Manzanares El Real

The village of Manzaneres El Real is about 30 min Northwest of us and yes we just finally made it there today, June 1st.  In fact, Morgan said he would rather go ride his scooter at the skate park by our house instead of going to see another castle.

There are two castles here, the viejo (old) and the nuevo (new).  The old castle ruins just has the remains of walls and there is no record of how old it is.  The first historical reference to it is from the middle of the 14th century when the king requested carpenters for the two palaces (the old and the new).

The kids are sitting on the old castle walls with the new castle, the 15th century cathedral and Lake Santillana in the background.  We live behind that mountain on the right.

This is looking back at the old fortress walls from down below.

 

We had to add in some more storks in case you didn't see enough from the previous post.

The new castle is called "Mendoza's Castle",   It was built and lived in by the noble Mendoza family.

We finally made it to the castle gates only to find them locked. Fortunately, they left the directions to the back entrance for us.

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This Castle's construction commenced in 1475 and it is apparently the best preserved castle in the whole community of Madrid, which includes numerous castles. 

Here we are waiting for Brent to catch up so we can enter.  The whole castle is surrounded by loopholes carved in the shape of the "Jerusalem Cross".

We only went into the walled section and did the loop, but next time we come we intend to enter inside the castle to see the "Museum of Castles".  This castle apparently has 6 floors and a basement. 

Did someone say lake?

When we got to the lake there were these beautiful swans waiting for....

our crackers!  No that is not Brent's belly.  The food here is good but it's not that good!

Of course Morgan has to be "cool" and hand feed them even after they tried eating his fingers a couple of times.

Eventually Kaiya and Mason apprehensively gave it a try.

and SUCCESS for Kaiya!!!

So what do you think they are looking at?

Can you tell now?  It is a little camouflaged.

We intended on going out to this tower off the lake, but apparently the land up to it is privately owned and the closest we could get is from across the lake so this is the best shot we could get.   This tower and part of the dock is all that is visibly left from an old dam