To Manzanares

Today was another beautiful, but long, walk. We walked a couple of extra kilometers finding our way out of town. Let me give you good directions.

From Hostal Chiscon, turn left.

Go to the second street and go left again. 

This is a busy street. You will see the Mirador. 

Keep going past the Mirador, past the auditorium and past some white apartments.

Watch for yellow flechas!!

Turn right at white apartments on Calle Pilar de Zaragoza and follow the arrows.

See the street sign on the building?

Calle Pilar de Zaragoza

Soon you reach the end of the neighborhoods and a dirt track...


This sign makes it pretty difficult to miss the track:

The track is flat and in a year or two may be shaded!

It is just beautiful walking!

The walking was fairly flat with some occasional rock scrambling 

until a couple of kilometers before Manzanares.   

I carried my umbrella for shade.

There were many wildflowers and beautiful vistas.

Another bit of a rough patch.

We kept seeing these cow signs...
then realized they were a type of waymarking for the Via Pecuaria,
the cow trail to market...

Soon it was time to stop for lunch.

We found a nice old stone wall.

It made a great table and a shady place to sit.

Pork liver pate and wonderful Spanish cheese

Joe makes his bocadillo and one for me too! 

A good foot soaking place

This route had beautiful vistas and nice flat walking with lots of cows grazing under beautiful blue skies

Soon, we made a sharp right turn, well marked,  

and there was the town and Embalse. 

Beautiful, but unfortunately not many choices for lodging. 

The Hotel is CLOSED. 

Hostal Tranco is CLOSED. 

The owner died unexpectedly last year and they couldn't keep it running. 

There is a Casa Rural. Doubles there are 72 euros. 

The only place open was Hostal Yelmo. 

It is lovely but required a 3 kilometer uphill walk which I wasn't ready for. 

And there are no taxis in this town!

I suggest reservations for Yelmo. Cost is 58 Euros for a double. Dinner is 15 eu.

There is supposedly a shorter way to Cercedilla without going back to town. Will know more tomorrow.