So Sineu and Petra are towns in Mallorca in the center of the Island.

I had an early practice session…9:30 (remember that it doesn’t get light till about 8am and I was driving over an hour to play). On the way I passed by Montuiri, and pulled over to take a quick photo. Montuiri dates back to the 1300s and is famous for its windmills.

After hitting I decided to visit a couple of towns in the central area, Sineu (population about 4000) and Petra (population about 3000).

Sineu is famous for its Church of Santa Maria, which is quite massive and old and in previous times, its palace, which is now a convent and its Wednesday market. It’s surrounded by agricultural fields and orchards. There were also a lot of bikers in the town both bicycle bikers and motor bikers. Next to the church is a central plaza lined. with restaurants.

Petra is the home of Father Junipero Serra, who founded the missions in California including the San Diego mission. There’s a museum there (which was closed) and the house he grew up in along with a large church. The streets are narrow, as is common in Mallorca and the area surrounding Petra is agricultural…I saw a tractor going down one of the streets. There’s a central square with a statue of Serra, and there were lots and lots of bicyclists having lunch when I walked through.

After leaving Petra, I returned to Font de Sa Cala and decided to see if I could get in a short hit…and ran into Tina Karwasky who was looking for a hit as well, so we had a practice. We ran into the top two players from the French team who laughed when we told them that the USA teams were pulled in part because Spain was deemed too dangerous! France and Germany will likely play for the gold on Friday…the players on the teams haven’t won gold so it could be a nervous but exciting final.