Randa & (drive up to) Cura, Algaida and Montuiri, Mallorca Spain

This is one of the steep hills of Montuiri.

We drove to Randa parked and started walking uphill towards Cura where the Catholic Sanctuary is and realized it was 5 km straight uphill. I was not against that, we just got there too late and did not have water so we drove up the switchback after switchback road. 

Randa was a very sleepy little village.

This dry stacked stone wall was built into the rock.  It was fascinating to me.

A biker passing by Randa coming down from his 5 km ride up to Cura Sanctuary.

Darren had fun driving but I would have more fun walking.  The Cura Mountain is considered the most sacred mountain in all of the Ibiza Islands.  The Sanctuary is important because some dude received a revelation here.  The building is built into the rocks and the views are stupendous of the surrounding countryside and of the Mediterranean Sea.  

The rocks were super interesting here, all pointing one way.

Beautiful Med Sea pic.

It is a popular walking and biking area and many bikers have biked to their deaths by the number of tiny gravestones with bikes engraved into them.  There are stone barricades on the most dangerous switchbacks and I just held my breath until we had passed them.

Right behind me was about a 400 foot drop.  I was even scared taking the Ussee.

The Monastery was very important in its heyday.

There was a small herd of sheep on the Monastery grounds and the biggest one kept following me with a vengeance.  Darren said to be careful that I did not get butted over the low rock wall into oblivion.  It turns out that the matriarch sheep just wanted a good head scratch.  After Darren gave her one, she would not leave him alone.  It was kind of cute and so were her lambs.

The monastery has a museum and restaurant, views and cute sheep.  It was worth the drive up but when I return to Mallorca someday I would love to do the walk up and down for the views and exercise.

Algaida was a nice little town in Mallorca with not a lot to offer.  It did however have a restored windmill.  The windmills around Palma are falling down and are not too picturesque, they should be saved.  Between the 16th and 19th centuries windmills were used to grind grain and pump water.

She was too cute to pass up.

We spent the most time walking around Montuiri as it was the most scenic of the three towns.  We found a parking spot and made our way up the steep climbs to the town center where the church was.  This town had pretty tiled streets closer to the church.  The streets were narrow and typical of a Medieval village.

I loved these narrow stairs up this very steep road behind me.

We found a restaurant to sit and have a glass of vino and soak in the ambiance.  The views were mostly of the vineyards and tiled roofs.  I did have a dry white wine from one of the vineyards outside of Montuiri.