Trip to Spain

It has been 30 years ago that we lived in Spain. We were stationed at Torrejon AFB from 1985 till 1989 and lived in base housing off base. It was called Royal Oaks (El Encinar de los Reyes) and it was situated between Alcobendas and Madrid. This year we decided to go back to Spain to see where we used to live and how much it had changed after 30 years. Our plan was to stay 4 days in Madrid and from there to the south of Spain: Andalucia. 

We drove the car and spent 2 nights in France in airbnb's.

Champagné, near Le Mans

 
Arbonne, near the Spanish border.

 In Madrid we had booked an airbnb in the southern outskirt of Madrid (Fuentelareyna) with a very nice couple : Luis y Ana.

When we  reached Alcobendas, we decided to leave the autovía and follow the sign for El Encínar de Los Reyes. We ended up on the service road and with so much traffic and road signs,  no gps ("don't need one, I have a map" attitude) we missed the turn and were now on the service road leading us into Madrid. Couldn't get back on the autovía. The traffic system in Madrid is so complex and demands careful planning which I had done at home but now we got off our track. To make a long story short. After ending up again around Alcobendas and heading out to Madrid for the second time, we got off on the Paseo de la Castellano, where we stopped and asked a very nice and patience lady,  in my best spanish, how to get to our airbnb which was in fact not too far. I was so glad that we finally reached our destination. Our car was parked in the parking lot for the next 4 days!! Public transportation or walking is the way to go here.

The next day we took the bus to El Encinar de los Reyes.

What a difference with 30 years ago. Freeways everywhere in and around Madrid. The road  from  Madrid to Alcobendas which used to be country is now build up with industrial areas and residencias. Not to forget our neighbourhood. There used to be lots of space between the houses for the kids to play. Now everywhere very expensive large houses has been build here but.....our house and some of the old houses in our area were still there and still looked the same but, obviously, renovated in a much better way than when we lived there.
Here is a link about the history of the Americans living in Royal Oaks.

 Our house

Even a new shopping center.

It was nice to see how it had changed but it didn't feel familiar anymore. 

Next was Madrid where we walked till we dropped.

 Plaza de Castilla, which has a huge busstation now , it has four levels, three of them underground. 

 Monumento Abogados de Atocha

 Puerto del Sol

 The famous pastelleria La Mallorquina, if you love pastries, that's the place to go.

 I still have some of these figurines at home.

 Plaza mayor

 Small traditional shops are still here...

....so is the oldest hotel La Posada del Peine (1610)

La Rosaleda gardens in parque de Oeste. We were too early to see the roses blooming.

 In this park we took the cable car (Teleférico) to the biggest public park in Madrid  Casa de Campo. (Country House)
This used to be the royal hunting ground under Philip II, who build the city's royal palace here when he moved Spain's capital from Valladolid to Madrid. The park was only used by the Spanish royal family until the proclamation of Spain's Second Republic in1931.The state donated Casa de Campo to the people of Madrid. Eight years later Spain became a military dictatorship under Franco.

 
 
 
 
 We walked back to the entrance of Case de Campo...

...and from here to Campo de Moro passing Puerta de San Vicente first. Madrid has 4 monumental Puertas, erected in the 18th/19th century . They were part of the wall that surrounded Madrid to protect the city. Although Puerta de San Vicente is a reconstructed in 1995.

Peacock in Campo de Moro. In the background the Royal Palace. 

Royal Palace 

 Plaza de Armería

Street performers in action. 

 
Monument of Felipe IV 

A nice day trip, 45 miles away from Madrid, is El Escorial,  It's good to escape the busy city center for one day. We took the Cercanías C-8 line train. Public transportation is outstanding in Madrid. From the train station it was a 30 minutes walk up the hill.

El Escorial Monastery is a quadrangle shaped Spanish Renaissance structure that has served as a museum, a church, library and even a school. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of Spain's most popular and visited sites.

 

Here we descended into a basement chamber containing the remains of several past Spanish kings and queens. We were not allowed to make pictures here.

 
 The surrounding area of El Escorial is beautiful.

 

After 4 days in Madrid we drove to Sanlúcar la Mayor near Sevilla.

To be continued...

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Weekly Challenge #387: "UMT - HaWy by Holly Atwater, CZT"

 What a complicated tangle we had to use for this week's challenge. It's called HaWy by Holly Atwater. On her blog you can read how she got intrigued by a pattern her friend shared with her. She deconstructed the pattern and HaWy was born. It took me a while to get the hang of it. 

I made a second attempt:

To tell you the truth this is not my favorite tangle but it was fun!

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Klompenpad for Kids.

We were spoiled in February as we had beautiful spring weather with temperatures of around 20 ºC (68 ºF). Lucky for the kids who were out of school that week. Our 5 year old grandson Danté stayed with us 2 days. He is an outdoor child and loves to walk and ride his bike. Perfect for us as we love to walk. We chose a walking route especially for kids in our area, "Slagmaatpad", near Bunnik. Our 3 1/2  year old granddaughter Jhené joined us. She is not used to walk a long distance but she did great after all.

We started at Fort Vechten. It was part of the Netherlands waterline defense system. Entrance to the fort is over a bridge which also cuts through the fort wall.

At the end of the bridge, on top of the wall stands this tall man made from willow by visual artist Hester Pilz.

The fort surrounded by a moat.

Standing guard

 There is also the Waterline Museum inside of Fort Vechten but we keep that for a next visit as the weather was too nice to be inside. They found some fun things to do. 

Pulling Jhené up and down.

  

  This is a replica of the Roman Tower. Too bad we couldn't step inside. It is closed to the public.

 Then it was time to move on and walk away from the fort to stroll through meadows. During spring and summer we would have walked with the cows but they are still inside during winter time.

There are special steps to climb over the fence into the meadow.

Before we left this morning the first thing Jhené asked: are we going to picnic? Yes it's picnic time now!

Always fun to collect branches.

We didn't finish the route  because of time limitation. We had to take Jhené back home at 5 pm. and I had promised them a pancake at the end of the walk. We walked back to the fort. 

Now this is fun, trying to pick up Grandpa's hat with a stick.

Kids are curious and not afraid to enter this dark bunker, crawl through and.....

come out on the other side.

 It was a fun afternoon and the kids loved it. Time to eat a pancake at Theehuis Rhijnauwen...

and top it off with the playground outside.

I forgot to mention, they had homework. they had to collect and pick up things what they saw around them and put it in their little bag. Just forgot to make a picture of it but they found twigs, rocks, snailhouse, acorns, leaves , crocus, daisy, snowdrops etc.