Since we’re currently not allowed to travel anywhere anytime soon, I thought I’d throw it back to exactly one year ago. Last year the beginning of April, Christiaan took me to Mallorca to escape the regular and go on a new adventure together. We both had been there before, and it is absolutely one of my favorite places to be. Honestly, I could see myself living here one day. I just feel so at home and at peace here. I thought I’d share some stories from our trip back then!
Like I told here before when Christiaan and I go on a holiday, we barely sit still. We want to explore the area, island, culture, country as much as possible. But I do have to admit, I currently do look forward to a relaxing beach vacation in the nearby future. I wonder if I can sit still so much? I guess I’ll have to find out. We were actually going to Italy at the beginning of this May, but the trip is canceled due to the coronavirus. Do you think we’ll get to travel again this year?
Anyway, enough of my random babbling, I wanted to tell you about our trip to Mallorca and one of our stories! I’ve shared the short version on my Instagram (it’s in Dutch) back then, but I never shared our story about the Castle of Alaró and our incredible pictures here..
OK, storytime. We actually wanted to drive to Alcudia that day, stroll through the town, walk along the harbor and have lunch later. We were on the road when Christiaan said we had to stop to get some gas. So we decided to take the exit from the MA-13 to Binissalem. Suddenly, we spotted a sign which said there was a castle nearby. We decided to follow the signs and just adventure it.
It led us to the village of Alaró and quickly we were finding ourselves on a narrow road, it kinda also looked like private property. We drove in between beautiful vineyards and gazed at the impressive rocky mountains in the distance. Every once in awhile we noticed an old sign for the castle which gave us the impression we were on the right way. We had no idea what we had to expect, we could’ve Googled it, but we decided not to.
After 30 minutes of driving, the road became even more narrow, rocky, and had a lot of potholes. Slowly we were driving up a mountain accompanied by many hairpin bends. Luckily for us, there was barely any counter traffic and the scenery was amazing. However, we drove in a Fiat 500 which didn’t really have the best power to climb up a mountain along with this bad road. After another 15 minutes, we suddenly found ourselves at a flat landscape, inhabited by sheep and goats and surprisingly, a restaurant called Es Verger (a famous lamb restaurant). We looked around and were surrounded by so many high and rocky mountains. We joked that the castle would be somewhere on top of those hills. A friendly man from the restaurant asked us if we were on our way to see the castle. He told us we could park the car and go further on foot, it would take about 30 minutes. Or we could drive a little further by car, and then walk for 15 minutes. Lazy as we were – of course – we decided to drive. Soon the roads became undrivable, we parked the car and would walk for the last couple of minutes.
We walked and climbed, through the woods, on slippery paths, along a cliff, probably for about 30 minutes. We decided to take a small break, and that was the moment where Christiaan decided to drink all the water we had brought with us.. and it was so hot! We had more water and food in our car, we didn’t bring it because we didn’t expect it to be this far. We walked by a woman who was clearly resting, she told us it was probably another 30-minute hike to get to the castle. Well, believe me woman, it wasn’t another 30 minutes! We climbed more slippery cobblestone stairs, did I mention I was wearing my leather loafers? I was thirsty, hot, but enjoying every second of our adventure.
Finally, we stumbled upon an ancient gateway. Where we finally here? We entered the gate and looked around. That ancient castle we were looking for all this time? Yeah, it didn’t really look like a castle anymore. There were just ruins. And yes, we were finding ourselves on top of that hill that we joked about before. BUT, the view was breathtaking from up there. We were standing on the top of Puig d’Alaró, an 815m hilltop offering us incredible views over the Tramuntana mountains and valley, towards Palma and all over the sea.
Castell d’Alaró was built for military purposes and was used to lodge the conquerors of the island. There are records of its existence since 902! The ruins of the fortress aren’t all there is on top of the hill. If you’ll leave the area of the towers and climb towards the evergreen oaks up the hill, you’ll even find a guesthouse, a chapel, and some cute donkeys. But all this time there I wondered, how did they ever build this back in the days?
Eventually, we did end up in Alcudia, just much later than we actually anticipated, haha. We weren’t really prepared to go on such a long hike but we wouldn’t have wanted to miss this in the world! If you’re in for some action while enjoying nature and breathtaking views, visiting the castle of Alaró should be definitely on your to-do list while you’re on Mallorca. I also had some video material I wanted to share here but I guess it’s not supported by WordPress.
Have you ever been to Castell D’Alaró before? Do you find yourself in the most unexpected adventures while on holiday, if yes, tell me!
Wishing you a great Easter weekend lovelies!
Kisses, Layla
