For the entire weekend, we decided to take a drive through the region of La Mancha. Our goal was to visit a couple of the larger cities in the region and find the windmills of the famous Spanish classic Don Quixote. After a wet and delayed start Saturday morning, we finally pulled out of Madrid early and headed on to Cuenca.
The city was founded there by the Arabs when they realized that the position of the town was great as a fortress. Over the next few hundred years, the town went back and forth between the Moor kings and the kings of the different provinces of the loosely formed Spain. The town thrived as a textile place and offers visitors a chance to step back in time. The buildings and the architecture are old and seem to run on like one big piece throughout the city. The city is very hilly and has some steep climbs to traverse to get to the top. The cathedral was built over a century starting in 1182 and has the distinction of being the first gothic style cathedral in Spain. The front façade is new as the old one fell apart in the early 20th century. We weren't able to walk around the inside as they were closing for lunch break when we arrived.
We continued to wind through the streets and stop off at various spots to take in the views of the gorge. Cuenca is famous for casas colgadas, hanging houses, the lean a bit over the edges of the cliffs. There is a long red bridge across the small stream that flows through the town that provides a great view of the hanging houses.
We had lunch at the top of the Cuenca hill and decided to head on. We headed through the countryside to our destination for the night, Albacete. The town was nice and had a great area for going out and having some drinks. We found ourselves in a place called The Porsche. It was a nice bar with a Mexican cantina feel to it. We waited a few minutes and took some seats that opened up at the bar. We ordered some drinks, steak, cheese, and other small appetizers to munch on. The steak turned out to be amazing.
On Sunday morning, we checked out and drove west towards the towns of Manzanares and Campo de Criptana. Campo is part of the tourist route of Don Quixote. As we were changing highways in a town called La Mota del Cuervo, Iz spotted windmills off in the distance. We drove through the town and found the windmills sitting on a hilltop north of the town. We had a wonder around the place to check them out. Most had a smaller shape than the Dutch windmills that are more well known. All of the blades were tied off so they couldn't turn.
After the wondering around a bit, we continued on to Campo de Criptana. The windmills there are pictured above. They too are on a hillside that overlooks the town. The only difference in the windmills in the two locations is the color of the roofs: brown in La Mota del Cuervo and blue in Campo de Criptana. We had a drink at a nice multilevel restaurant next to the windmills. The view from the upstairs patio was great. There were lots of families out and about walking around the windmills. It was nice to see a lot of people spending time together and visiting important historical places in their country. We had a bite to eat in a town called Alcázar de San Juan and headed on back to Madrid. Overall, the weekend was great and relaxing. For me, it was awesome to see places I read about while at school in Tennessee.
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