España, Día 11: Ruta de los Búnkeres en Los Molinos Guadarrama

On our last trip to Europe, one of our best days was spent hiking in the Austrian Alps, so I thought everyone might enjoy an excursion into the Guadarrama sierra, 60 miles north of Madrid. Several historic events have taken place in those mountains, too, and I thought we might be able to make visiting one of those sites part of the experience. For example, on November 30, 1808, during the Spanish War of Independence (the Peninsular War), in the Battle of Somosierra, Napoleon led the French forces who smashed through the Spanish guerrillas shielding Madrid from direct French attack. The victory removed the last obstacle barring the road to Madrid, which fell several days later.

During the Spanish Civil War, the Battle of Guadarrama was the first in which troops loyal to the democratically elected Republic faced off against Franco's would-be usurpers. The battle took place in the last week of July and early August 1936. The Republican government had disbanded the troops and militia after General Franco launched the rebellion, but many soldiers loyal to the government headed to the mountains to turn back the Fascist rebels approaching from the north. The Republicans prevailed and the northern front remained safe from further incursions, until Franco's final offensive at the end of March 1939, which ended the war.

We chose to visit a village called "Los Molinos," which was not the site of either of these historic battles because we could get there by train--which is always preferable to travel by bus. Also, I didn't really expect that there would be much in the way of a commemorative hike at either of the other two spots. 

But we did find a pdf guide to a "Ruta de los Búnkeres" leaving from Los Molinos. We were not at all sure how clearly marked the route would actually be, and we were somewhat concerned about how cold it might be in the mountains throughout the day, so we set out with lots of layers, some healthy snacks, and some anxiety.

We had to switch trains once, and we almost missed the train we needed because its destination was not correctly identified. 

Once in Los Molinos, we found our way to a supermarket and couldn't resist loading up with picnic supplies--cheese, chips, bread, fruit, nuts, sweets, bottles of water.

During the Civil War, Los Molinos was on the front for 3 years. Because this front was stable for so long, los Republicanos (AKA the good guys) were able to build bunkers, trenches, and machine gun nests here. One of Gerardo's friends told him that some of the people in the village are Franquistas, but I took my Republican flag and planned to fly it.

Throughout the day, we were often unsure whether we were on the route or not, but we did not miss bunker #3, above (and in the next three photos), which is referred to as "Majaltobar" on our map because of the nearby Majaltobar river.

According to our pdf, this bunker was built near the end of 1938 and the beginning of 1939.

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Our pdf says this bunker had a capacity for two soldiers and one machine gun.

This bunker is called "Los Veneros (the Springs)." It was probably built in 1938.

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This bunker also had a trench behind it.

It was not cold.

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We almost doubled back when we came to the tunnel above, which crossed under a railway track which was closed off by a fence on both sides. But we decided that we could get through by clinging to the wall and stepping on the rocks at the edge of the stream. T

Once we'd made it through the tunnel, we celebrated with our picnic lunch. We had plenty of food. And we remembered fondly a picnic we had four years ago with Gerardo in Auvers-sur-Oise.

The water on this path became increasingly challenging.

We saw cattle on the hillsides. I believe these stone walls were used to enclose the different ranches where the cattle were grazing.

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We had just begun to head back towards the train station to catch the afternoon train, when we decided to see if some of us could take one more bunker...

Emilio and I made it, and he took this photo of me with my Republican flag at the top. The pdf calls this one "Majalcamacho." Built in 1937, it was probably exploded from within near the end of the conflict.

The photos I took of Emilio are posted at emiliosdad.blogspot.com.

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Gerardo talked to the ranchers watching over these cattle, and they persuaded us that instead of returning to Los Molinos, we should head to the final stop on the train line: Cercedilla, the summer resort town that was higher up in la sierra than Los Molinos.

We all confronted these creatures with great bravery. The ranchers were not at all amused by this.

We were somewhat concerned about making it to the train station on time, since we weren't sure where it was on the map, but that didn't keep us from stopping to admire the sunset.

Pablo said this was his favorite day of the trip.

Gerardo, who suffered an ankle injury on the last climb, led our strategic retreat to Cercedilla.

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We made it!

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W came back 

We came back with more food than we started with.