Cuenca

February 2022

In Spain, if you mention the city Cuenca in casual conversation the Spaniards around you will begin to quiver and a look of gleeful expectation will appear on their faces. This is because they can hardly wait for you to stop talking so they can share their favorite sexual innuendo, “Mirando pa’ Cuenca,” which translates as ” looking toward Cuenca.” And this means that you are getting it from behind, doggy-style. I don’t know where it came from and I feel sorry for the city of Cuenca, because it’s usually the first thing you’ll hear about it.

Aside from that, Cuenca is a beautiful, authentic Spanish city that was first established by the Muslims. It hangs over a very dramatic, deep gorge with the historic center built terrifyingly right on the edge. Like all of Spain, its fortunes went up and down over the years and during the end of the Franco era it began to recover a bit. Now it’s a semi-sleepy destination in the region of Castilla-La Mancha, southeast of Madrid. It’s mostly visited by Spaniards, and not many of them while we were there.

One big attraction is the Parador de Cuenca, located inside what was once a monastery. It’s a state-owned hotel with very grand public areas and comfortable but basic guest rooms. (125€ per night) If you join amigos de Paradores, there are specials and discounts for the entire national chain. We got an upgraded room since we are amigos.

There is a famous narrow footbridge that crosses from the Parador over the gorge to the old town but I refused to go near it, although we saw plenty of people crossing, even a mother pushing a baby carriage in a high wind. The railings were about waist high. We asked a taxi driver if people ever jump off and he said of course they do.

We chose to cross the gorge down at the bottom, as God intended, and then climb back up on the other side. Perfectly fine. The Centro Historico is long and narrow; it follows the hillside as it rises toward a peak. As we discovered in Northern Spain, there is a somber aspect to a lot of old cities here. Building interiors are dark, public spaces often small. A large population of seniors and bored teenagers, but people were friendly and welcoming. It’s really an inviting downtown area because it’s compact and there is a view of the gorge from practically every corner. We didn’t visit the famous Hanging Houses (Casas Colgadas), but you get the general idea from the name.

Cuenca has a beautiful restored cathedral, one of the first in Spain built in the Gothic style. Construction began around 1200, and it is worth a visit of a couple of hours, with incredible chapels and a large outdoor courtyard overlooking the gorge. Hector climbed up to the top of the reconstructed tower and reported back that I was wise to have abstained.

We had a couple of tapas and wine dinners at the Parador bar, along with an oddball assortment of guests and visitors. For our last lunch we discovered Raff San Pedro, a fantastic restaurant in the ancient stables of a former mansion, traditional Spanish with a flair. We both had the daily tasting menu (50€ for 11 courses) and some good wine. The place was very busy on a weekday and they warned us not to appear one minute before our reserved time.

The weather was mostly sunny and cold, but we were treated to a rain storm that we watched from our hotel window, overlooking the gorge. We caught our train back to Malaga, with a change-over in Madrid. As always, walking out of the Malaga train station into the Andalusian sunshine was like a hug.