Road Trippin' - Monasterio de Piedra

The whole past week, A has been like a toddler with a secret. His enthusiasm is absolutely gorgeous, and has made me smile almost daily when we talk about the "mystery place" he's taking me to on the weekend. I had absolutely no idea where we'd be going, other than I needed to wear comfortable walking shoes, because we would be doing a lot of walking, and it involved going somewhere in his car (YAY). Friday night I found out that we would have to leave the house around 9am to embark upon our journey, which really piqued my interest, because we never get out of bed at 9am on a Saturday, let alone leave the house at that time.

Having learnt my lesson from our trip to Avila and my level of personal cold going from 'geezuz' to 'omg I think I might actually be getting hypothermia', I packed my big warm parker, gloves, and a scarf, just in case. Grabbing my camera bag I had a little frisson of excitement spiral through my chest, and as he bundled me out the front door I was practically bursting with curiosity.

We drove straight out of Madrid on the highway, no messing around with trying to find the right road, no circling the city's ring road looking for our exit.. A drove with a sense of purpose, and before I had really realised it, we were out of the city, stopping at a gas station somewhere rural. Fields of poppies lay to the side of the gas station, and remembering how much my sister loves them, I felt compelled to get out of the car and take photos. I was rewarded with not just the poppies, but Scottish thistle and a myriad of other beautiful wildflowers foreign to me.. but the piece d'resistance? Flashes of wild rabbits, hopping rapidly away from me, their fluffy white tails bouncing in and out of the bushes. They were far too quick for me to get a photo, but I did manage to get a good look at what appeared to be mum, dad and baby rabbit. This makes me happy.

We met back at the car, and piled in ready for the long drive ahead. I didn't realise (of course! I had no idea of our destination) how far we were going - we drove for two hours before A pulled off the highway. The road took us through a quaint little village, then through farmland rich with green crops shivering in the breeze, then past orchards of fruit trees, and finally up into the hills. We turned a few curves, entered one of those very European-looking tunnels in the rock of the cliff, and came out the other side to the most amazing view of a sea-green lake, the sun shimmering on the flat surface, hills dipping down as if drinking from the inviting water. It was so absolutely perfect, that moment of discovery, the hills parting and yielding the spectacular vista, that I think I actually gasped out loud and startled A a little.

Up, up, up we drove, into the hills, climbing giving us a greater view of the lake and the village of Piedra at its shores. After a few minutes we reached the car park of the monastery and it became clear to us that we weren't the only ones who had thought it was a nice day for a walk through history. There were thousands of tourists but remarkably it was reasonably well organised, with car park assistants guiding traffic and only a few idiots trying to cut the queue.

Top tip - if you want to visit the monastery, book your tickets online, before you go - do not attempt to do it in the massive queue like we did - there is no phone reception there. The line was long, and we did wait about an hour, but it was well worth it. The gardens are impressive, beautiful and filled with waterfalls everywhere you look. There are charming little streams connecting the falls together, and they pool into a beautiful lake on the other side of the walk. Be prepared for stairs though - a LOT of stairs that were carved into the rock of the cliffs by the monks hundreds of years ago, with rickety rails put in as an afterthought in more recent years. If you don't like crowds, you don't like walking, you don't like stairs and you aren't that fussed on waterfalls and a pretty park, my recommendation would be to skip the walk, visit the monastery itself and then sit under the big beautiful trees and picnic on your lunch from a lazy position on the grass - you'll still see the biggest waterfall and you won't have to shuffle along like cattle with everyone else.

The monastery is half in (very romantic) ruins, half in good order, and well worth an hour to walk around and fully appreciate the beauty and history of the building and monks who lived there. I've posted numerous photos so have a look at those if you're interested. I love that through the ruins you can see the green of the grass, dotted with the beautiful short white wild daises that are so prolific in this part of the world. There's something terribly romantic about it all.

We headed home after spending the day walking around, poking our heads in and out of alcoves, and as we were hurtling down the highway, tired but happy, A says to me "I think I know where we're going next".

Chat soon,
M x