Where the houses hang from the cliffs

For a long time now visiting the city of Cuenca was on the list, however because of every time I return to Madrid it tends to be for short time (weekends mostly), there has been never real time to manage the trip here even though it is only 2 hours by bus from Madrid, or merely 50 minutes by high-speed train. In this occasion in the other hand, with over 2 weeks holidays during the Christmas period where I did not go anywhere far this year as is usually the case, there was plenty of time and luckily for us, the weather could not be better. Cold we don’t mind, but was actually warm-ish and perfect blue sky. With no hesitation we booked the bus tickets and went the following day.

The city lies in between Madrid and Valencia and is the capital of the province of the same name within the autonomous region of Castilla la Mancha. It is the 3rd least populated area in Europe, yet linked to some of the most densely inhabited cities in Spain within an hour. Considering the small size of the city, the amount of historic sights is literally resumed to absolutely every construction within the old town, no wonder why it has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

While everyone knows Cuenca for its hanging houses on the cliff, (after all, this is what every tourist have in mind to visit), it is also home to the very first Gothic cathedral built in Spain, timeline for its construction almost in coincidence with the second Gothic cathedral in Spain, in the city of Avila.

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