¡Cuenca!

On Saturday, 3 kids from my program and I took a day trip to Cuenca, a gorgeous little city in Castilla-La Mancha. My previous day trips had both been to Castilla y Leon, so it was fun to add another autonomous community to the list. As you probably can figure out, Castilla-La Mancha is the land of Don Quijote, but the only windmills we saw on the bus ride were the giant modern metal ones we have all over California.

New-city Cuenca is unremarkable, but the old-city is where it's at. The city itself is perched on a hill and is full of charming medieval buildings, while the hill is surrounded by hoces, which Word Reference tells me means ravines, but I'm going to go with gorges. The views were spectacular, and I took approximately 100 photos throughout the day. Cuenca is mostly known for its casas colgadas, which means "hanging houses." Like many houses out in Sea Cliff in San Francisco, these buildings are perched at the edge of very steep cliffs. Unlike the houses in Sea Cliff, these buildings have been around for hundreds of years, are made of stone, and look like they are emerging out of the rocky hill. We crossed a tall narrow bridge to get into the old part of town then entered the Museum of Abstract Spanish Art, housed in one of the more impressive casas colgadas. None of us are particularly into Abstract Art, so we made a game of the experience, guessing what each painting was supposed to represent.

After the museum, we continued our walk through the city and suddenly came upon this man and his duck hanging out in a narrow walkway with impressive acoustics:



At this moment, we agreed we were finally officially in Spain. It felt straight out of a movie to find such a genuine moment (which doesn't make much sense, I realize). Yes, he was street-busking, but it didn't feel artificial at all. We later saw him and his duck in the plaza mayor singing, clapping, and playing flamenco with a number of his friends. It was pretty awesome.

Before lunch, we made a quick trip into the cathedral, which was full of stained glass and creepy artwork, including a portrait painted of an exhumed bishop. Also, there was a life-sized recreation of the Last Supper made of wood, which requires 60 men to carry through the streets of Cuenca during Semana Santa. After lunch, we finished our walk up the hill, took more awesome photos, then found a walking trail down the hill that was full of grasshoppers and fig trees. It was a beautiful day with lovely company, and it really made me feel like I was in Europe.

Note: In case you're curious, I've been posting my Spain photo albums on Facebook. You can check out more photos than what I post on the blog over there.