Cuenca to Toledo

Our waiter from the night before sitting outside having a meal next to the Cuenca Cathedral.  He was dressed in period clothing and loved to play up to the camera!

We got up early and went out walking.  Best time to walk out of the heat of the day.  Cuenca is also all up hill, both inclines and steps.  Both Nikki and I can still feel our calves from all the climbing! This is the door from an ancient church just round the corner from our apartment. 

Houses are all painted in bright colours.

And here is our bright blue bus that we were driving in.  The number place was 925 JNK - so I was calling it 925 pieces of junk to remember it.  It worked!

The beauty of getting up early is not only is the light beautiful and it's cool, but there is an absence of tourists who are all sleeping in! The spanish seem to get up late and stay up late.

 Houses dot the hillside down below the old town of Cuenca.

Back up on Plaza Mayor at the top, there was no one there apart from the street cleaners who were hosing down the streets making it pristine from the night before.

The Cathedral...

We decided to head up to the top above the cathedral, we didn't the afternoon before as it was too hot.  We found some incredibly scenery, old buildings, and lovely old alleyways...

Cuenca is known as the hanging houses of Spain and you can see them literally built in and hanging from the cliffs here...

And all along the cliff....  To think we walked all along that several times, up and down!

Some of the old houses...

I had hoped to find the old bridge in which to take the following photos, and I did - finally, at the very last minute.  The light could not have been better.  It gives a perfect example how the houses are incorporated into the cliff face. Earthquake proof they are not!

Beauty and the Beast...

The house doors are really little.  The number was a mistake - Truely!

We then drove to Toledo in the heat of the day in our nice air conditioned car.  We passed lots of olive groves...

After finding our apartment in toledo we went out walking.  It was 37C and just too hot to walk for long.

Found the edge of the walled town and looked over a river with the remains of an old roman bridge...

Headed to the monastery - lots of carvings - incredible building..  Only 2.50E to get in 

Inside the Cloisters...

Nikki giving it a bit of perspective in terms of size...

The inside of the church was beautiful...

It was easier to photograph the sign as to what the building was than was for me to try and remember...

The Cathedral of Toledo

And the door to our apartment on the right...

I was pleased to get out of the heat of the day and spend the evening working on photos.  Steven disapeared for several hours exploring the town as he was leaving at 5.00am in the morning to head back to the USA.

Teruel to Cuenca

I'm a bit behind in the blogs due to lack of internet access at Cuenca, and the speed in Toledo meant I couldn't do anything either.

So - following on.  I woke up in Teruel not feeling that good, but we got up and went out anyway.  It was lovely and cool first thing in the morning, so we walked up to the parts of Teruel we had seen from the tourist train to explore further. First the steps - not far from the hotel just to see what was at the bottom (nothing).  At least we didn't have to climb them in the heat of the day!

Teruel has a mix of Roman and Moorish architecture making it interesting to explore...

The buidings were really old...

Like most cities/towns in Spain - they had lots of cathedrals. We nipped in to see this one briefly.  Rapido, Rapido, the lady kept tellig us...

I find the historic architecture interesting photographically...

The streets in Teruel were a bit wider than most others I've seen on my travels this time round.

 Some of the houses were very pretty...

The doors to the old cathedrals around town were fascinating. I'm not taking as many door photos as Nikki though.

On one side of town there are still the roman aquaduct bridges....

Old interesting foot bridges too...

 Pretty place...

We headed back to the hotel for a tour of the secret passage ways they found in 2006 to the Church enxt year.  Apparently the priests used to use these tunnels, not only to go to the churtch to get changed, but they also used them to smuggle women to the house for a happy night!

The church next door where the priests used to go to an from.  I was lucky to get this as the grumpy guard finaly said no photos and pushed out to the street in a hurry.

 

After the visit to the church, I went up for a sleep while Nikki and Steven went out for a coffee and to do some more wondering. An hour later we were on our way to Cuenca, home of the hanging houses in spain.  We stoped at Libros on the way and I ventured into the twnship to take photos...

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 It was a pretty drive to Cuenca, unfortunately I slept most of th way but I still managed to get a couple of good images fro the car window.. Lots of sunflower flowers, past their due date unfortunately.

And finally we were in Cuenca. This image is taken just around the corner from ur apartment.

The houses were all painted in colourful paints...

I loved the way they all sit together...

 

The Cathedral - but we weren't able to go in as it wasn't open while were there.

Despite the heat we went for a walk to explore. 

/Found a river at the botton of the town and walked through the cool of the park..

 Here's an example of the hanging houses - note the sticks holding up the room...

Afterwards we headed back to the top to find a big party in place - a renactment of the history of Boise. Lots of people dressed up in period clothing, and even a geeseherd!

We had a bite to eat at a restaurant near we were staying, but decided were tired so headed back...

A nun came out to see what the rucks was all about. She popped back inside when she saw my camera!

 And the ruckus....

 People were hanging off balconies to watch the procession up to the old part of town...

It was interesting that so many people were entering town. All walking as the carparks were full.

 Got back to our apartment late and hit the sack. Another interesting day tomorrow!