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!
