Bot to Cuenca

Yesterday we put on about 350K travelling from Bot to Cuenca.  There is no direct route between these locations so I set the GPS to "shortest route" and "avoid tolls" and followed what it selected for us.

For the first half of the route, the GPS route was what I expected.  We followed nice 2 lane highways through rolling semiarid agricultural land. Mostly olive trees and vineyards with a few grain fields.  Nice sweeping turns. Our elevation for the first half of the trip stayed close to 300 metre above seas level.  Temperature in the mid to high teens. Very little traffic. Easy cruising at 100 kph, slowing to 40 or 50 through the towns and villages along the route.

After stopping for lunch and fuelling up we turned onto a divided highway. After about 30K the GPS indicated a turn off the highway. At first we thought something was wrong with the GPS but since the route was taking us away from the rain falling in front of us, we decided to see where it took us. We wandered down a few lanes, turning back and forth through a small village. We almost turned back at one point but decided to continue on.  It turned out to be good choice.  The route that we followed to Cuenca was phenomenal.

El Ventano del Diablo (the devil's window)

Location of route

The route from Abarracin to Quenca passes through the the Serrania de Cuenca  (the mountains of Cuenca). It is fabulous winding road that climbs to over 1600 metres.  There are several scenic and historic villages throughout the route. Lakes, forests, steep canyons. Nice scenic rest stops and hiking trails. Attractive cafes and restaurants in the villages. It is 115K from Abarracin to Quenca and the road hardly ever stops winding. Great on a motorcycle. Not so good if you get car sick.  We loved it. We will come back to this area again. One could easily spend a week exploring this area.


We arrived in Quenca at about 5pm. and set about trying to find a hotel. (not my favourite activity) The first one we checked was full.  The lady at the hotel desk gave us directions to another hotel but we were unsuccessful finding it. We even had trouble finding our way back to the bike!  When we got back to the bike the driver of the car parked in front of us arrived at his car.   I'm always shy about asking for directions but Linda prodded me on, so I approached him and asked if he could recommend a hotel.  He was very nice and suggested one. Then he went back to his car and grabbed his iPad and showed us the directions on google maps.   He wanted to make absolutely sure that we knew the way.   We have found the Spanish people friendly and helpful.

We likely never would have found the hotel he suggested without his directions. The hotel is called "NH Ciudad de Cuenca"    Without "Hotel" in the name we never would have found it.  It is very nice.   We decided to stay 2 nights and spent the day discovering parts of Cuenca.

Cuenca is small city in the area known as  Castile–La Mancha. The city
is divided into two parts by the river.  The older part (now a UNESCO heritage site) is built along the cliffs along side the Huécar river. The newer part is on the flats on the other side of the river. It is an easy walking distance between them.  There is an abundance of cafes, restaurants and stores of all types.  There were a few tourists around but not too many.  I think that this is good time to be here.  The weather is very nice. Mid 20s in the daytime, mid teens at night.

We had lunch at one of the cafes shown here.

An attractive street view of the old town

Wide stairs and a narrow road.

Small lanes and stairs on the way up.

We spent a pleasant  walking round town.  Tomorrow we are heading Consuegra, a small town in the area made famous by Cervantes in his novel, Don Quixote.  Consuegra is in the area known for it's windmills.