Capdepera Market & Castle

SPAIN WON THE WORLD CUP!!! Last night I went down to the plaza to a bar to watch with the locals and German tourists. It was very exciting and a lot of fun to be in a large crowd when Spain won. Since this is a sleepy small town, though, there were no huge gatherings in the streets or parties or anything. Plenty of cars driving up and down the streets waving Spanish flags and honking their horns all night long though. :)

So, as I said, this is a pretty small town... between this town and the two neighboring ones, there are only 11,000 people total. Because of that, there isn't a whole lot to do, which can be relaxing in a way, but has made me ready for a change of pace later this week, on Friday, when I leave here and meet Sean and Liz in Barcelona on Saturday!!

In the meantime, I did do some fun things this past week. Wednesday is market day in town, and the restaurant where I'm working has a stand there... I went with Sylvia, one of the four owners, to sell some organic sugar and accost German tourists with menus for our lunch special(and then be openly ignored). I also mistook a local for a German tourist... I realized my mistake when I said "Guten Morgen!" and he shot me an icy glare and responded with "Hola." He returned a few minutes later from his errand... Marlboro Reds carton run!!! Wooo!

I also got some time to explore the town's castle, which was built around the year 1300 by King Jaume II. Very very cool! The cylindrical tower at the center was built by Moors much earlier as a watch tower, as it is at the highest point in town. In the 1800s it was shortened by half, gutted, and retrofitted as a flour mill. Neat.

Enjoy some pictures of the market and castle!!!!!

MARKET SHOTS:
Produce!

Olives and pepeprs!

 Our market stand.  The umbrella was a necessity - it was only 8:30AM but we were already sweating a ton.

CASTLE SHOTS:

From the distance...

One of only two entrances:

The watchtower/mill:

 

The well to the cistern.  One of the earliest parts of the castle complex:

The alarm bells to warn of siege!!

This crucifix dates back to the gothic period and was carved out of orangewood.  Part of the original church on site.

These walkways circle the whole castle to provide easy access to all defensive points.  I walked along them for awhile.  The ground below got lower and lower and lower, and I kept going... 

...until this steep slope that was higher than the tree tops!!

 

VIEWS FROM THE TOP!

The town church:

Mallorca is very hilly and mountainous, as you can see in the distance:

From the highest points of the castle you can easily see the Mediterranean.  This was a lookout point for enemy ships coming from Menorca, the neighboring island, and was used as a lookout point long before the castle was built.

Close-up shots of the town below:

BOOM.