Vacation in Spain, Cuenca

I've finally made it to our vacation in Spain, only a couple of months late, but better late then never! We flew into Madrid on the first of January and picked up our rental car the next morning. Our first stop was a day trip to Cuenca and then on to Granada.

The Spanish countryside is beautiful, and we saw these windmills all over the place:


Well, our drive was nice until Sophie decided to throw up in the car. It seems to be her MO for rental cars, so we shouldn't be surprised. We're not sure what was up, but she was hungry soon after, and seemed to be okay the rest of the day. (FYI--this is not a picture of the actual incident, just a picture that I though captured the mood...)

At the random gas station we had to stop at to clean up, there was a tiny town (if you could even call it that) that still had vestiges of Franco's reign in its street names.

A crudely cut out tunnel on the way to Cuenca:

Cuenca is a small medieval city in the heart of Spain perched on the top of a hill. Its history goes back to the Muslim rule of Spain in the 8th century, and it became the site of one of the two oldest gothic-style cathedrals in Spain. That day was pretty cloudy, so you can't see much of the city below, but the old city is in the foreground on the hill, and the new city is below.

There are remains of a 13th-century castle in some areas:


And it is most famous for its "Hanging Houses." These houses are built over the canyon and appear to be hanging over the edge. They date from the 14th century.






Here we are on the bridge over the canyon overlooking the Hanging Houses.

As I mentioned, Cuenca has the first gothic cathedral in Spain, but the facade was rebuilt in the early 20th century because the original crumbled. This has resulted in a very clean, impressive facade:




Some details on the outside of the cathedral:


And finally, some of the most beautiful iron-barred windows I've ever seen!