Palazuelos de Eresma, Spain Travel Journals & Blogs

Traveler 2023 Passport Chronicles
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- Sep 21, 2023
- 🌧 16 °C
- Altitude: 1,188 m
- Spain Castille and León San Ildefonso Royal Palace of La Granja of San Ildefonso 40.898514, -4.00508140°53’55” N 4°0’18” W
Day 51
Madrid reunions: take 1
September 21, 2023 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 16 °C
I couldn’t believe I reunited with Erika today after more than 12 years! She took the afternoon off work and offered to pick me up in Madrid’s city centre (so sweet!).

The first stop was her favourite Italian restaurant for lunch, yum! yum! yum! 🍝

We were then gonna head out of the city to a beautiful town in the mountains with a Monastery but on the highway she decided we’d go elsewhere. 🤭

We ended up at the Palacio Real de la Granja de San Ildefonso, the best example in Spain of a formal French-style garden. It was raining a bit but still so beautiful to walk around. Most importantly, we were talking nonstop like 2 parrots and laughing so so much!

Before heading back with a breathtaking sunset, we went to Segovia and I got to see the aqueduct, a monumental civil engineering feat and one of the best-preserved Roman works.

And, naturally, we couldn’t say adiós without sharing one final drink! It was a beautiful day spent with one of the most incredible people I know! 🤍Read more
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Doteyboaty
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- Feb 27, 2022
- ⛅ 7 °C
- Altitude: 1,187 m
- Spain Castille and León San Ildefonso 40.899067, -4.00559840°53’57” N 4°0’20” W
Day 231
Granja
February 27, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C
With only a half-baked plan, we arrive into the town of Granja at 6pm following our busy day in Segovia. I park right outside the Posh Parador hotel and feeling lucky go in and ask for a room. They have availability but only for 2 people and being so fancy, don’t do camp beds. A suite is all they offer our little party of three and the price is eye-watering. I go back out to the car, take a breath and begin searching for accommodation online and by phone. 40 minutes later the windows are steamed-up, mirroring my stress level. I let the children know we may have to drive back to Madrid for a bed even though we are exhausted.
Aware that I am red-faced and flustered I figure that now might actually be the perfect time to chance my arm and twist the arm of the Parador Receptionist. I ham up my panicked state petition her to turn a blind eye to the fact that there are three of us. After some whispering to her colleagues in the back she returns with a smile and proceeds to check us in to a double room. Our three delighted souls scurry through the lobby and dive into our fancy room. Everything in it is big and luxurious and we are here to make the most of it. The bath is run, strawberries and chocolate are smuggled in and Netflix is locked and loaded.
Although we are 3 abreast in the bed, it is still luxurious and we sleep soundly. My children have inherited my love of buffet breakfasts and they can not hide their excitement. They beam happiness every time they arrive back to the table with another leaning tower of assorted goodies. Love is in the air and they thank me so many times. Ruby even gives me her Mother’s Day card and present a whole month early.
We are in the perfect mood to enjoy the gardens at the Palacio Real de Granja de San Ildefonso. The Versailles inspired fountains have brought us here and they are beautiful and numerous but they are also empty or not running. In fact these wonderful fountains are off more often than on because they use so much water. They are still very impressive and we would love to return sometime to see them in all their glory. There are only 3 days in every year when they are running simultaneously - the tickets must be like gold dust.
We spend a lovely few hours walking from one fountain to the other, through formal gardens, along avenues and woods. When we get to the large reservoir lake it feels like we are in Killarney. This is the closest we have come to an Irish landscape in Spain.Read more
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Traveler Ireland, Portugal and Spain
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- Nov 6, 2018
- ⛅ 5 °C
- Altitude: 1,168 m
- Spain Castille and León San Ildefonso 40.900249, -4.00915540°54’1” N 4°0’33” W
Day 35
San Ildefonso, Segovia
November 6, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C
We were up bright and early so we could have breakfast and be packed up, ready to be picked up at 9.30 am by Jorge from Senderos y Pueblos, the company that is organising our trip around Segovia.

It was a great relief when Jorge arrived, right on time. He packed us into his station wagon and we headed out to San Ildefonso where we are to be based for the next two days. It is not a busy time here so we were able to check straight in to the Hotel Roma.

Then it was off for our first walk. Jorge gave us a GPS which makes it easier to follow the track. A map is nice, a written description is nice, but the GPS stops you from wandering far off the intended track. It really makes it foolproof.

Our first walk was to the village of Valsain. From there we had the option of returning via a different track, giving us a total of about 10 kms, OR we could continue and end up doing 17.3 kms. Naturally we opted for the latter, notwithstanding the rain we encountered. It was raining when we left San Ildefonso but stopped after about 1 km. We thought we might get away with it from then on, but just after halfway it started drizzling again, and it continued most of the way home. Notwithstanding the weather we had a great time, and saw some lovely countryside.

Dinner was a problem again, finding some place open early enough for us. First up was a drink and some nibblies at the Half Moon, where there was a documentary on northern Australia! It was a bit loud there so we then found the Miami which had a nice menu and there we stayed. It was a lovely place, quiet with a most attentive, and interesting, man behind the counter. The highlight for me was the Russian salad, whilst Robyn really enjoyed her lamb cutlets. All in all, a good day.Read more
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Traveler Ireland, Portugal and Spain
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- Nov 7, 2018
- 🌧 3 °C
- Altitude: 1,166 m
- Spain Castille and León San Ildefonso Fundación Centro Nacional del Vidrio 40.903728, -4.00710640°54’13” N 4°0’26” W
Day 36
El Chorro Waterfalls
November 7, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 3 °C
We had been expecting rain today as it had been forecast, but why did it have to rain up until we finished our walk?

Today’s goal was to do a circular walk up to El Chorro Waterfall, a 10 km trip. There was some pretty hard climbing as we approached the bottom of the falls, and in the rain and mist we took what was a pretty silly decision to press on. After a while, about 350 m into the final 550 m we actually became lost, not a nice situation. Robyn slipped on a huge granite boulder and thought she was going to slide a long way down, and the GPS was not lighting up the screen enough to see clearly. We backtracked, found our place, and headed up again. This time we were successful, but the fog or misty rain was too thick to really see the falls. We did, however, see the remnants of the snow fall from last weekend, so it was pretty cold.

The trip back was okay, but the mist made it impossible to see the views over the town and the Palace and Gardens. This was a great pity because it was easy to imagine how good the view would have been on a fine day. Part of our track took us along two walls of the Palace estate. We were amazed at just how big the estate was, being approximately 1 square kilometre. That’s a lot of garden and forest to enjoy.

As Hotel Roma is not opening the restaurant at this time of year, except on weekends, we were once again forced to look elsewhere. However, before that we enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and a game of Scrabble in the bar of the hotel, where we enjoyed the company and interest of the barman /concierge / owner(?). He was very helpful with advice, we enjoyed discussing such things as speed limits and police cars, cycling and the weather. He suggested three different restaurants for us to consider.

The first one was closed, the second one was not doing meals that night, the third one was not yet ready for dinner, and we were hungry. Any port in a storm, and it just so happened that there was a pizzeria ready, willing and able to help us. It wasn’t too bad, and it was nice being in a place frequented by the locals.

To finish the night we had more wine back at the Hotel Roma bar, this time sitting in front of the fire. The barman had nobody else to look after at that time, so we talked a little more. He is in the middle of reading a book by Catherine McCulloch, and was quite knowledgeable about her writing. You just never know where a little bit of Australia is going to pop up.Read more
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You might also know this place by the following names:

Palazuelos de Eresma

Palazuelos de Eresma

Travelers at this place

Madrid reunions: take 1

Granja

San Ildefonso, Segovia

El Chorro Waterfalls

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