My weekend was spent in the Guadarrama mountains, i'm starting to have the lay of the land in el Communidad de Madrid stick in my brain. It's about the size of Grand Staircase, which as you may know is about the size of three Rhode Islands. This will be my first bike tour in Spain as soon as I can string a few holidays together (4-5).
I had no idea...but the foothills look like Wales or Scotland only sunnier. They are complete with stone walls, gray rocky outcrops, and lots of green. Santi and I went out to Pablo's house with a couple other folks from Mostoles, to drink beer and hang out. He lives in a tiny town called Zarzalejo.
In the morning we hiked up out of Pablo's gate straight up into the mountains...if you live in Flagstaff, picture walking out your back door on the east side to the top of Elden. We took Pablo's dogs (sounds similar to Pavlov's dog, but we didn't do any famous experiments), Ares, a war god who fetches pine cones non stop, and Sua the huntress. She captured and wounded a cool skink (sorry, forgot the snazzy spanish name), who then curled up like a baby on its back in my hand. Everything about the walk was beautiful , the weather and the view of the country and the monastery. And the rent is cheap there, and people actually have back yards with gardens (the picture is Pablo's back yard on the upper terrace. The lower terrace has a soon-to-be vegetable garden, and theres even more land above the house which has three small levels strair-stepped up a hill). There is excellent road riding there and probably mountain biking too. I would be really happy here in a similar house and I think Becky would like it alot also. The only catch is its 40km from Mostoles with lame connection via public transport. So, it would entail buying a car and getting a Spanish drivers license (a bigger deal than you think; and by the way this is my fifth and finally correct spelling of "license"), and being a major carbon emitter like everyone else that doesn't link climate change with their personal habits. Its totally the governments fault not me. Shit.
The next day Fernando and Dolo picked me up in Mostoles, and then we picked up Pablo to check out more of the mountains. They treated me to a very nice mini-tour. First we drove over Puerta de Navacerrado (the mountain passes are puertas). I was psyched to see bicyclists on our route the entire day...proof that it is possible even common to road ride in the area. I kept saying I wanted to ride this route and Fernando thought I was crazy and kept suggesting something shorter or easier, or insisting that for some reason I didn't want to do that because "you need to have strong legs". I guess its hard for him to believe that I prefer longer rides, and I like climbing mountain passes, and I actually do have strong legs and lungs. I'll have to show up at work one day and say "I rode the entire mountain range over the weekend, twice. Yeah, it was ok I just wish there was more distance and elevation gain. Frankly my legs were too strong". Pablo had some ride ideas near the Puerta, but unfortunately they were all mountain bike rides and I don't have a mountain bike any more. Shit i'll have to get another bike, bummer. The upper elevations are forested with Pinus sylvestris which has a lot in common with Ponderosa Pine, except in my opinion its a prettier tree than Pondo. We went down the other side of the pass toward Segovia to a small town called San Ildefonso. There is yet another palace here (I've seen four now by the way), but this one is my favorite (see pic). Yes that is a Sequouia in the foregound, and we think a giant cedar (like the famous ones that used to be in Lebanon). Kings have big trees. On the way out of town we stopped for a walk and once again i seemed to be in Scotland.
I even had time for a minor bike ride in Mostoles later. Excellent day.
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