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.
# posted by Life with Andrea @ 11:52 AM
