Became a member in: 2019
Renewal Date: 07/Jan/2020
Inés (53) is a Language Adviser, specialized in English literacy for bilingual children. Juan Luis (59) teaches Classical culture at the University. Jose (26) is a PE teacher. Clara (18) studies engineering. We have a fifteen-year-long experience in exchanging homes!
Additional languages spoken
English, French
Affinities
Plants & Gardens,
Hiking,
Foodies,
The Arts,
Yoga / Meditation,
Music Lovers
MoreLessAffiliations
University Professors,
Teachers / Education Professionals
Profession
Profesores
Our personal links
Simultaneous Home Exchange
Smoking Not Allowed
Children Welcome
Use of Personal Car is possible
Open to all dates | Open to all destinations |
Description of the home we are offering for exchange
Our house is attached, 270 sqm., in an urban development in the Sierra de Guadarrama, a beautiful low mountain area (1.100 m. high), on the verge of the National Park, with very pleasant temperatures over Summer time. It offers all commodities, including electronic piano, stationary bike and elliptical trainer. On the ground floor there is a comfortable living/diningroom with fireplace, tv set, and DVD. There is also an outside terrace where we use to have our meals and watch the sunset, and from there an access to a small landscaped garden. Also in the same floor we have a small restroom and the kitchen. Direct access to the garden is also possible from a cosy studio in the basement, which is ready for accomodation if needed be. On the first floor there are 3 bedrooms, one with a double bed and separate bathroom, one with a double bed, one with two single beds. A fourth room is used as a studio. There is a second complete bathroom. On top we have a large penthouse with one more double bed.
Our community has a free common area with two swimming pools (children’s and adults’) with permament lifeguard watch, football/handball area, playground, one tennis court and two paddle courts. You are welcome to use our paddle equipment.
Type
House - 2 or more floors/ Main Residence
Amenities
Entertainment
Extras
Setting
Description of our neighbourhood and surrounding area
NATIONAL PARK MOUNTAINS 50 KMS. FROM MADRID DOWNTOWN
Our neighbourhood is a very calm and silent environment on the verge of the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park, some 2 kms. away from Los Molinos (3.000 inhabitants). It is a nice walk from our house but a car is advisable if you need to load with some shopping bags.
The name of our neighbourhood, “El Balcón de la Peñota” (The Peñota’s Balcony) accounts for its position on the slopes of Mount La Peñota (ca. 2.000 m high). Close to our house there lies the Valle de la Fuenfría, a mountainous area covered by pinetree forests which allows wonderful horseriding, jogging or simply walking excursions along signposted routes. You can enjoy a swim in a natural swimming pool there. In wintertime there is a ski station on the upper ramparts (Navacerrada).
In a half hour/one hour drive there is plenty of tourist attractions (Madrid, the royal palaces of El Escorial and La Granja, medieval towns as Segovia and Ávila), gorgeous traditional restaurants and all sorts of activities (from biking to canoing). Communications with downtown Madrid are varied and fast: frequent trains and buses, an easy access to the speedway. From there, the Spanish motorway network allows an average 4 hours drive to any seaside destination.
Outdoor Activities
Leisure
Cultural Activities
Transport Nearby
Neighbourhood Services
Our home exchange - places to go and things to do while staying in our home
Just behind our house there starts the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park. It has slopes towards two different Comunidades Autónomas or regions: Madrid in the South and Castilla y León in the North.
Beautiful hikes are close at hand in Cercedilla: drive along M-622 and look for “Las Dehesas”, also known as “Valle de la Fuenfría”: you may walk below high pine-trees, along a Roman way (including a Roman-tic bridge) or have a swim in the fresh water of natural swimming-pools (Parque Recreativo “Las Berceas”).
Segovia is a very beautiful and richly historical town, 40 kms. away, and the road there via “Puerto de Navacerrada” is gorgeous (“montes de Valsaín”): there’s plenty of places to stop (Pesquerías Reales, Boca del Asno), have picnic or simply walk in the shade.
10 kms. before Segovia there lies “La Granja de San Ildefonso”, a Royal Palace with its versaillesque fountains (on show at certain dates).
From the “Puerto de Navacerrada” (the pass on the mountain summit) you can take instead the C-604/M-604 road direction Cotos into the mountains (Peñalara is the highest point and worth the excursion) and further down into “El Paular”. One day excursion is also worth into de “Valle de Lozoya”, beyond Rascafría.
There is a cosy train (“El Tren de la Naturaleza”) that may take you up from Cercedilla Railway Station and back down.
Camorritos is another beautiful place for nearby hikes and picnics, in Cercedilla as well (drive direction downtown and turn left before crossing the railway).
Navacerrada village and thereabouts (La Barranca park) is worth visiting on Sunday mornings: there is a nice flee-market beside the dam.
A unique mountain landscape is “La Pedriza”, near Manzanares el Real. This town boasts an elegant castle and a larger dam.
If you feel like watching Castilian medieval walls in the highlands drive through the Guadarrama tunnel to Ávila, less than one hour away.
You can’t miss San Lorenzo de El Escorial and visit the “monasterio” and Philip II’s palace. Underway, “El Valle de los Caídos” has an impressive cross that is visible from our house: it can be visited but the place is so strongly connected with Franco’s régime and the suffering of political prisoners that we are not the best of its fans…
And then of course Madrid, 55 kms. away, offers you first rate museums, monuments, cultural and leisure life to match the most demanding tastes!
Our favourite restaurants
Cafés & bars
Special places to shop
Leisure and cultural activities
Walks or jogging paths
Health or fitness clubs
Interesting day trips
Our home exchange - here are our Preferences and House Rules
Ofrecemos una limpieza impecable y esperamos encontrar otro tanto en la casa de nuestros anfitriones... y en la nuestra al regreso.
Conditions
Use of Personal Car
Home Exchange Type
Became a member in: 2019
Renewal Date: 07/Jan/2020
Inés (53) is a Language Adviser, specialized in English literacy for bilingual children. Juan Luis (59) teaches Classical culture at the University. Jose (26) is a PE teacher. Clara (18) studies engineering. We have a fifteen-year-long experience in exchanging homes!
Additional languages spoken
English, French
Affinities
Plants & Gardens,
Hiking,
Foodies,
The Arts,
Yoga / Meditation,
Music Lovers
MoreLessAffiliations
University Professors,
Teachers / Education Professionals
Profession
Profesores
Our personal links
Over 70 years of home exchange experience
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