Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures

2026 – Europe – Week 2 (March 7-8) – Our first 24 hours in Spain

Lots of firsts in the first 24 hours despite the rain: first peaks, first scrambles, first drone flight, first inversion, first National Park, first Spanish friend.

Rain has been coming and going since we arrived to Europe. Spain was no exception.

Exciting to see Spanish signs – we are getting closer to Portugal, our goal.

We crossed the border from France into Spain on Saturday, March 7, 11 day since we started this trip. Rather than travelling through the Pyrenees, we chose the northernmost crossing at Hendaye (France) / Irun (Spain) and continued toward central Spain, pushing toward Portugal, which still seemed very far away. As soon as we crossed the border, the landscape became more mountainous, and even the rain became less bothersome. Eventually it disappeared altogether.

Rain means early spring. All the trees are blooming!

The landscape here is vast. The cities would certainly be interesting to visit, but driving into them takes work—figuring out whether our car is eligible to enter (yes, our car is old and may not meet environmental standards), where to drive, where to park, and what to visit. So no, this will not be a city trip. This will be an easy, relaxing drive through the countryside. Cities can wait for another time.

Around 5 p.m. the sun finally came out. We turned off the main road, intrigued by interesting piles of granite rocks, and decided to hike them. Both had elements of scrambling, which we enjoyed.

This pile of rocks has a name El Hermanito Grande
And this pile of rocks is El Hermanito Chico
And both have some scrambling moves and I was able to scramble, yeh!
There are some tight passages
But we made it
And the second pile of rocks, El Hermanito Grande
I feel accomplished – good place to stay for night
What’s for dinner?
Europe is so full, it’s rare to find a scenic place that’s also legal to fly
At night the fog engulfed us, and the morning greeted us with an inversion.
Ahead of us the first full day in Spain – our next stop is park National de Monfragüe
Spring is here too
I loved their info centre. It is relatively new National Park in Spain.
Time for a visit
It’s a bird paradise. Not visible on the photo are vultures circling the rocks.
Now time to hike up a hill with a castle after which the National Park took its name Monfragüe. The Castle overlooks Tagus River which reaches the Atlantic at Lisbon, Portugal.
On the way to the castle we met Alfredo, a Spanish retired IT guy and we hike up together.
Alfredo is losing a lot of weight, fast
We made it!
View from the top of the castle- below Tagus River. Controlling the castle meant controlling the river access.
Europe- there are always either cathedral or remains of castles in the views.
And there is even a green Delica.

We got stopped by friendly police within about an hour of crossing the border. This was our first encounter – they wanted to know where was our license plate from, and how did we get here?

Marta Wojnarowska
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