Spain #6: Asturias (3-12 September 2013)

3 September: Today was a travel day, after our goodbyes to all the folks in Colmenar de Oreja we went to Madrid and efficiently picked up the Oz contingent's passports and then made a bee-line to the moderate-sized city of Leon north of Madrid (more or less halfway to our ultimate destination of the province of Asturias). When we mentioned our destination to many Spaniards, they were puzzled as to our selection for a stopover, but my oh my what a great city with a great vibe. Our accommodation was next to the one of the finest examples of a gothic cathedral in Spain. After rolling into town we went into the old city, had a bit of dinner, and were amused by a busker making enormous bubbles in a plaza.

We then found a bigger plaza with ample running room to let the kids expend a considerable amount of pent up energy that built up during the car ride. Here is Sam practising hurdles over Frankie in the middle of the plaza.

A night shot of the lit up cathedral as we were eating our helados, then off to bed for our final push to Asturias.

4 September: Prior to leaving we decided to check out the cathedral. Leon is a university town and it's less conservative nature than other parts of Spain was evident in the dress code for the cathedral as Robsie had nary a problem with her shortish cut-off jeans (no problema senora!). Each of us got an audio device that provided a tour of the cathedral, and we (I mean all of us) were fascinated by the history and description of the cathedral. Here are four Griswold's listening attentively in a cathedral pew! (We should get these contraptions for the car trips!). 

And absorbed attentively to the audio dialog in front of a mural, nary a whisper from these generally loud and energetic kids, amazing. 

Well after the audio tour of the cathedral, we made for our accommodation in rural Asturias, and hunkered down for evening drinks and a BBQ admiring the beautiful mountains in the background. The weather was fantastic, hot and clear... Little did we suspect that this was the exception and not the rule for weather in this part of Spain!

5 September: The next day we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, and as we all slumbered in bed we were shocked to find that the morning had rapidly deteriorated into a drab drizzly foggy cloudy sort of day. Oh well, no good going to the mountains, can't see a darn thing so off to the coast we go. Our accommodation was situated in hills between the Cantabrian Mountains (really just an extension of the Pyrenees across the northern Spain) and the coastline, so it was about a 20 minute drive directly. We took the scenic route and actually had to backtrack about 5 km along a narrow mountain road because of a car accident (bus meets car, car goes over the side of mountain about 50 m down a steep slope sort of thing) with a small army of rescue personnel to sort everything out. Eventually we made it to the fishing village of Lastres, known for its picturesque coastline and classic village clinging to a coastal hillside. The restaurant near the port served arguably the best seafood we've had to date. This region of Spain also is big on a regional cider, which Robin ordered and both of us quickly decided wasn't our cup of tea (yuck! must be an acquired taste...). We quickly ordered cerveza and vino after our thumbs down taste test of the cider.

Kids having a lolli'pop on an old anchor at the port.

The crew checking out the fishing boats with the town in the background.

We then made our way over to this beach called Torimbia (near Niembru), what a great beach. Lots of surfies around.

We hiked down to the beach in drizzle, light rain conditions. Down at the bottom there was a flag that clearly indicated that clothes were definitely considered optional on this playa! In fact this is purported to be one of the first nudist beaches in Spain on account of it being off the beaten path and requiring a bit of effort to get too.

A beach and with no people to annoy, that equates to Sam and I having a long match of beach paddle ball (unfortunately we didn't beat our record of 38 hits that was attained on the southern beaches of Spain).

So it rains consistently enough for their to be all sorts of wet weather organisms along the northern coast of Spain. Sam and Frankie each adopted several pet snails that we ended up taking with us back to our accommodation (they did go missing somewhere in the house come to think of it!) on this particular day.

A typical view of some of the rocks in the sea along this coast, very beautiful.

6 September: Well the next day was more of the same, drizzly and light rain conditions... What to do? Of course go canoeing down a river... Here are the kids all kitted out with the appropriate gear.

Prior to departure.

Here we are rafted up at the start of our Sella River descent. The Sella River is the location of a large (in terms of participants, up to 2,000 competitors) river race that occurs every early August (snow melt from the Picos de Europa keep the river pumping through the summer). It is only a 20 km race, more of a sprint really compared to the 135 km 2-day Avon Descent race back home in Perth. My understanding is that even though it attracts international competitors, only Spaniards (mostly locals) have won the race to date.

Sam, Luca and I enjoying the river's serenity...

Robsie and Frankie (Frankie you are supposed to be turned around with a paddle in the water...) tackling the whitewater, OK it was pretty tame, but there was quite a bit of running water.

And a much deserved lunch on a riverbank beach. All along the river we saw lots of fish (mostly carp sort of things, but a few salmonids in the mix) and ducks. Beautiful clear river mountain water. Well that was a great activity for the day and the gear provided to us by the rafting company kept us very cozy and warm in the inclement weather conditions. Great day!

7 September: Well the weather the next day was... Yep you guessed it, cloudy, drizzly and light rain. Here's a pic of the accommodation we had, a traditional rural house for the region. The building on the left is a typical granary sort of thing common throughout the region to keep things off the wet ground (I surmise..., apparently a similar thing found in southern England). The car was our hired Volvo which I was trying to keep under 140 kph when on any freeway (but it took great concentration to do so and a gentle occasional reminder from Robsie).

We headed into the large regional Oveido-Gijon metropolitan area of Asturias to wile away the time during this rather dismal day. After a bit of shopping in a rather bland (and quiet) mega-shopping centre in central Oveido (definitely got the sense of the Spanish economic crisis with not much being bought here...), the kids and I checked out the city's central park while Robsie had a brief excursion to Mango... This next pic demonstrates the strong spirit of play even in poor weather conditions by Frankie and Luca, simply make a cubby out of an umbrella during light showers and get on with it!

8 September: The next day we were off to Covadonga along the western edge of the Picos de Europa National Park (yep the weather is still cloudy, drizzly, light rain, but we got the sense that waiting for good weather can be a problematic proposition around here). On the way we had to stop and check out some ponies several kilometers from our accommodation that we had befriended the previous day. To our dismay we realised one of the poor creatures had gotten entwined in the fence. Here's me helping the poor soul out of his predicament.

Afterward the kids showered affection on these friendly entities.

Covadonga is renown for many things, one being two large natural lakes in the mountains. It is located in the southwestern corner of the Picos de Europa National Park, and is one of the most popular areas because of its proximity to a famous religious shrine. To get to the lake you have to take a bus from the base of the mountains as the road is quite narrow and steep. Here's a pic of us with the one of the lakes in the background and a large cow (with horns) also admiring the view.

Having a bit of lunch along the lake's shoreline.

Frankie retrieving a shoe she lost in this muddy portion of the trail.

Frankie next to a couple of free range hogs.

A shepherd's hut and dog above the first lake. Almost seemed like a time warp sort of experience back to a medieval agricultural mountain setting except for the solar panel in the upper right of the picture.

A panoramic view of the hut, an old shepherd's wife, some chooks. beautiful green grass, and the lake and mountains for a back drop. Even though Picos de Europa is a national park, clearly there is a long history of man entwined with nature that persists to the present, and presumably will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

About 18 months ago we took a family trip to Cape Range National Park along Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. At that time we thought Luca was going to be a GREAT hiker as she demonstrated grit, determination and desire on the walking treks in this arid climate. Hmmm, during our Spanish sojourn she clearly prefers to be a backpack on her two adult sherpas. This has got to change...

Lunch in this cool miniature hobbit forest we encountered during our 5-6 km loop hike.

Cool little shrine in a huge expanse of sub-alpine grasslands with nary another building for at least a km. Why? Your guess as good as mine, but it makes for a cool picture with the second lake in the distant background.

This large grassland served an excellent function to drain Sam and Frankie of their last remaining energy reserves as illustrated in these two pics, they just ran and ran.

Here are some tuckered out and getting cold kids near the end of the hike at the second lake.

We then took the bus down to the town of Covadonga. Covadonga is famous because as the story goes, Pelayo (the Christian general later to be the king of the Kingdom of Asturias) was aided in the first Christian victory over the Muslim moors in 722 AD by a statue of the Virgin May hidden in one of the caves. This military victory kicked off the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian peninsula that ensued over the next 7-8 centuries. Here is a small chapel that was built in the cave where the statue was hidden.

And there is a large church monastery complex that houses a lot of friars, priests and sisters of the cloth in this religious renown location. It is a large complex in a beautiful setting as illustrated through a cave opening with Sam in the foreground in this next pic.

There were lots of candles along this tunnel that connects the town to the church in the cliff.

9 September: Well, we are simply running out of days, so today was a dedicated excursion to check out the large mountain massif of the Picos de Europa as best we could. Really a 4 day minimum itinerary is needed to check out the key spots of interest by car, but alas we had only 1 day. First thing was to go and feed our pony friends some veggies before the start of this excursion.

After about an hour or so of driving the weather miraculously cleared up, and we came around a corner and started to see some of the 2000+ meter peaks of the eastern massif of the Picos. 

We also managed to get a good view of the most famous peak in the Picos de Europa, the Naranja de Bulnes (Picu Urriellu in the Asturian language), which at 2,519 m is not the highest peak (2,648 m) in the Cantabrian Mountains,but is the most spectacular. It is the best known summit in Spanish mountaineering, with the northern sheer face first climbed by Pedro Pidal in 1904, who is considered the father of Spanish mountaineering (and was singularly responsible for setting up this first national park of Picos de Europa in Spain, the John Muir equivalent of the Western US of A). It is relatively easy to get to the base of this mountain, but alas we opted to give this option a miss, if only we had more time...

Instead we went to the eastern edge of the park and opted for a ride up the teleferico (cable car) from Fuente De in the province of Cantabria (province to the east of Asturias). This is a 800 meter vertical rise from the base of the mountains at around 1,000 meters to 1,850 meters elevation. Here is a pic from the cable car of the upper cable car hut that we are heading towards.

And a view from the hut through the cable car landing pad to the valley below...

And a view of a cable car making a descent from a viewing platform.

Sammy taking in the high country views from the viewing platorm.

And four of us on a viewing platform suspended over a considerable vertical drop.

Above the upper cable car station we were inundated with quite a few tourists and goats!

However, we did manage to hike up another 150 meters of vertical or so and the crowds of rather unfit people thinned out sufficiently to get a bit of serenity and an appropriate location for our packed lunches and cervezas. 

Here's me trying to blend in with the this large mountain to the south of our location.

Frankie in front of the large massif where we had had lunch at the base. Taking the teleferico was a great way to efficiently get a sense of the majesty of these mountains. Next time kids, it will be backpacks on and away we go to get lost in this high country. There is a particularly nice trail between the northern and central massifs that consists of a valley that is more than 1 km deep that forms a narrow valley, which is suppose to be very nice hiking, again next time.

10 September: Well the forecast for today is cold and rainy weather, so we used our rental-hire car to forage and to transport a considerable quantity of wood to burn in the wood-fired stove for heat. Here are the kids loading up the back up of the volvo station wagon (I don't think this was the intended use of this vehicle...).

A very nice bed of coals from our efforts in literally this antique wood cooking stove. We tried to get the oven hot enough to bake, but couldn't quite work out how to do it. However, it did give off plenty of heat and the top of the stove was fantastic for heating up tortillas for burritos and drying out wet wood (as shown in the pic below).

Oh, and today was my birthday, I got a surprise Oreo and M&M cake from Robsie and the kids (baking was not an option in our accommodation...).

Great birthday with a couple of candles to blow out as a nice touch, and three lovely hand-written-drawn cards from the kids.

11 September: So we had one more full day and it looked like when we got up the weather was going to be pretty good, so we decided to head off to the mountains again in lieu of the coast as we had an upcoming 3 weeks or so on Greek and Italian islands scheduled (i.e. lots of coastal action to be had soon). We decided to head to the mountains immediately to the south of us that we spent a lot of time looking at from our accommodation, namely those in Redes Natural Park (a natural park has a lower level of restrictions than a national park). We found a great restaurant near where the Rio Nalon goes through a cave for several 100 meters near Campo de Casa pueblo. Here we are with drinks waiting for the chow.

Kids shooting rocks with their slingshots at a target waiting for the chow.

A view of the establishment shortly before Robsie relieved them (stole) of some of their very good cooking firewood for the purposes of heating our pad.

A typical view of the landscape in Redes Natural Park.

Robsie, Frankie and Sam took off on a ridge hike to take in the landscape in a more intimate fashion...

While I stayed with Luca who need her siesta, albeit it didn't look that comfortable, she managed to get a solid hour of sleep.

We exited Redes National Park via the largest urban concentration near our accommodation, a town called Infiesto (2,000-3,000 inhabitants) which had a nice stream flowing through it (much of the source waters from Redes). After a bit of shopping and helado acquiring, we took a stroll to the riverbank and had a look from several of the walking bridges. My oh my did I get excited, heaps of rainbow trout, steelhead and I reckon a salmon or two. Talked to some of the locals about how I could fish for them, bummer out of season and this stretch of river is closed to fishing. It was great to see so many salmonids in a northern Spanish stream.

Here's a pic of a stretch of stream along the town...

And an attempt at a picture of these beautiful fish. A large one in the centre of the picture with half its body on the rock. Seveal smaller ones in the little pool to the left.

12 September: Well today was the day we left Asturias. There was a beautiful small mountain (big hill really) near our accommodation. Naturally, it was the best weather we had since the day of our first arrival, so we had to head up this hill to check out the view. Here's the kids and the summit marker with the Picos de Europa in the background.

And a close-up shot of the Picos de Europa...

What a fantastic region of Spain, so different from Andalucia, Barcelona and Madrid. Wet, forested, great rivers, friendly people and big mountains, we had a great time and look forward to getting back to this part of the world in future.

Spain #5: Madrid (27 August-3 September 2013)

27 August: Today we departed the Mediterranean shores of Andalucía for the final time with mixed emotions. We were looking forward to our next chapter, but also with a bit of sadness for leaving friends, family and a way of life we all rapidly grew accustomed too. Our next destination was the heartland of Spain, namely Madrid, with a short stop-over in Cordoba at the northern edge of Andalucía proper. In Cordoba, the intention was to fulfill Frankie's desire to see a live Flamenco show and for all of us to experience one of the architectural wonders of this region, namely Cordoba's Mesquita. Alas, the Moroccan salad discussed on the previous posting during the end of our northern tip of Africa excursion was our downfall... Luca developed a nasty fever and the remainder of us Griswolds, had bowel issues to put it bluntly. Hence, we had to cancel our Flamenco show (we had reserved seating at a show before leaving my prima Marie's house) and nary one of us had the gumption to wander around the Moorish-Catholic architectural wonder of the Mesquita... Cordoba was vanquished to simply a site of rest and recuperation with nary a photo worthy of posting for our brief stay in this beautiful city with a lot to offer!

28 August: We departed for Madrid after a good ole sleep-in Cordoba that increased our fitness to approximately 50% of our normal energy levels (much higher than the previous day!). with the singular objective of reaching our accommodation in the capital of Spain. Unfortunately upon arrival we found that the accommodation was more suited to a family of 3, rather than a family of 5 (i.e. very small). Luckily we had only booked 2 nights! We spent the remainder of the day primarily resting in the hopes of attaining the 100% energy levels that we needed.

One of the reasons for coming to Madrid was to sort out some US Visa issues for the Oz contingent of our family. If you are staying in the US for <90 days, no problem as an online facility and $15 USD fee gets you a visa waiver with 15 minutes of effort. HOWEVER, if you are staying in the US for >90 days for a pleasure/tourism/family visit, then:
1 - you have to fill out a online form that takes about an hour per person
2 - the fee is substantially greater per person
3 - you have to schedule an interview
4 - you have to go to the interview in person at an embassy or consulate
5 - once granted the Visa it is then sent to you via courier (i.e. no pick-up option at the embassy or consulate)...

Unfortunately, both Robsie and I dropped the ball while in Perth, and realised shortly before our departure that we needed a US Visa rather than a waiver. We tried to get it sorted in Perth, but alas there was not ample time to schedule an interview and get the VISA (short version of our trials and tribulation). Upon our arrival in Spain we immediately tried to organize the Visas through the Madrid embassy (unfortunately the Barca consulate does not process Visas). This was a rather complicated process with a number of barriers to overcome. For example, US Visa payments in Spain have to be with a credit card or wire through a Spanish bank (could not pay with our Oz Visa Credit cards?)... Thus, we had to rely on Paul to make a bank wire transfer... At any rate, we finally made the requisite arrangements, and tomorrow morning at 8:30 am at the Madrid US Embassy was our interview day, which served as a major driver for the need to be recuperated from our ailments (i.e. look like healthy specimens wanting to enter the US).

29 August: After a good night's rest, we managed to nearly fully attain a recovery. Both my prima Marie and primo Francisco made phone inquiries into our health and particularly that of Luca, whom they were particularly concerned about. Many thanks for your concern, and at that time we were happy to report she was nearly back to full tilt! We got up early and were at the US embassy gates well before our scheduled interview appointment time slot. I had to remain outside (I was not being interviewed) and after a couple of hours, the Oz contingent emerged and happily reported that the US Visa was granted. We eventually arranged to pick-up the passports at a nearby courier office in about 4-5 days time.

After our US travel visa interview obligations were completed, we sauntered down to the nearby Parque del Retiro, a large park in central Madrid. Beautiful park, great and creative playgrounds peppered throughout the park. There was a very large urban lake in the park with a host of large carp, birds and turtles. Here's a pic of the lake with a large monument in the background.

A popular activity in this urban lake was to row boats with a capacity of only 4 people. Hence, the kids and I had a row while Robsie had a nice tranquil walk for about half an hour after the madness of the morning's US embassy activities.

Similar to Barcelona, we loved the Madrid metro, which again was extremely efficient in getting us anywhere we wanted to be within several hundred meters.

The girls heading down a typical wide shopping area in the Gran Via district of town, on our way down to check out the Plaza Mayor.

A levitating busker in one of the many plazas that intrigued the kids...

In Plaza Mayor in the centre of the city, we encountered all sorts of interesting folks. Here's a weird (South American) mythological character, festival type of thingy... There are lots of folks peppered all throughout Spain from Latin America, though there has been an exodus back to their home countries because of the economic crisis.

Lulu next to the tell-tale heralding of a typical helado shop that were easy to spot after dinner for their now-accustomed (and expected) dessert (must be one helado shop per 100 people all throughout the Mediterranean we reckon).

30 August: We moved to accommodation today with much more ample room, in a great district (not touristy, living with the locals) called Malansana. Thank's Pau for getting us in on such short notice! Today we attempted to make it a kid's day with no specific plan in mind. Big mistake. As during the previous day the kid's enjoyed Parque del Retiro, we decided to have a look at another HUGE park to the east called Casa de Campo. Here's another pic in the metro station on the way to this excursion.

It was hot and there was a zoo (similar to the one in Perth) and a large amusement park (similar to Adventure World in Perth), so after heated discourse with the kids we bypassed both of these attractions. Finally, we made it to the teleferico station (a 2.5 km cable car suspended about 40 m above the ground) that takes you to central Madrid. Here's a few pics of the kids and Robsie at the Casa de Campo side of the teleferico at the viewing station. 

After the teleferico we attempted to make our way over to the Palacio Real (a big ole palace that Robsie and I wanted to check out), but alas the kids were too plumb tuckered out from our afternoon excursions (~5 km of walking in the hot sun in Campo de Casa) to attempt it. We did manage to pass through some really nice city parks with a good city folk vibe along the Rio Manzanares and then stumbled onto the Plaza de Espana. Here's a pic of the kids and Robsie next to the monument dedicated to Cervantes with the large statues of Don Quixote and Pancho Sanchez directly behind them.

On the way home with our typical single file thing happening in the narrow streets of the inner city.

The graffiti thing in the narrow streets of the inner city, which happens to be our front door.

And dinner after our long day's excursion (some tire kids..., except for Luca as she got carried quite a bit by yours truly!).

Oh, shouldn't forget to mention the night club below our house, fortunately they played good music most of the night which seemingly lulled us to sleep both nights we stayed here. Here's a pic of us checking it out before our first sleep above this night club. In 10 years kids we'll be in there whooping it up with all those folks inside...

31 August: So Robsie and I frankly had a rather poor kid's day the previous day, so we had to make amends. So much for museums, palaces and any further plazas we may have wanted to check out during our limited time in Madrid... After a bit of research we decided that 'Faunia' was the go, which is essentially a theme zoo that is kid-centric. Here's a picture of Lulu next to a establishment with a similar name on the way to the metro...

Upon arrival to Faunia it was apparent the park was pretty cool, nice seal-sea lion show first up, and then the kid's got close up with some reptilians (this is a large European python).

Lot's of other attractions, here are Sam and Frankie next to the T. Rex equivalent of this area of Spain about 110 million years ago. Shortly after this pic, Luca burned out so I accompanied her for a 'siesta' in the afternoon on a patch of grass as the myriad of Faunia visitors toured by us with many a comment of our peaceful tranquil bedding arrangement in the midst of them! Both Luca and I were well rested up for the trip home.

The others (Robsie, Sam and Frankie) carried on, but at a certain point (I think in the Reptilian house) they burned out and seemingly had a quick siesta on one of the exhibits, pretty much smack in the middle of China from the looks of it.

Afterwards, back to our beloved Malesena district of Madrid, the single file trek back...

Saw a cool name for a store 'Ay mi madre' (oh, my mother!)...

And a fantastic meal on the plaza and to bed, as tomorrow was departure day to a village on the outskirts of Madrid, namely Colemnar de Oreja. This is the home village of Marie Angel, my cousin Francisco's partner, who was visiting family with Hugo and Luca in tow.

1 September: So we managed to get to Colemnar de Oreja village a bit late-ish in the afternoon (3 pm) where Marie Angel, Francisco, Hugo, Luca, Cecilia (Marie Angel's mother, Hugo & Luca's grandmother), Chelo (Marie Angel's sister), Chema (Chelo's husband), Chema Jr (hmmm, I let you figure that one out) and Celia (Chema Jr's sister) waiting patiently for us late-arriving Griswolds. Great late lunch, swimming pool and pet turtle action followed. Lunch was at Chema and Chelo's place, we then went over to Cecelia's place to drop off our stuff. Kid's immediately got into the soccer action, even Frankie who is shown playing here in the street in front of the house in the village street.

We then headed down to the pueblo's plaza for dinner. The town had just recently had their fiesta that included a running of the bulls (apparently this does not happen just in Pamplona, but it is widespread across Spain) and bullfights. Bullfights occur in the central plaza, which was transformed for this event with stands all around the plaza. The stands had not been taken down yet, so here are the primos having a play on the them with the very large village church in the background (nearly cathedral size!).

And here's us having dinner in what only a few day's earlier was the site of bullfighting.

2 September: Next day Marie Angel took us to meet a good friend (Pedro) of her late father's who has a winery (and vermouth producer to boot!) in town. He gave us a very intimate tour that kids and adults all found interesting. This is the name of the winery (bodega).

And here's Frankie next to some vats of wine that are age-ing...

And the adults sampling in the tasting room, while the kids checking out a cool glass floor thingy with interesting wine things below...

We then had a late lunch at Chelo and Chema's place with their version of a paella. Here are some pics of this gastronomic masterpiece in preparation and the final product. It tasted as good as it looked!

Kids then had a play with the turtles in their backyard, here's Frankie with one now.

Afterwards, we went to the nearby village of Chinchon, which was purported to have the classic plaza of the region (well known and famous in the region for it). Similar to the village of Colemnar de Oreja, Chinchon had also recently undergone its fiesta with running of bulls through the village streets and bullfighting in the main plaza. Here's a photo of flags still hanging across the streets in Chinchon.

A poster of the fiesta...

Us entering the Chinchon plaza...

Luca during her toro (bull) impersonation...

Hiding behind a bull-fighting safety wall in the ring imagining this to be a good place if there was actually a feisty bull in the ring...

And Marie Angel, Chelo and Chema chilling out in the plaza having a few drinks watching the kids go nuts in the plaza.

Afterwards, back to the village of Colemnar de Oreja, and Sam (FC Barcelona) and Hugo (Real Madrid) back to street soccer.

3 September: Next day was departure day, which was sad as we were saying see ya later to Francisco, Marie Angel, Hugo and Luca who were going back down to San Pedro in Andalucia, and we were off to northern Spain to Asturias via a quick Madrid stop (to pick-up passports with US Visas) and an overnight stay in Leon (to break up the drive and to check out another city). It wasn't goodbye to Chelo and Chema though as they agreed to keep several of our suitcases to lessen our load over the next month that was to include stops in Asturias (Spain), Paros (Greece) and Ischia (Italy). So we will see them again on 1 October. Though Robsie and I didn't get to sample Madrid in the optimal manner, we both felt that it was a city we could live in for awhile, maybe when things pick up economically in Spain we'll be back for a longer stint... It was great meeting Marie Angel's family and getting to know where she came from, we are all grateful for the invite and time spent there. Chemo, Chelo and Cecilia were extremely hospitable and knowledgeable, which greatly enriched our experience in the beautiful pueblos of Colemnar de Oreja and Chinchon for which all of us Griswolds are extremely grateful. Muchisimos gracias a todos!