After a 3 hour drive we arrived in Cuenca, to our little
one bed apartment on the edge of town. The owners of the house run a massage
clinic and it was superb. We think it
was converted from the garage of a little old house and made into 2 apartments
and the renovation is second to none. It is fully equipped with all ‘mod cons’
and extra things like washing up liquid/cleaning materials etc. and groceries
like fruit tea, Olive oil and salt/pepper and sugar. These little commodities
matter when you are only staying for a few days and you don’t want to spend
your time shopping! The amazing bathroom
had a Jacuzzi shower with jets sprouting out all over the place, which was
different…with extras such as shower gel and loo paper…….what more could we
want, I tell you, some tourist accommodation has nothing!. There was no electric kettle though, which is
strange but I guess that most people drink coffee and there were 2 coffee pots
(and a microwave). We were very happy
with it and where it was situated, as you never really know when you are
booking something online.
After settling in we walked around Cuenca (a very hilly
town, as it is situated on the side of mountains) to find our way around. We were right on the edge of town in a great
spot to visit this ancient 15th century town. Cuenca has the famous ‘hanging houses’ that
hang over the edge of the mountains in the old city. Most of them have been lost over the years to erosion. So much to
see in a few days!! The high bridge that is built from the old city to the other side of the river. It was both great and strange to walk across it. Great for the magnificent views and strange as all along the bridge there were padlocks engraved with initials of loved ones. How this started we don't know. Not sure what happens when you fall out of love...maybe they retrieve the key and toss the padlock over the bridge!!! We spent 3 days looking around the ancient city and
naturally took loads of photographs.
Everywhere you looked was a magnificent building or view so we snapped
away, as did a Chinese couple, who asked us if the ‘hanging houses’ were up the
path we were walking. “Yes” we said and
we all got talking. They stood no higher
than 4ft 9”and were slight in build. They chatted away in perfect English as we
all walked up the hill, joking and laughing.
They were staying in Sergovia and touring around in their car as they
preferred to travel this way and not take the bus, as the lady told us, “you
sit in a bus and you sleep, then you get off and you ‘pee pee’ and then you
miss everything”. They went on to tell
us that they were 70 years old (I might
add …they were as spritely as can be) and the lady told me her husband used to be a mountain climber and he retired
16 years ago. In further conversation (it was a long hill and they stuck to us
like glue) they told us about their travels and how they saw all of China over
a period of 5 years. “That’s some going”
we said, as it’s a big country! They
also told us they spent their honeymoon in Scotland, 43 years ago and they were
upset that they wanted ‘Independence’, “Why was it so” the lady said and was
very glad of the result. Who’d a thought
it that a Chinese couple, who now live in Singapore, wanted to talk to us about
Scotland and how we feel about the result! As the Chinese lady left she
whispered to John “my husband is the Minister of Finance and I am the Minister
of Internal Affairs”!We came to a halt when we came to ‘Plaza Mayor’, a main
square outside the Cathedral, to sit and have a coffee but as they were only in
Cuenca for one whole day they wanted to move on. Bless them, they were good fun! I might add
that the local paper that we read at my brothers’ house devoted two whole pages
to the Scottish issue….I guess it’s history in the making. We went out in the evening, around 9pm, when
all the restaurants come to life, to find a place to eat and it was funny that
the little restaurant that we spotted up a quaint little side street, stated on
a board outside, that they were English speaking, a bonus we thought, as we had
previously struggled to talk to the owner of our apartment
and to the shop keepers. They didn’t speak English, and of course…why
should they. We were in Spain and it is
us who should speak Spanish. We
struggled to say “sin carne- no meat’ for me and “carne” for John. We waited with baited breath to see if we
ordered well……we did! The whole meal
came to 23 Euro’s including a full bottle of good Rosado wine. It’s certainly cheap to eat out!
The hanging houses
The high bridge that crosses from the old town to the new
The Chinese lady we chatted to
The padlocks that were all along the bridge
Although we had booked 4 nights in Cuenca by the third
day we had seen the old city and we decided to leave one day earlier and arrive one day earlier in La Mata. (It's so easy to change bookings with 'booking.com' as long as you do it 24 hrs before....there is usually no charge for this).
Our trip to La Mata
(Wed 24th Sept)
It was 17 degrees when we left Cuenca and overcast and raining but it was 30 degrees when we arrived in La Mata.
The journey from Cuenca was bursting with views of fields and fields of sunflowers, grapevines and wheat then around 60K before you get to Alicante, mountains are everywhere you look in the distance - all different with different colours. They are an amazing sight, some covered in pine trees, so very green and some just plain old rock!
We got settled in our little bungalow at our Beach club in La Mata,
overlooking the sea and realised we were close to a restaurant that we had
visited 2 years ago….the last time we were in Spain. The bungalow was spacious with a living
room/bedroom and a large bathroom. It
was bliss after a busy 3 days in Cuenca to have had a lovely meal, shower and
watch TV in bed!
The next day
we woke up to thunder and rain but after coffee and croissant in the breakfast room the sun
came out and it was time to take a walk along the beach and paths that were
about 10K in length, although we only walked about 5K. You can walk to Torrevieja one way and towards Guardamar de Segura the other way...along a beautiful sandy beach. La Mata is a quiet little town, with a large
square for fiesta’s and general meeting place especially in the evening, when
it’s cooler, for folks to walk and talk.
After our walk we lazed
around as our Cuenca trip
had been ‘full on’ and because our bungalow is literally on the beach it’s lovely to just
walk out and relax and read. Although very hot, the prevailing warm wind helped to cool you
down. We had Wi-fi too, as we needed to
get online to book a hotel in Toledo, which we drove to on Sunday as we now had an extra day to stay overnight there....before driving into Madrid for one night and catching an early plane to Malta.
Eating out in La Mata is great as there are, of course,
plenty of fish restaurants but one restaurant’s menu had it all. Local fish dishes, like Dorado, Tex Mex dishes, Indian food, Fish & Chips
and Pizza…..and more! The staff are
Asian and really lovely, the front of house young lady is kissed by everyone
who arrives (who obviously know her) - she is beautiful, friendly and speaks
many languages. She tells me the
restaurant is open all year round, as I would expect, as the prices are
reasonable and overlooking the sea…..what else would you want. I forgot to mention that you get
complimentary strawberry ice-cream as well as brandy or bailey’s with the bill.........mmmmmm! It’s a stone’s throw from our bungalow
too….which is handy as we were tired and ready to catch up with world news ….in
bed! We have been watching the UN conference in New York. It is about time we took a firm hand with the
situation in the middle east…..but I fear it’s too late. Sad news about hostages and killings – I
think it is dangerous to go anywhere near these places unfortunately.
The next day we had a lazy morning in the sunshine and met my
brother and his wife in Torrevieja for a goodbye drink....as we were leaving for Toledo on Sunday morning. The weather in the afternoon changed and we had thunderstorms the rest of the day and the day after.
I am looking
forward to seeing ‘Toledo’ as the whole town was made a World Heritage Site in
1986 because of it’s “extensive cultural and monumental heritage and historical
co-existence of Christians, Muslim and Jewish cultures……I think we all could
learn a lot from them! Tolado has been populated since the Bronze Age and El
Greco, ended his life there so must see some of his art work! Tolado is about 60K south of Madrid.
So it's back on the road to Toledo
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