Stop 1: The castle Aranjuez was originally built to provide additional defenses and easy access to the river for goods and travel. Queen Isabel adopted it as a summer palace because the location was cooler than in Madrid, although now, 5 centuries later, Aranjuez is now on the out skirst of Madrid. Travel by boat would be much more comfortable that travel by carrage over the bumpy “roads”.
The Castle at Aranjuez
One of the tour members was 15 minutes late returning to the bus to travel on.
Stop 2: Cuenca “the Hanging Village”. The original village was built up the sides and on the top of a high hill that has been truly eroded over time into steep cliff sides.Some of the buildings are definitely clinging. Personally I wouldn’t want to live there because of the danger of collapse. In the meantime the villagers are making a lot of money out of the tourist industry – at least someone is.
One of the 'Hanging Houses'
A second couple was late to the bus. Apparently they got sidetracked into a church on the way down after we were called together at the top. They were quite embarassed because they had been one of the louder complainers about the first couple. They were greeted with the suggestion that they owed everyone a round of drinks. Hopefully everyone has learned from this.
Our last stop today was at Valencia where we will be staying 2 nights. Too bad our bags hadn’t arrived for us.
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