Sunday & Monday, June 3 & 4- Alcañiz & Cuenca

Brilliant sunshine. Bade farewell to Mario and David and headed south through land resembling the American west: juniper and oak woodlands down into the rolling wheat plains, leaving the Pyrenees behind. South of Zaragoza the land is more arid and has beautiful red/orange buttes rising from the plain. We turned off the highway and drove through arid farmland and scrub of the Belchite Plain in our last chance for the bustard. Didn’t see that but did see the Tawny Pipit and the Calandra Lark.

A little after five we arrived in Alcañiz, a small city set on a hill that rises from the surrounding farmlands and is capped by an oversized castle which turned out to be our next Parador! We circled up the hill and arrived to find the castle filled with noisy niños and confetti. Three little girls had just received their first communion and everyone was celebrating. We managed to weave amongst them and got to our room with a pastoral view of green and gold fields. This Parador has wi-fi and a good restaurant set in a large hall and decorated with colorful quilts of various coats of arms.

Monday we drove south and west, leaving the A23 freeway to drive on a slower scenic road across the Serranía de Cuenca Mountains. This road had very well marked turnouts with geological and historical markers. We explored a Roman aqueduct, walking through tunnels cut into the stonewalls, surrounded with more glorious wild flowers. We also happened upon the small town of Albarracín that dates back to 1012 when it was an independent Islamic state. Now narrow winding streets dramatically wind up a steep hill to a castle. Beautiful houses cling to the cliffs.

We stopped in the village of Uña at a nice looking café/bar which appeared a little rough when we entered it, with tiles on the wall saying “We permit smoking here and maybe that’s what God wants anyway” and some less printable ones, but we sat at the bar and split a tuna and tomato on a baguette and beers served by a gruff pot-bellied man. We took a short detour to visit La Ciudad Encantada which is an area of strangely eroded rocks, most resembling giant mushrooms. Took a pleasant walk and managed to pick up the Crested Tit, a very cute Chickadee with a finely striped crest.

We arrived in Cuenca at five via a back road that winds along a narrow green canyon and the Río Huéscar, and suddenly there we were in city traffic. Fortunately I spotted a sharp left-hand uphill turn and the sign “Parador” and we zoomed sharply up to the hotel in the large Convento de San Pablo.

We got a nice room with a quiet view of the lovely inner courtyard, but I figured we were here only one night and I wanted a view of the city, so we managed to switch rooms to #303, high up in the convent walls with a magnificent view of Cuenca! The city is across the river gorge and so built out that some of the houses are cantilevered out over the river for a very dramatic effect. There is a narrow footbridge from the Parador to the old town, built 100 years ago for the monks that we took to walk through this town of winding streets and colorful houses. There are long walks that one can take down the canyon and along the hillsides, so I hope we can return to this lovely place again sometime.