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!