This past Sunday I had one of my favorite experiences in Madrid so far. I had a friend request proof that I’m actually here, telling me that I’m probably just writing from San Diego and stealing the pictures off other blogs to make all my law school friends jealous. So this time around I’ll actually put up some photos with me in them, prepare yourself!
After a Saturday night of little sleep, I woke up to go on what I was promised would be a ‘quick bus ride to an easy hike, where you can see a castle!’ Not exactly. Our journey out to the town of Buitrago del Lozoya took over an hour and a half, despite still being a part of the Comunidad de Madrid. The weather forcast for the day was a high of zero, so I was much happier on the bus then outside, lemme tell ya. After eating the world’s most delicious cream filled doughnuts at a local panaderia we had to scramble under barbed wire, over a rock wall, and cross a partially frozen creek, before starting our trek to the Casa del Bosque, a hunting lodge from the 16th century built by Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, the Marquis of Santillana.
The hike itself was nice and easy, and it felt great to be outside of the city and around trees instead of tall buildings. On the way we were able to explore barracks and trenches left over from the Civil War, and after about an hour or so we arrived at the old hunting lodge to poke around for awhile. The lodge was all overgrown with blackberry bushes and basically falling apart, but there was something really beautiful about it. Once our stomachs started grumbling we headed down to the lake for a picnic lunch consisting of carrot sticks, homemade hummus sandwiches, mandarin oranges, and a flask of scotch.
Once we started to get cold we made our way back into town, where we ate bocatas and played rummy while we waited for our bus, and we finally arrived back into Madrid Centro around 8pm. The plan now is to go back once the weather is nice and play capture the flag, then cool off in the lake, and I’m already excited about it. Tomorrow I take off for a 48 hour vacation in London, I’ll try and take some pictures before I lose any fingers to frost bite!
Taking the Long Way 