Day 155
Cuenca
Tom and I had enjoyed our evening in a small rural town. We wandered about more in hope than expectation to find an open restaurant but our only option was shut, 8pm on a Saturday night, they open late or not all it seems. There was a square with a few very rough looking bars, a police car cruising by every few minutes. One guy arrived in his tractor and judging by his parking he had maybe had a few before setting off. We chose the emptiest bar and headed inside. We got free tapas with every round. Five rounds later, having spent the grand total of 10 Euros, we were no longer in need of food! We had been ‘entertained’ by a bull fight on the TV and people-watching in the bar and the square. Just as things started to get lively, we headed for bed, tomorrow we had bikes to ride!
We woke to news that snow was indeed on its way. Between us and Niall and Suna, we booked a few hotels for the next few nights and hoped all would be OK.
Today we were riding through a forest, pretty much for the entire 40 miles. Wild camp heaven, a bit like buses, always here when you don’t need them! We were climbing, but it was very gradual, if we hadn’t had a very strong headwind it would have been an easy day. As it was, we were both getting tired. Tom got very excited at one point when he found a tunnel heading underground. A lovely staircase headed down and Tom being Tom, off he went. Awesome apparently, lots of rooms, though not sure what it was all about. Kept the boy entertained though! Without realising, my Garmin informed me that we had climbed a lot, a sign proclaimed ‘La Tordija 1,200m’, we were high and it was getting cold!
As usual we were given support from people we saw or who passed us. Lots of friendly toots from lorry drivers and waves from shepherds. We get so lifted up by this, one wizened old guy simply put his hand to his heart, the pair of us shed a tear, doesn’t take much nowadays!
Finally, we arrived in Cuenca. We cycled through the modern part of town, rather underwhelmed. This wasn’t what we had come to see though, no we were here to see the old town. It is perched on a limestone spur high above the Jucar and Huecar rivers. The star attraction though are the ‘Casas Colgadas’ or hanging houses, cantilevered over the gorge they seem to cling to the cliffs. As the sun set, and with street lights twinkling it was magical.
