Alba Carrillo visits Virgin Mary shrine in Turkey and returns to her Sierra de Gredos roots

Alba Carrillo, 40, marked her birthday with a Mediterranean cruise accompanied by her parents and 14‑year‑old son Lucas. While the ship stopped in Turkey, she toured the House of the Virgin Mary on Mount Bülbül, left a note on the wishing wall and drank water from the sacred spring, saying, “We have taken holy water.”

The presenter frequently retreats to her maternal hometown, Nava del Barco, a tiny mountain village in the Sierra de Gredos of Ávila, Spain. She describes the area’s crystal‑clear river, glacial lagoon and granite landscape as a personal sanctuary, recalling that she is “the granddaughter of the lady who sold milk.”