This is a throwback to our Easter weekend day trip to the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park. Not so much about the food but I believe that the mountain pictures will speak for themselves! This was our first road trip out of Madrid too!

Hotel Rural El Yelmo, avenida de la Pedriza, 67, 28410 Manzanares el Real

We left Madrid at 8:30 and were in Manzanares el Real no more than 50 minutes later. This was our first time navigating on the Spanish roads and I can already tell you it is not my cup of tea, so I was very glad when we stopped and parked for the morning hike.

I will never pass up on an opportunity to have a drink with a view, so we stopped at a local coffee shop to have a cup before we started our hike. Café con leche or coffee with milk cost me €1.70, same price as an americano that Matas had. I actually enjoyed this cup (honestly, as many others already) as it was not too bitter, not too acidic or burn. I am always up for a balanced cup of coffee and Spain usually delivers.

Since we were already at it, I ordered us some tostada con tomate y aceite (€1.80) or a toast with tomatoes and olive oil. This is one of the standard breakfast items in Spain and I really enjoyed it. The bread was fresh and crispy. The tomato+olive oil+salt spread gave enough juice to be soaked up. And I was hungry to boot. A winning combo. All in all, our breakfast cost us €7. What a steal. Puts you in a good mood for the day for sure.

Hiking La Pedriza

We started on this gorgeous forth-and-back 12 km hike after breakfast where we were welcomed by a fairly reasonable path that slowly and surely took us along the mountain river to the end where we spend some time resting and admiring the views.

After the 6 km km slow and steady climb we reached this flatter part where the river pools into little basins and there are boulders for scrambling. Well, we did not do any scrambling because the area was actually teeming with mountain goats and one particularly gnarly looking specimen that you saw above was residing exactly where we would have wanted to go, so thanks, no thanks.

We found this hike quite easy and we were done well before lunch time. If I did this another time, I would pack us a nice picnic that we could then spend the afternoon lying around the area and enjoying the peace and quiet and mountain goats. At this point we turned back to go down and find lunch in the town of Manzanares el Real.

Restaurante Parra, calle de los Panaderos, 18, 28410, Manzanares el Real

After completing the hike we were in a need of a refreshing drink and some food. We started with a tinto de verano (€2.50) for me (so refreshing, a perfect drink for summer indeed) and Matas had a double of 0.0 Mahou (€2.60) because at least one person in this family needs to be a responsible adult. And also drive the car. We received some fried chorizo as a free tapa, a little bit salty but very yummy.

At this point we decided that we will drive to another place for another hike, hence, I proceeded to order us a bunch of food to prepare us for the upcoming strenuous activity. A tapas portion of tortilla española cost €3.10 and it was not bad at all. Since it was Easter proper I could not pass up on an opportunity of eating ensalada rusa (½ portion €5.50). I kid you not, growing up, there was not a holiday that this heavily mayonnaised dish did not make an appearance. I have no idea how did Spanish come up with this “salad” but they have it and it is usually not bad at all.

Ensalada ventresca (€10.80) or tomato salad with canned tuna belly was quite nice too. I am beginning to like fresh tomatoes because they are that good in this country. The biggest surprise was moruno de cordero (€4.50) or lamb kebab. The meat was flavourful and tender, and the portion size-pricing-quality did not make sense but who am I to complain about a low price delicious dish!

Hiking Siete Picos

As I said, the morning hike left us wanting for more, so after a little bit of searching we found a few possible options a short drive away in an area called Navacerrada. We wanted a little bit of a challenge, so we picked this trail called Siete Picos or Seven Peaks. Navacerrada is a popular area for skiing, so we found a huge nearly empty parking lot at this time of year and set off on our next hike.

We started the hike by literally traversing a (non-operational) ski slope. It was actually rather scary because the entire width of the slope still had tightly packed snow on it. There was a narrow pedestrian path across fit for half a person where you actually had to pass other people going the other way. One slip and bye bye, really. Anyway, this obstacle crossed and behind us we started the hike proper.

Siete Picos trail is a 12 km loop, the first part of which hugs the mountain side and is pretty level, so it was actually good going. We made good speed, the forest was waking up after the winter slumber, it smelled heavenly of thawing earth and last year’s decay and I was in a very happy place.

If the first part of the trail is all level and easy going alongside the slope, the second part is very tough in comparison. You basically have to climb to a saddle between the peaks and then you go up and down – saddle, peak, saddle, peak, saddle, peak with a few bits where you walk around the peak instead of climbing up. Since we already had done a 12 km hike in the morning, we actually decided to use a shortcut and forgo climbing the two (out of seven) peaks in the process which saved us about 2-3 km of walking.

The first climb up to the saddle was quite steep but we were rewarded with a gorgeous vista. The second climb to the peak proper was truly TOUGH. It was a real struggleville because there was still a lot of snow everywhere and the path was mostly obscured beneath it. So we just picked the general direction of the peak and off we went up up up.

Many parts of the upper areas of the trail were covered by snow/slush as well and there was no actual trail to speak off, just rocks, rhododendrons and huge swaths of thick juniper bushes. Going from the first peak to the next was actually quite scary. The snow obscured a lot and we had a few slope-y parts to cross where we had no idea what is underneath all of that snow. I would not recommend doing this hike tired is what I am saying. The fact that we came back down unscathed actually surprises me to no end.

At this point we were quite tired. As I said above – a lot of up and down, going through snow, slush, rocks, junipers and whatnot was quite draining. There were bits where the wind would pick up and blow with quite a big force. We were 100% unprepared for the higher altitude and had no windbreakers and I would not have minded having hat and gloves at this point.

One of the last peaks was actually our highest point of elevation (2121 metres), so of course I had to run off for a picture. From this point forward it was all going downhill. We actually had some company of a few curious and friendly off-leash doggos and it was not a bad going.

The funniest bit actually happened at the end. I have no idea how this is an actual trail because we were going down under the (non-operational) ski lifts and when we reached the bottom (we could see our car parked in the distance), we actually hit a dead-end. We were completely fenced in the territory of this ski-operation. The two guys with the doggos were climbing over the gate, so that is also what we elected to do. If you ever hear about foreigners *allegedly* trespassing in a skiing facility that was definitely 100% not us.