Day Four - Cuenca
Cuenca is a medium-sized city off to the Southeast of Madrid. It's an old Roman and then Moorish and now Spanish settlement. Set on the top of a rocky hill surrounded by canyons, it was virtually impenetrable. Later, they built houses over the edge of the cliffs called, appropriately enough, Hanging Houses. It was a pretty cool place.
This is a house inside of a hill in Cuenca
We saw no Hobbits.
Statue overlooking Cuenca.
On the train ride from Madrid to Cuenca it seemed that all the little towns had statues overlooking them.
A view of New Cuenca from the hills of Old Cuenca
The Cathedral in Cuenca
Built in the early 13th century, this is the only Anglo-style Gothic cathedral in Spain. (notice the pointy arches)
Another shot of New Cuenca
A small farm on the hills of Cuenca
It's a little hard to gauge the scale, but we're pretty high up. In the bottom left of that little plot you can see a farmer doin' a bit of hand plowing.
High, scary bridge across the canyon to the Parador (state run hotel
for tourists)
It's taken from the other side of Cuenca from where the shot above it was taken. Another river runs below this bridge.
Alex on the scary, high bridge
Ok. Yeah. He's scared.
A view of old Cuenca (including our hotel) from the Parador
How cool is this? Dig the postcard quality panorama. Our hotel is the first white building from the left with the three windows. It's a 13th century convent -- Posada de San Jose. Thanks to Sean O'Neil for the recommendation.
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