{"id":7224,"date":"2026-05-18T11:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T01:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/?p=7224"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:05:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:05:01","slug":"day-4-cercedilla-to-la-granja-de-san-ildefonso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/day-4-cercedilla-to-la-granja-de-san-ildefonso\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 4 &#8211; Cercedilla to La Granja de San Ildefonso"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So,\u00a0this day is from\u00a0Cercedilla\u00a0to La Granja de\u00a0San\u00a0Ildefonso\u00a0and this is the day we go over the mountain.\u00a0So,\u00a0we were\u00a0somewhat nervous\u00a0about today because for us, this would be the biggest challenge that\u00a0we&#8217;ve\u00a0faced yet on any Camino route. We decided to set off at dawn, which was\u00a07am\u00a0and the authorities at the youth hostel very kindly prepared us a packed meal. We already had quite a bit of food with us for the journey, so we had the packed meal\u00a0as\u00a0breakfast before we set out.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7232\" src=\"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Day-4-Cercedilla-to-La-Granja-de-San-Ildefonso-steep-rocky-path.jpg\" alt=\"Day 4 - Cercedilla to La Granja de San Ildefonso - steep rocky path\" width=\"950\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Day-4-Cercedilla-to-La-Granja-de-San-Ildefonso-steep-rocky-path.jpg 950w, https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Day-4-Cercedilla-to-La-Granja-de-San-Ildefonso-steep-rocky-path-480x177.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 950px, 100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The first 4-5k&#8217;s was all uphill and towards the end very steep and very rocky. So, I think it took us about three hours to reach the top. It was really a question of just going slow and steady and making sure that we didn&#8217;t turn an ankle or injure ourselves on the way up but it was really quite exhausting. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/POUDDp8ag6g?si=9Kqmh36PgHksatz0?rel=0\" width=\"950\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">And then we had a nice surprise when we arrived at the top. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So, at the top we reached the Puerto de la Fuenfria and just as we came over the top &#8211; onto the top of the mountain we were faced with this huge cow or bull I should say, just standing there looking at us and he had four or five cows around him. Wonderful looking animal and it was like a greeting as we arrived at the top.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vM5aF3C00QU?si=ZbPdR5ZtFQpok3p4?rel=0\" width=\"950\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Then after a short break\u00a0we started what we hoped was going to be the fairly easy part of the day which is sort of steadily downhill before our turnoff to\u00a0Valsain. We\u00a0didn&#8217;t\u00a0quite think we could make it all the way to\u00a0Segovia. That would be about a\u00a027 km\u00a0day and\u00a0a hard day\u00a0for us.\u00a0So,\u00a0we cut the day short a little bit by going to\u00a0Valsain\u00a0and we found the turnoff okay and then it was about\u00a04km\u00a0road walk down to\u00a0Valsain. I found that the hardest part of the day\u00a0walking steadily downhill\u00a0really puts a lot of strain on the knees.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">And we hoped that by the time we got to\u00a0Valsain, we might find somewhere open for lunch. And of course, as always,\u00a0the Camino provides because as we came into the main part of the village, which is\u00a0very small, indeed there was a bar open serving lunch and so we grabbed some lunch there, which is\u00a0really good.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7234\" src=\"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Day-4-Cercedilla-to-La-Granja-de-San-Ildefonso-lunch-at-Valsain.jpg\" alt=\"Day 4 - Cercedilla to La Granja de San Ildefonso - lunch at Valsain\" width=\"950\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Day-4-Cercedilla-to-La-Granja-de-San-Ildefonso-lunch-at-Valsain.jpg 950w, https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Day-4-Cercedilla-to-La-Granja-de-San-Ildefonso-lunch-at-Valsain-480x177.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 950px, 100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">And then, given that our legs had really given up for the day, we jumped on the local bus to go to La Granja\u00a0de\u00a0San Ildefonso which is where we stayed for the night.\u00a0All in all, a really great day, but absolutely exhausting for us.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, this day is from Cercedilla to La Granja de San Ildefonso and this is the day we go over the mountain. So, we were somewhat nervous about today because for us, this would be the biggest challenge that we&#8217;ve faced yet on any Camino route&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[367],"tags":[374,60,384,381,382,383],"class_list":["post-7224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camino-de-madrid","tag-camino-de-madrid","tag-camino-de-santiago","tag-camino-walking-route","tag-cercedilla-to-la-granja-de-san-ildefonso","tag-puerto-de-la-fuenfria","tag-valsain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7235,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7224\/revisions\/7235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}