Fall Hikes

Our friends that live in Madrid finally received their shipped car from Brazil, so we invited them to drive it up to our house.  It was such a nice day that we decided to go for a hike.

Waterfall Hike

This is where the hike starts and follows a river a mile or two to a double waterfall.  We did this hike last spring and it was much prettier with all the flowers.  Luckily not all the trees were dead as well. 

We crossed through the cow pasture,  but we weren't as anxious about it this time.  Clara, the 7 year old girl, was excited that there were "baby cows, middle-aged cows (teens) and adult "cows. 

This cow was more interested in them than they were in it. 

To get to the waterfall you have to go down these extremely steep stairs.

Here is the left side of the waterfall and I am quite sure Morgan and Isaac are up there somewhere on the far left headed toward the waterfall.

Here is the right side and a close up with Morgan and Isaac just after a lady apparently tried to push them.

 

El Escorial

The next day we drove out to San Lorenzo de El Escorial de to hang-out with a co-worker of Brent and his family. 


They wanted to take us for a hike to get a nice view of the monastery, which is that humongous building in the background.  It was a nice day again and we just brought light jackets which the Spanish family thought was crazy.  They brought their winter coats and the parents never took them off.  We do dress a lot lighter than the Spaniards who often wear double layers topped with a jacket and a coat. 

Real Monasterio

Here is a closer view.  The thing is massive as you can see by comparing it to the buildings in the background. 

Besides the amazing view, the hike was full of these large amazing boulders.   We had quite a difficult time keeping the kids focused on the path ahead. 

This is Morgan's world. About as soon as we arrived he disappeared, although we did run into him every once in a while.  His current obsession is survival gear and he brought one of his many survival kits with him on this hike, which we fortunately never got to use. 

 

"Cueva del Oso" (Bear Cave)

We were glad this sign warned us that this is a bear's cave and we were happy that he wasn't home during our picture. 

Castañas

During our hike, the family talked about these yummy wild "castañas" that you can find below a castaño tree up ahead only during this time of year.  We were excited to try something new and when we found them we were so interested with their super thorny pods which we had to step on to open and then peel off the brown part to expose the castaña.  We loved them and thought they tasted a lot like large pine nuts; these are also served roasted. 

Half-way home we started putting all the info together and began wondering if these could be chestnuts and sure enough they were.  Well at least we have finally tried them and "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" means so much more to us now!  Our town just set up a roasted chestnut stand just for the holidays that we will have to try.

Churros

 

After the hike and Burger King, we went to their home for churros, porras (straight thick churros) and chocolate.  The churros here have no sugar or cinnamon and therefore need to be eaten with chocolate.  The chocolate they eat with them tastes like a watered down chocolate pudding.  These are really tasty until you get to about the 11th or 12th!

Chirimoyas

We learned about a lot of new foods during our visit including the fruit chirimoya.  We had previously assumed that these were a vegetable since they were green and often placed next to other veggies at some of the stores.  A couple of days later we bought some and tried them and decided they taste a bit like mangos.  You have to eat them with a spoon since they are super mushy and they are full of large seeds so our kids didn't care much for them but Brent and I really enjoyed them.