaro.

View of castle after climbing about 700 meters = 2100 feet.

There's a "grand route" around the island.  It's mostly on private property, but the government has paid the owners to allow foot traffic.  This was GR211 or something like that.  At first, it sucked you in, by being a bit level.  Then, you left the olive trees and started up the terraces - it seemed like straight up.  And up.  and up.  and up and up.  After about twice as long as they thought it should take, we got to the place that Mallorquinos would drive to - they'll drive on dirt roads not wide enough for the cars.  Maybe that was 2 hours of climbing for us.  Great views, all the way.

On the final approach - note arrow slits to left of doorway.

After that final parking, the trail was "paved" with purposefully laid on stones, stairs, path.  Another half hour of climbing - and we could see the Castel.  On the top of a mountain.  You would not think thye'd have to fortify the top of such a mountain - no one would ever go there, too steep, too steep.  But they did build castle walls with arrow slits around the semi-accessible parts (the rest was straight drop.  Some of the "accessible" was the kind of rock climbing you do with pietons - we saw two groups doing that.  But we got to the top.  Stunning views.  Beautiful climb.  The clouds and mist only made it more magical.

view from/off the edge.  Too steep to approach.... elev 800 m = 2624 feet.

Down was only about the recommended 1.5 hours. And it was beautiful too.  We saw some great sheep, as well as views, olives, birds, mountains. 
Pictures to follow. 

This house is great!  The town is Great! Fornalutx.

view from upstairs patio.

It's a stone house, built into the side of the mountain.  You get to it by climbing one or another flight of stairs.  Up about 85, or down about 30, depending o where you're coming from.  This house is on about 5 levels, every room seems to be on a different one.  We have stunning views of this steep valley.

kitchen in fornalutx house

We've walked/climbed around town.  Bougainvilla , hibiscus, nasturtium, christmas cactus, roses abound.  Instead of grass in the parking areas, they have orange trees.  As far as we can tell, many are just public trees, and if you don't take the windfalls/super ripe oranges, they'll just be ant traps.  So we are taking the windfalls.  Cameron is making lots of juice.  I mostly just eat the oranges.

Yesterday we went for a drive to Cuber Lake, and Bob and I walked along an aqueduct.  The kids walked from the lake to Fornalutx, about 15-20 km.  (we drove back).

cuber lake

oak tree on Cuber Lake Trail - growing out of a rock!

 And today, we all went to Port Soller, which is "Princeville" - rich and posh and expensive.  But the water was lovely - there's a harbor which was a beautiful blue, and then we climbed over the hill to see the Mediterranean.  It seems to go on forever.  Seas are bigger across than rivers and creeks.

Elizabeth and I just went to Christmas Eve mass at the church.  They speak Mallorcan here, which is a dialect of Catalan. Catalan is NOT spanish.  Neither of us really understands it, although I can pick out a word here and there, and Elizabeth a lot more.  So, the mass was incomprehensible, but the church was really pretty.  The have several alcoves with altars, and a big one up front with 4 ranges of statues, all gilt.  And paintings or tile designs in all the alcoves.  For part of the service, a woman dressed in a fez and possiby moorish costume, holding a scimitar as a priest would hold a cross - up, and in front of her - sang some of the xmas story (at least, we think that is what it was).  

pictures will come later.

We did get here.  Hurrah! and surprise!
The afternoon we arrived, Bob and I went to the Prado to look at paintings.  I don't like museums.  They're full of pictures by dead guys.  It's just that it's hard to be in spain and not go to the Prado.  And I did want to see paintings by Goya, Velazquez, and El Greco.  I didn't realize that they had some very cool Bosch also.  There's one called the Garden of Earthly Delights which is part of a tryptych, a foldover with a big center.   The left is paradise, and busy but not exciting.  The middle is the G of ED, which is famous.  The right side was incredibly cool, it was Hell and full of amazing stuff that I can no longer even recall (senility having set in).  And, if you did fold the two edges in, he'd painted more stuff on the "cover".  It was great!

Goya and the rest were not so interesting to me. but I really liked El Greco!  I have NOT liked him in books, the people are too tall and thin, like the folks in the planet Father whatshisname went to in The Sparrow.  But the colors were fantastic - i think he must have painted them in the greys and blacks first, and then washed the color over the top.  The colors were too rich to have lived through the muting required if you put grey or black into your paint.  But then, I'm probably wrong.
The next day, we walked around a cool part of town, old fashioned, balconies, tall, marble, grilled windows, it looked pretty "spanish".  And we found a market that Cait loved, and in which she got some cheese.  This picture is of the Plaza Mayor, not the favorite place, but very spanish and has this cool building.
 THEN we went to the Palais Real (palace of the king), and i just wanted to go in, even though i wasn't sure I'd like it, but I did want to, and I have wantd to, and so I broke down and decided to go.  Cait was supremely uninterested, but Bob was willing to come too.
And it was as good as I had hoped!  There were painted ceilings, gilt, velvet with gold embroidery, a throne room, embroidered wall papers.  One room had porcelain figures on the wall, instead of embroidered tapestry wall paper!   I did notice that not so many of the pictures were religious.  In the Prada, most were religious.  In the Castle, there were lots of greek legends and heroes instead.  And the rooms were HUGE.  I walked around staring at the ceiling.  Bob had to keep me from bumping into people and falling down.  Fantastico!
And, Bob said le'ts go to the armory.  So we did - and it had amazing armour.  I had never seen a real broadsword - they're taller than I am - and they look like they weigh a ton.  And I saw an arquebus.  And muskets.  and the pistoles were LONG, I had thought maybe 12 inches top, but they were over 15 inches.
We saw horse armor and KID armor - for maybe an 8 year old.  They don't belong in battle.
At the end of all that, we went to the Templo Debod - which is an egyptian temple what was going to be flooded with the Aswan Dam.  Spain helped Egypt a lot with the project, so Egypt gave Spain this temple in recognition of their work.  It's got real hieroglyphics inside - you can actually see the stone carved words!  Very cool.  And in a lovely park.  With Bob in front.  

Then, on day 3, we got to Mallorca.  Our house is outside of Soller, in hte beautiful mountains.  It's a lovely house.  We are incredibly grateful to Christopher Toyne for letting us rent his house.  It is in a fantastic village, with a fantastic view, and i'm using fantastic a lot but what else can I say?  Old, beautifully preserved, full of antique furniture and modern paintings, classy tile, refinished wood eams and white stucco, modern stove and old fashioned shutters, melding the old and the new.  (But parking and driving here was not so much fun, says Bob).  Anyway, more tomorrow.