Taking the road south out of our valley, we found a lovely little bakery/cafe in Canencia. Right on the “main” street. But “main” is a bit misleading. In half an hour four bikes and two cars passed us on their way up to the pass. The Puerto de Canencia. The third pass, which was where we were heading. Up past vast swathes of wild lavender…
The recreation area at the pass was disappointingly packed with nine coach loads of school children. However, a five minute stroll into the pine forest and you wouldn’t know that there was anyone within 50 miles. A further five minutes brought us put onto an alpine meadow complete with cows bells (and cows, obviously). Absolutely stunning. And we had the whole place to ourselves.
Lovely alpine flowers everywhere…
… and granite outcrops on which to sit and have our picnic.
What picnic? Well, we’ll bring one next time! As we reached the edge of the descent we could see the outskirts of Madrid in the far distance. A superb place to just sit and enjoy the view. After meandering through the meadow and scrambling over a stone wall we eventually found a walking trail which led us back through stunted pine trees to our parking place (and the still noisy screaming hab dabs waiting for their coaches to leave). Brilliant expedition!
We had been recommended a rural restaurant to try out over the relatively low hills to the East. Restaurante El Picachuelo at El Berrueco. So try it out we did. It looked dauntingly expensive with menus at €72. However, it transpired that they also had a reasonably priced option for economically minded campers. So we took the €15 option and enjoyed great food with fabulous views out over the Embalise del Atazar.
Excellent choice. Just to be certain, we went back for a second assessment another day! Equally good! And on that occasion we drove on round the reservoir to the marina at Cervera de Buitrago where we had a walk around the water’s edge ..
.. followed by a siesta under the shade of a handy tree.
It’s really hard work this holiday thing!
We never did find the fifth pass out of the valley!
You do find the most exquisite places to have refreshments and a meal.
The scenery looks fantastic, and beautiful wildflowers. Looks like great weather also, as it seems all over Europe at the moment, after an unseasonal wet and cooler May.