Visiting Colmenar Viejo

I’m dedicating this post to the memory of Al Gilmore, the husband of a dear friend from Austin who passed away this past week. May his memory be a blessing and a comfort to his wife, Diane, and their two children.

When we lived in Austin, we were about 10 miles away from Old Bee Caves Road. And now that we live in Tres Cantos, we are about 10 miles away from a small city called Colmenar Viejo (Old Beehives.) Being so close, it was easy-peasy and fast to get there by bus. The city is on a small hill, nestled at the feet of the majestic mountains called Sierra de Guadarrama.

Last week I talked about our trip to Segovia and how impressed I was that the city had been inhabited for the last 60,000 years. Well, Colmenar Viejo tops that. Archaeologists have found “abundant” flint stone tools in digs throughout the city that indicate that Paleolithic people inhabited that land from 140,000 to 100,000 years ago! If you think about it, modern humans have only been around for about 20,000 to 40,000 years, so those people were early, early humans, probably pre-Neanderthals! (Here you can see a picture of one of the stone tools found )

Archaeologists have also found ceramic shards from the Bronze Age there.

Nonetheless, settlements came and went in Colmenar Viejo, and it’s not until the 6^th and 7^th centuries CE that there are a lot of ruins, including foundations of buildings, a small street, and even a cemetery. Then, since the 9^th century CE, Colmenar Viejo has been continually inhabited.

Whew!! I’m blown away, wondering if there are families living in this small town who can trace their lineage back thousands (or tens of thousands) of years? I mean, sure, eventually all of us MUST have come from ancient ancestors, but the idea of a land inhabited a hundred thousand years ago is amazing!

Later, in the 13^th century a university was established there, with Latin studies, humanities, etc., and it is still standing in a small plaza. We didn’t get a picture of it, though.

But switching gears to the present, one of the things my husband and I enjoy doing when we arrive in a new city is stopping at a café. Here most cafés  are called “bars” but it’s not at all the type of bar you typically think of in the US. For one thing, they serve tea and coffee and are open all day. (Yes, you could also get a beer or alcoholic drink if you wanted, but it’s not something most people do.) And second, there’s no age limit for going into the bar, as there is in the US. So, you could just as easily see a group of teens having a soft drink or some elderly folks having a glass of wine, or young parents enjoying a cup of coffee while their child clambers between them.

As soon as we got off the bus, we found a tiny little café/bar and sat down for warm drinks, which in this case were served in small glasses! Cute but rather uncomfortable to drink from as there were no handles, and our fingers became quite tingly if we dawdled with our drinks in our hands.

Then we strolled through the city, stopping at the different parks along the way to check out the local birds. There were quite a few parks, and many, like the one below, had impressive children’s playgrounds, as well as dog playgrounds, which I’ll discuss in a later blog post.

At ~53,000 inhabitants, Colmenar Viejo is larger than Tres Cantos, and it has a bull-fighting ring, which TC does not have. The buildings were also, as we expected, much older, and eventually we stumbled upon the old cathedral in the city center called Basílica de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora. It was built in the mid to late 1500s, and as you can see, parts of it were undergoing renovations.

And of course, it was topped with the obligatory stork nests.

The yearly celebrations of the city were happening the weekend we visited, but due to Covid restrictions, things were very toned down. Nonetheless, for a few fun photos of the celebrations from past years check out this site.

So, from Old Bee Caves to Old Beehives–coincidence? Or is the Universe telling us how sweet our surroundings are, both here and there?

In any case, since it’s that time of the year again, wishing all my Jewish friends a honied, happy and healthy New Year!

What do you think? Which part of the visit was your favorite ?

And as always, if you like my writing, please check out my novels here.