28 May, 2007

Cercedilla and the Sierra Guadarrama

What a great day! After a little stress getting out the door we made it uneventfully to the Atocha train station and were quickly on our way to the mountains we can see from Madrid and the little town of Cercedilla.

The ride is about 1.5 hours; the train was clean and ran right on time so that was a breeze. When we got to the station in Cercedilla, we knew right away this was different. The air was crisp and we really were in the mountains! (trivia point: after Switzerland, Spain is the most mountainous European country).

Just shy of 4000 feet, we started walking up and up toward the information center. We had no map or plan today; we were totally winging it.

We passed a little spot where we could fill our water bottles straight out of the mountainside and the girls couldn't wait to get their hands wet!


Very sleepy town on a Monday so lunch was hard to find, much to our surprise. We found a supermercardo, bought some bread, cheese, turkey and mustard and had a feast right on the plaza, looking at the mountains. Best, and cheapest, lunch since we arrived. See Taylor's smiling face afterward and Laura Macie's siesta plans for all you need to know!

Our only goal was to scout out the trails and decide if it would 1) work for my running and 2) a good place to come back and spend some time. A home run on both fronts, no question. I even found a marathon here 3 weeks from now. So we know we'll be back at least on the 17 June!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buddy, great to read your updates! Sounds like the next year is going to be a great family adventure.

Deb and I have the Nipmuck Trail Marathon this coming Sunday. It is one of the classics. Then, she is on to the Peaks Challenge (50+) the following week. Shep and I are crew.

We are finalizing plans for Chamonix in August. Let us know if you can join us for the Ultra Trail Tour de Mt. Blanc.

Cheers, Scott

Aimee said...

It's SO good to see pictures of the girls! Keep on posting pictures with one of ya'll in them. For a minute I thought you were just finding pictures on the Internet and posting them instead of actually being there!! :-)

Anonymous said...

THis is very cool! We can hear about your adventures and even see some of them. Thanks for taking the time and keep it up. Love it, love it, love it! Best to Becca and the girls from Kevin, CJ, Ashley and me...
Hugs to all,
Leslie

Anonymous said...

Love the blog! It's so great to read about and see photos of your fabulous adventure. Looking forward to following you all around Spain and Europe this year through your postings and especially to meeting up with you all this August in Innsbruck!
All our best,
Shelby and Benjamin

Anonymous said...

Buddy,

Enjoying your updates. Glad you are having a great time.