Cuenca–revisited

You know that saying, “I try to take one day at a time but lately several days have attacked me at once”? Well, with me it’s been several months that attacked me at once! Mostly good stuff, just super, super busy. And it’s not abating, so, although I still LOVE living in Spain and in Tres Cantos, and we are getting out to travel a bit occasionally, when work, weather and the pandemic permit, I’m waaay behind on blogposts. Plus, last week I had a colecistectomia (gallbladder removal surgery). All went well and I am recovering, as well as busy learning all the new vocabulary associated with the surgery. 😉

But let me tell you about a little trip we took to Cuenca, back in February. If you’ve read my older blogposts, you might remember that I wrote about a trip that I took to Cuenca in the mid 1990s.

And it was time to go back!

Cuenca a small city southeast of Madrid, about halfway to Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast. Cuenca is in the mountains (which doesn’t really tell you much since the same could be said for most cities in Spain!) It’s also close to a major park/nature preserve called Parque Natural de la Serenia de Cuenca. Since we’ve chosen not to own a car, we rented one and drove the easy 2 hours from Madrid for a lovely weekend.

First off we visited the large park, a place called Ciudad Encantada, which means Enchanted City. The fantastical rock structures in this smaller park were made millions of years ago, as water partially eroded sections of the limestone mountains, creating dozens of whimsical rock structures.

It was a lovely, warm afternoon, and we enjoyed the prelude to spring.

We spent the night in a hotel located outside the old city, since the accommodations there were more reasonably priced, and we were rewarded with gorgeous views of the countryside.

Then we drove into the old city and had an excellent breakfast of toasted croissants with jam. Here’s Jose with a mocha-coffee that he said was delicious.

The old part of Cuenca is built high on cliffs, where it could be protected from invaders.  

On one side of the ravine was the requisite monastery, which is now a parador, a gorgeous hotel, and on the other side was the rest of the city. To go between, there was a stone bridge, but it fell apart in the 1950s, so they built another one of metal and wood, rising from the foundations of the old bridge. After walking around the ravine, we climbed the mountain and walked across the bridge.

One of the most famous sights of Cuenca is the Casas Colgantes—the Hanging Houses—which were built on the cliff faces in the 1500s.

These houses were abandoned in the 1800s as they fell into disrepair, but then they were purchased to house a modern art museum in the mid 1900s and restored.

Walking around the old city is also very worthwhile, not only for the spectacular views, and great aerobic exercise, but also because of the monuments.

When we looked off further west, we saw some creative person had painted two large blue circles into the side of the mountain….

Perhaps this was an inspiration for Michael Jackson’s song? “I always feel like…”

Anyway, it was a lovely and magical weekend, and I’m glad I finally had a chance to share it with you!

I’ve got several more posts to write to catch you up on our adventures. But for now, take care, stay healthy, and as always, please check out (and tell someone about) my novels here.