The Town Hall at Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain - Weathervane Wednesday

 This weathervane was photographed in Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain.

This weathervane is located on the ayuntamiento (town hall) of the village of Miraflores de la Sierra, in the province of Madrid, Spain.  The weathervane is the painted and gilded coat of arms for the village. There are no cardinal points, but there is a lightning rod and a very fancy wrought iron globe. 

When Vincent was a boy he would spend his summers in Miraflores with his grandparents and cousins. The main square is called Plaza del Alamo, after a famous poplar tree in the middle of the square. It is in the mountains, about 50 kilometers from Madrid. 

This little village has grown today to almost six thousand inhabitants. We recently visited here and it was very nostalgic for Vincent and his cousin to remember the streets as they were when they were kids! 

Yours truly, my mother-in-law, and Vincent in front of the ayunamiento of Miraflores

For the truly curious:

Wikipedia article for Miraflores de la Sierra  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraflores_de_la_Sierra  

The Facebook page for the Ayuntamiento Miraflores de la Sierra  https://www.facebook.com/AyuntamientoMirafloresdelaSierra/   

Previous blog posts about the village of Miraflores:

2010  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/12/not-so-wordless-wednesday-miraflores-de.html  

2019  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/06/photo-friday-miraflores-de-la-sierra.html  

Click here to see over 475 other weathervanes featured at this blog:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/Weathervane%20Wednesday  

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Town Hall at Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain - Weathervane Wednesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 2, 2022, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-town-hall-at-miraflores-de-la.html: accessed [access date]). 

July 20, 1969 - Remember the Alamo?

On July 16, 1969 Apollo 11 launched from earth to the moon and a few days later on July 20 Neil Armstrong became the first human to ever step foot on the lunar surface.  Do you remember what you were doing on that day?

That date was in the summer between first and second grade for me. We lived in Holden, Massachusetts, recently arrived from the town of Beverly. I don't remember the moon landing at all because it happened at night and I was probably asleep. But my husband was a little bit older than me, living in Europe (a different time zone) and he grew up to become an aerospace engineer, so of course he remembers this historic event!

Vincent was spending the summer with his grandparents in the little village of Miraflores de la Sierra outside of Madrid, Spain.  They didn't have a TV, so they went, with many other villagers, to the pub in the main square of this village called "El Alamo" (translation "poplar tree") because of the big, ancient tree that grew in the middle of the street.  When I visited the village of Miraflores with him in 1986 this is what the tree looked like.  It was during this visit that I first heard him tell me the story of watching the moon landing under this tree.  He told me that the TV was inside the pub and he watched the astronauts through the plate glass windows from the outside plaza.

1986, Miraflores main plaza under the Alamo tree

Several years later, when we returned to the village in 2010 we learned that the alamo tree had died and had been cut down.  However, new growth was emerging from the top of the stump, so we are hopeful that this landmark still exists! 

2010

2010

Another family story about July 20, 1969.  On that very day of the Apollo Moon Landing my first cousin was stationed in the Army in Mexico City.  He had to visit a local doctor due to "Montezuma's Revenge", and there was a very pretty receptionist. He ended up marrying her.  They have been married more than 45 years!

1970 Mexico

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "July 20, 1969 - Remember the Alamo?", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 16, 2019,  ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/07/july-16-1969-remember-alamo.html: accessed [access date]). 

Photo Friday - Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain

These are some old and some very old photos of the village of Miraflores de la Sierra near Madrid, Spain.  This is where my husband spent the summers with his grandparents when he was growing up.  He was born in New York City while his Dad worked at the United Nations. They lived in Brooklyn and Queens when he was small. Every summer his parents would send him to live in Spain.  According to Wikipedia, today Miraflores has a population of about 6,000 people and is much bigger than it was in the 1960s and 1970s.

Here is an old photo of Vincent's grandparents, Jose Garcia and Maria Consuelo Martin, and an unknown person, on their balcony in Miraflores.  This photo was probably taken in the 1960s.

In Miraflores there is a grotto dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Begoña (Our Lady of the Begonias, named after the Virgin appeared in the Basilica of Begoña in Bilbao, Spain in 1511).  Every time we visit here, we light a candle.  This must be an old tradition, because here is a photo of Vincent's cousins lighting candles in the early 1970s at the grotto.  The third photo shows the grotto in 2010.

There was a community swimming pool in Miraflores, so of course we have many photos of the children in the family swimming there.  Here is Vincent's cousin Chemari as a little boy swimming in that same pool in the 1960s!

And here is Chemari and Vincent (the little boy) in the 1970s at the same pool!

Vincent in the streets of Miraflores, circa 1970

Here we all are, including me, my daughter and future son-in-law, Chemari and his wife, walking the streets of Miraflores in 2010.

In 1986, when I was pregnant with my daughter, we visited Miraflores for a day.  These are his grandparents on their balcony, waving goodbye to us! Compare this to the first photo up above, which was taken 20 years earlier!

This photo from July 1995 is at the pub in the village plaza, called "Bar España".  It shows Vincent's mother, her aunt Tia Luisa, and her cousin José Manuel and his wife Antonia. My husband remembers going to this pub in 1969 to see the moon landing, it was the only color TV in Miraflores!

This is the plaza of Miraflores in 2010 (during siesta time, so no one was in the streets!)

Here is a photo from the 1980s of some cousins at the fountain outside of Miraflores.  The second photo is the same fountain, with Vincent in 2010.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Photo Friday - Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 7, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/06/photo-friday-miraflores-de-la-sierra.html: accessed [access date]).

Not so Wordless Wednesday- Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain

My husband and his grandparents in Miraflores de la Sierra with afternoon refreshments under the big Alamo tree in 1968

My husband, around 1970 in Miraflores

When my husband was little he used to spend the summers in Spain with his grandparents. They would leave Madrid in August and vacation in a small resort town called Miraflores de la Sierra. He has many fond memories of swimming, visiting with cousins, and playing in the streets and plazas. The central plaza hasn't changed in hundreds of years, and it still has the town hall and ancient church. Near the plaza mayor is another small plaza with shops, pubs, and restaurants. This is where the gigantic Alamo Tree (poplar) stood, and families would relax in the shade. The annual fiestas take place around August 15th every year, complete with a bullring and other typical activities. http://www.mirafloresdelasierra.net/ The website for the village of Miraflores de la Sierra

 

The whole family meets in Miraflores, 2003

The entire extended family in the summer of 2010 at Miraflores de la Sierra



In 2010 this is all that is left of the Alamo. It had been cut down a few years earlier.

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Not so Wordless Wednesday- Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain", Nutfield Genealogy, posted December 8, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/12/not-so-wordless-wednesday-miraflores-de.html: accessed [access date]).